The procurement policy will be changed in the near future. First of all, it will concern the requirements of security and defence. After all, the fulfilment of defence orders by Ukrainian companies contributes to economic development.

Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, wrote in an op-ed for a publication about the transformations the public procurement system is expected to undergo.

"For many manufacturers, the security and defence sector is almost the only market they can work in now. Therefore, it is important that procurement in this area can be handled by domestic companies. The challenges they face during the war are often access to finance and broken supply chains. That is why it is important for businesses to plan and receive orders in advance. Changing the procurement policy is a step towards meeting the manufacturers. This will help to increase the efficiency of defence spending, which is financed by taxes from businesses and citizens," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to her, the main thing is that all procurements that do not involve weapons and military equipment will again be conducted in the Prozorro system. It will be either open bidding in the system or requests for proposals in the Prozorro Market electronic catalogue. This will create additional opportunities for Ukrainian businesses to participate more actively.

The Ministry of Defence has one more additional method - procurement under a simplified procedure. This is done to avoid "tender trolling" - when an auction participant floods the Antimonopoly Committee with complaints.

If defence contracting authorities conclude a contract without a tender (for example, when there is an urgent need or publication of information could harm national security), they must check the profit of the manufacturer or supplier, except for contracts for weapons and military equipment (WME). For manufacturers, it should be no more than 25% of the production cost.

Another important change is that the terms of supply for Ukrainian and foreign producers are now the same. From now on, Ukrainian producers engaged in the supply of defence-related equipment will conclude contracts based on the results of negotiations. They do not have to confirm the costing and, accordingly, the profit margin.

In the first months of the full-scale war, the Government introduced framework agreements for defence procurement. The mechanism involved the publication of an announcement with requirements for goods or works in Prozorro, but the selection of winners took place outside the system.

Now, all the framework agreements that have been launched will continue to be implemented. The current rules do not provide for new framework agreements. However, based on the experience gained, the Ministry of Economy is working on the introduction of an open framework agreement that includes all stages of selection in the Prozorro system.

These steps are aimed at combining defence and economic development needs more effectively. And the permissible transparency of defence procurement now allows the state to save money.

"Thanks to electronic bidding and the proposed tools for limiting maximum prices, the Ministry of Defence has already saved UAH 3.8 billion. For example, 19 agreements with food suppliers with an expected value of UAH 21.6 billion cost UAH 17.8 billion," summarised Yuliia Svyrydenko.