Ukraine's Economic Development and Trade Ministry has proposed to launch three pilot public procurement centralization projects by the end of 2017: one each at the level of central and local authorities, and a special construction works procurement project for Donetsk civil-military administration, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"The public procurement reform has 14 elements, including centralization of procurement. When there are 25,000 tender committees, it is hard to wait for professional or honest behavior from them or we hire professionals or supervise everyone. This is ridiculous, to put it lightly," he said.

He said that centralization of procurement is a right step from the point of concentration of examinations and the switch to wholesale contracts. They are always cheaper.

Nefyodov said that the organization of this centralization is a complicated issue. This issue is only gaining popularity in Europe. There are many different options how it can be done, he said.

"We want to make three pilot projects… This is an important step, and the funds saved from it could be as much as from e-procurement," he said.

It is likely that there would be three separate enterprises that would be involved in centralized procurement.

The ministry has drawn up a draft government resolution on the implementation of a pilot project on the creation and organization of a centralized procurement organization for the period until the end of 2017. According to the document, the secretariat of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers and central executive power agencies decide to participate in it, and the centralized procurement organization can buy goods and services in line with the list approved by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry. The organization would hold procurement tenders and procurement under framework agreements in the interests of customers free of charge.