The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) hosted a founding meeting to launch a study of corruption risks in the procurement of unmanned systems and electronic warfare equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The event was attended by officials from the NATO Representation to Ukraine and NATO Headquarters, representatives of the Center for Integrity in the Defense Sector (CIDS) at the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense's state-owned enterprises State Logistics Operator and Defense Procurement Agency, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as civil society and international organizations.
The participants discussed ways to synchronize stakeholder efforts to improve the defense procurement system and implement the recommendations developed as a result of the Strategic Defense Procurement Review of Ukraine. This review is one of the key projects of NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine.
"The defense sector has been identified as one of the priority areas for preventing corruption in the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2025, and defense procurement is one of the five issues in this area. In terms of building integrity in the security and defense sector, NACP focuses on two flagship projects of the NATO Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine: The Roadmap for Ukraine's Interoperability with NATO and the Strategic Review of Ukraine's Defense Procurement System to Approach the Standards of NATO Member States. We continue to develop tools that will minimize the identified corruption risks and improve the defense procurement system, in particular by implementing international standards in this area,” said Viktor Pavlushchyk, Head of the National Agency.
A separate panel was devoted to discussing the challenges currently facing the institutions involved in defense procurement in 2025.
"NACP's coordination work on building integrity in the security and defense sector is aimed at increasing transparency in defense procurement and encouraging cooperation between the defense sector and business to introduce innovations in procurement. This is important for achieving interoperability between Ukraine and NATO, in particular in the use of weapons, human resources management, and building integrity,” said Yaroslav Lyubchenko, Head of the NACP's Security and Defense Integrity Policy Development Department.
The research will consist of the following stages:
- collection of information from stakeholders, analysis of analytical materials on the topic;
- processing of information and preparation of a draft research;
- discussion of the research draft with stakeholders and preparation of recommendations;
- Presentation of the research;
- implementation of recommendations.
The event was organized with the support and participation of the NATO Representation to Ukraine and the Center for Integrity in the Defense Sector (CIDS) at the Norwegian Ministry of Defense.
