Public procurement under scrutiny: what the new BEB case shows
24 February 18:22
Analysts at the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine said they prevented the misuse of nearly UAH 5 million in budget funds during a public procurement process, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
While monitoring tenders, law enforcement officers found that one of the state agencies had selected a private company as the winner and signed a contract with it for more than UAH 4.9 million, including VAT.
However, an information and analytical check showed that the company appears in the consolidated data of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for committing anti-competitive concerted actions.
Why this became a problem
The law requires the customer to reject a participant’s bid if they have been held liable for similar violations in the last three years.
Ignoring this requirement, according to the BEB, creates risks of inefficient use of budget funds and may indicate non-compliance with procurement procedures.
What the regulatory authorities did
The BEB’s regional office in the Kyiv region sent recommendations to the customer and the State Audit Service of Ukraine to review the feasibility of cooperation with the company.
After an audit, the auditors confirmed the violation and ordered the contract to be terminated. As a result, the contract was terminated early.
Thus, the actual transfer of funds did not take place, and the risk of their loss was eliminated.
This is not the first case
This is not the first time that the BEB has reported on the prevention of budget losses. Previously, the agency reported on the elimination of tax schemes in the Odesa region, the prevention of embezzlement of funds for the restoration of a hospital in the Kyiv region, and the exposure of tax evasion schemes in the retail sector.
