Eidos Center: Kyiv Hospitals Circumventing New Procurement System

Kyiv hospitals have found ways to circumvent the electronic Prozorro procurement system launched earlier this year. Tactics include: unclear terms of reference, lack of necessary documents from successful bidders, and drafting terms of reference specifically for certain suppliers, Transparency International Ukraine reported referring to Eidos Center.

According to the data of the internal system bi.prozorro, 79% of requests for procurement are of poor quality and in 72.5% of requests not enough competition between bidders was observed.

In particular, when Kyiv City Clinical Oncological Center wanted to buy 50 mops produced by German Ventop, they described the item as ‘a device with a nozzle and a holder.’ Only one bidder applied, and 50 ‘devices’ were procured for ₴123,000, or approximately ₴2,500 thousand ($100) each.

"Such an unclear description deludes suppliers and they hesitate to apply," Transparency International Ukraine notes.

In the year to date, healthcare facilities of Kyiv organized 4,109 tenders through Prozorro. At least 3.8% of them were not transparent. "The total value of contracts is ₴53.8 million, and the estimated potential savings in the sector are ₴25.6 million. The average number of bids per tender is 2.74," Transparency International Ukraine summarizes.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda.Kyiv