The Government of Ukraine will work to ensure that the state public procurement system, Prozorro, becomes a mandatory tool for the procurement of goods, services or works financed by donors or international organisations.

Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, wrote about the benefits of this approach in an op-ed for Barron’s, a reputable U.S. publication specialising in investment news.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s international partners have already shown their willingness to use Prozorro. The World Bank has confirmed that the system fully complies with the organisation’s rules. In addition, four financial organisations – the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank – have agreed to apply a common approach to procurement in Ukraine. The memorandum signed by them provides for the use of Prozorro for small tenders not exceeding the thresholds of EUR 130,000 for goods and services and EUR 5 million for works in projects financed by these organisations.

Ukraine aims to ensure that all procurements for foreign donors are made through the Prozorro system and have no limits. The advantage for international organisations is that Prozorro is the only platform that works as a “builder”. The flexible approach allows each donor to use the system according to their own rules. It is only necessary to set the necessary parameters: whether pre-qualification of participants is required, whether there is a need for an auction, etc. In addition, thanks to improvements based on the World Bank’s recommendations, Prozorro can now accept bids in different currencies, check them in stages and select the winner not only on the basis of price. For Ukraine, such a step would help to involve the Ukrainian business community, which has long been familiar with the electronic trading system, in the reconstruction process.

The transition of all public procurement to this system has become one of the most successful reforms in the history of Ukraine, Yuliia Svyrydenko noted.

As a reminder, the USAID / UK aid Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services / TAPAS project is already conducting its tenders in the Prozorro system.

In general, about 80% of all public procurement funds are currently spent through the Prozorro system. Even in times of war, the system shows significant savings in all areas of procurement. In the year of Resolution No. 1178, which regulates the specifics of public procurement during martial law, Prozorro helped to reduce the difference between the total expected value of procurement and the amount of signed contracts by UAH 40 billion.

Another example of Prozorro’s effectiveness is the return of defence procurement to the electronic system. This has resulted in savings of 16% since May, or about UAH 5 billion.