The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a law introducing transparency in the defense procurement system.

The adoption of bill No. 8381 was generally supported by 264 MPs at the plenary session on Friday, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the Holos parliamentary faction, has said.

"The bill proposes to publish the prices at which defense customers buy goods for the military and other goods and services to support the army in the ProZorro system," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

The document proposes to define the principles of defense procurement during martial law, to introduce defense procurement reports (except for information on the procurement of goods, works and services constituting a state secret) by state defense customers regarding information, the disclosure of which is required for the transparency of the procurement process and will ensure protection of government customers from military threats.

At the same time, the bill provides for the need to establish a requirement to publish a report on a defense procurement agreement concluded without the use of ProZorro in the electronic procurement system (ProZorro), and notify of changes to the essential terms of such an agreement. A similar requirement applies to amendments to the essential terms of such an agreement, which "were made public in the period from February 24, 2022 to the day this law comes into force."

According to the press service of the parliament, with reference to the co-author of the legislative initiative, the head of the parliamentary committee on anti-corruption policy, Anastasia Radina (the Servant of the People parliamentary faction), information on the price of the goods per unit, and not the entire contract, will be public, since it may contain certain sensitive information that must remain confidential for security reasons.

"Information on the price of a unit of purchased goods will be made public, not only for future contracts, but also for those that were concluded during the year of the full-scale war. The bill also contains a rule that the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence can receive any contract, even secret, and reconsider it," the deputy said.

In her opinion, the adopted norms will increase transparency, and manipulations in the field of procurement for the military will become extremely difficult. In addition, the MPs continue work to generally change the procurement system for troops and make it more competitive so that the allocated money is used effectively.