Positive case in procurement of medicines: Zhumadilov's team has experience in organizing fair and competitive tenders
Kyiv • UNN
Arsen Zhumadilov's team, known for reducing corruption in medical procurement in Ukraine, faces skepticism when it comes to defense procurement, seeking to ensure transparency.
The State Logistics Operator, a state-owned enterprise recently established by the Ministry of Defense, is gradually starting to get up and running. At the same time, there are still critics and skeptics who doubt that the DOT will be able to establish transparent and corruption-free procurement for the Armed Forces. And, first of all, food.
But for some reason, most of these people are trying to ignore the fact that the new DOT team headed by Arsen Zhumadilov did not come from the street, but has a positive and effective experience of working at the state enterprise "Medical Procurement of Ukraine", UNN writes.
For a long time, the market for public procurement of medicines has been called one of the most corrupt in Ukraine.
"Until 2017, the Ministry of Health and its procurement were among the most corrupt in Ukraine. I know this for sure, because I was conducting journalistic and analytical investigations at the time, how the procurement of vaccines and other medicines for people with chronic diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, etc. was disrupted year after year. And this has been going on since the days of Yanukovych's Bohatyryova," said Hlib Kanevsky, head of the StateWatch analytical center, in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
In 2015, specialized international organizations began to be involved in the centralized procurement of medicines in Ukraine to reduce corruption risks.
In October 2018, the State Enterprise "Medical Procurement of Ukraine" was established, and in April 2019, after winning the tender, it was headed by Arsen Zhumadilov.
It is the initial stage of the new structure's activity, which has been engaged in centralized procurement of drugs and equipment for Ukrainian medical institutions, that is indicative of the change in approaches and elimination of corruption schemes.
In particular, in 2019, Medzakupili held 43 tender procedures, the expected cost of which was UAH 94 million, and the actual cost was UAH 58 million. That is, they managed to save UAH 36 million.
At the end of 2020, medicines worth almost UAH 3.8 billion were procured. Budget savings amounted to more than one billion hryvnias. In some areas of medicines, the cost was reduced by more than 40% of the expected price.
"It is the competitive market struggle at auctions that allows us to ensure significant cost savings. And our auctions have demonstrated great interest from participants, including international and Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies and suppliers. This became possible thanks to the professional work of the SE team and high-quality preparation for the tenders," Zhumadilov said at the time.
At that time, 130 Ukrainian and foreign companies took part in Medzakupiliov tenders.
It is too early to say whether this positive experience will be transferred to the procurement of the State Logistics Operator as soon as possible.
"Zhumadilov and his team deserve credit for the start. They have already proven themselves and have experience. It is not a typical story in Ukraine when professionals with successful cases and no corruption background are appointed to positions. Compare this appointment with other appointments to other government agencies - people are appointed with no experience, no professional achievements, and dubious histories. This is the opposite case, so I believe in this story and hope that they will succeed," Kanevsky said.
It is an important signal that many Ukrainian food producers have already expressed their willingness to participate in the Defense Ministry's tenders.
At the very least, they believe that the rules of the game will be the same for everyone, competition will be fair, and procurement will be transparent.
