Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that over the past four months, the Defense Ministry has uncovered violations worth more than UAH 10 billion that were committed earlier.
"The news about detentions and criminal cases that you have been seeing lately are changes. Changes that will be noticeable more and more often. One of the priorities of the Ministry of Defense team is to clean the system of dysfunctional participants - inside and outside the institution. We are actively working on this - in close cooperation with law enforcement agencies, we are eradicating corruption. The system is resisting, but we will overcome it," the head of the ministry said.
Umerov emphasized that the ministry responds harshly to all cases of violations, works closely with law enforcement and special services, providing all necessary information.
In December, the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, eliminated a corruption scheme to purchase ammunition for the Armed Forces worth almost UAH 1.5 billion.
"This is something we can talk about publicly. There will be more news to come. At the same time, we are working to solve the problem systematically: we are introducing a new procurement architecture based on NATO standards," the minister said.
Umerov noted that the ministry's procurement mechanisms are being restructured so as not to disrupt the continuous supply of weapons and logistics for the Armed Forces. He also noted that the Defense Ministry now sets the rules of the game, forms the policy and controls the bidding, while procurement is carried out by two special agencies.
The head of the department said that these changes resulted in savings of approximately UAH 3.5 billion over four months for all logistics procurement, which is about 20% of the planned amount for procurement.
