State Enterprise Forests of Ukraine is starting a pilot project for the purchase of timber harvesting services through the ProZorro electronic platform, head of the enterprise Yuriy Bolokhovets has said.

"Forestry enterprises have always purchased logging services under direct contracts. We plan to completely transfer them to open tenders. This is several billion hryvnias per year. In the fourth quarter, a pilot project will start in several regions. Specialists of State Enterprise Forests of Ukraine are analyzing the market and working on developing technical requirements," Bolokhovets noted.

According to him, the reform is expected to create a competitive market, attract the maximum number of players, invest in modern equipment and new technologies, additional jobs, increase contributions to budgets at all levels, reduce cases of illegal logging, and improve the quality of work.

"This is the fourth stage of the anti-corruption program that we are implementing. At the first, we banned direct contracts and transferred the sale of wood to specialized exchanges. At the second, we transferred the main purchases of State Enterprise Forests of Ukraine to ProZorro - from fuel to road construction. At the third, we refused from unprofitable processing industries and began to transfer them to the State Property Fund," the head of the enterprise said.

Bolokhovets noted that the anti-corruption program of Forests of Ukraine also provides for strengthening control tools and digitalization. However, the problem of corruption can only be overcome by institutional reforms, the creation of a system that minimizes the "official factor," which introduces transparent and open rules of the game for business, he emphasized.