Economy Ministry proposes to raise threshold for simplified procurement to UAH 500,000 – bill

KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ministry of Economy has proposed that the threshold for the cost of goods and services during procurement according to a simplified procedure is increased from UAH 200,000 to UAH 500,000 and to transfer all procurements aimed at combating COVID-19 to the simplified procedure, according to a bill on the ministry’s website made public for discussion.

According to the paper, lowering the threshold to UAH 500,000 will facilitate prompt procurement by customers and will allow them to use an electronic catalog instead of preparing documents, and will also reduce the burden on the Antimonopoly Committee as an appeal body.

The ministry said that the requirements for suppliers of goods or services in simplified procurement are not so high, in contrast to the general procurement procedure. Their advantage is that the customer does not need to prepare tender documents, and suppliers are qualified once – when connected to the electronic catalog by a centralized procurement organization, which acts as administrator of the catalog.

It would be logical to revise the thresholds for simplified procurement approved in 2015 in view of inflation, Deputy Director General of ProZorro state-owned enterprise Natalia Shymko said.

"If we talk about transparency, now customers are required to conduct a competitive procurement for tenders worth above UAH 50,000. It can be a simplified procurement, but still open, competitive. Such a legislative initiative should not affect transparency if the obligation to conduct a simplified procurement is not removed," she said.

In addition, the Ministry of Economy proposed that the simplified procurement system applies to goods necessary to combat COVID-19.

"In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the state decided to allow procurement necessary to combat COVID-19, but it is mandatory to report them to ProZorro. This summer, the Verkhovna Rada amended the law: for some of the goods needed to fight the pandemic, it left the possibility of a tender without competitive procurement (the list was determined by the Cabinet of Ministers – medicines, vaccines, etc.), and for other goods not included in the government list, the law obliges to carry out simplified procurement," Shymko said.

She added that the fight against the pandemic, of course, requires promptness, and customers cannot always predict what they will need and in what quantities, while simplified procurement is fast. It takes only a little over a week, she said.

"The bill proposes that all procurement of goods to combat the pandemic is carried out through the simplified procedure," the deputy director of ProZorro said.