The new edition of Public Procurement Law will allow purchasers to improve the quality and efficiency of procurement through life-cycle pricing principles and non-price criteria, as well as taking improving the potential health and environmental impacts in Ukrainian society.
This new Law is also a part of the obligations taken under the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. The agreement provides a step-by-step (total of 5 stages) harmonization of the national procurement legislation with the European Union standards.
The first stage was accomplished in 2016 with the creation of the ProZorro e-platform, but the vast majority of all elements of legal harmonization are concentrated on the second and third stages. The law, adopted on September 19, ensures that these steps are completed and makes significant changes to the public procurement system. In fact, by adopting the Law deputies launched the “second procurement revolution”.
These facts were emphasized by experts and government authorities during a press conference, that was held at the UNIAN information agency.
“The goal of those amendments to the Law is to make efficiency and environmental orientation one of the main criteria for public procurement and to give this purchase process appropriate certificates. This is important for ensuring a sustainable development strategy,”, said Oleksandr Marikovsky, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Environmental Management.
According to the deputy, the sustainable development strategy should regulate the resources of natural origin to minimize the use of harmful substances and maximize what contributes saving of natural resources.
“Government is the largest consumer of goods and services in the country and that’s why it is the Governmental institutions that shape this market today. And increasing demand for environmentally friendly, safe, energy-efficient goods and services will be a big reason and a powerful signal for Ukrainian manufacturers to change their approaches to doing business towards sustainable production,”, said Igor Komendo, Director of NGO GoLOCAL.
“As representatives of the public sector, our team actively involved in building a new philosophy among public procurement authorities. For the last two years, the GoLOCAL team has been developing special electronic services in the public procurement area. The first service I’m talking about is an educational online course “Green Public Procurement”, which is now available on the EduBox platform, managed by ProZorro administrators. It’s providing civil servants with a basic knowledge of the “green” procurement approach. The second service is an electronic constructor “Non-price criteria”. This tool allows specifying additional criteria for product quality and chooses not the cheapest, but the best product. These services were developed with the participation of public servants and for them. They are already in use by public purchasers and we hope that the number of users will grow monthly.”
UN Environmental Public Procurement Expert Svitlana Berzina explained, that a new law on public procurement should make all procedures more efficient, improve the quality of works and services, that had been purchased and begin real steps towards improving the environmental situation in the country.
“When we are using slag for constructions, we are not just saving resources by not destroying nature, we also saving a tremendous amount of money. Because this material is free! It has to be transported, crushed, but even then it will be much cheaper. It is also a solution to the problem of industrial waste pollution, improving the quality of life of citizens that live in landfill areas.”
For example, using just one criterion such as resource efficiency when constructing or repair with metallurgical slag, will save over 30 billion UAH annually. A big chunk of this money – 17 billion UAH – can be saved when executing “green” road construction. But, unfortunately, statistics show that the level of recycling of raw materials in Ukraine is twice lower according to EU standards.
“We believe that the amendments made to the Law will bring us closer to the best European practices and will allow us to obtain significantly greater efficiency in public procurement. And also will save a significant amount of money for taxpayers,” said Andriy Telyupa, Project Manager, Reform Support Team.
The deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, Roksolana Podlas, noted that new edition of the Public Procurement Law is the second procurement revolution:
“During three years of public procurement, we acknowledged that there is a widespread perception about ProZorro service, that only cheap and substandard goods can be purchased, since the price is the only criterion for evaluating an offer, but it is not true. We are changing the public approach to the formation of non-price selection criteria, and we are making budget institutions and contracting entities value more not just price but also product quality.”
GoLOCAL team is proud of the results of a partnership with indifferent public and state experts in the public procurement area reformation. Our projects prove that the best results can only be achieved through the synergy and hard work of all stakeholders. And we are not going to stop!
