Ukraine has made an enormous effort to revamp and clean up its procurement process — crucial to shake off its reputation as a corrupt country ensnarled in red tape that is scaring off foreign allies willing to invest in the country’s domestic arms industry.
But campaigners say the questions facing Umerov mean that not everything is resolved.
“The ministry had more than a year to reform its defense procurement,” Kaleniuk said. “The procurement agency finally started eliminating bogus intermediaries from defense contracts. Our partners saw hope for change, started giving funds for our defense needs to the agency to buy weapons.”
The defense ministry is fighting back, claiming that the Polish contract was aimed at diversifying supplies. As for the malfunctioning shells, the ministry underlined that any problem ammunition is just a tiny fraction of the country’s overall production.
“The ammunition Ukraine produced was promptly delivered to the front, which is almost 1,500 kilometers long,” the ministry’s press service told POLITICO, although it did add: “There may be individual cases where a particular batch of products has defects during such a large-scale production process.”
Procurement brawl
The defense ministry claimed it aims for maximum transparency in procurement, and has even created two agencies to manage it. One — called the State Rear Operator (DOT) — buys nonlethal supplies and services for the army, while another, the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), buys arms and ammunition.
