Inspection reveals poor-quality food being supplied to military in Ukraine's east – photo

In response to complaints from servicemen, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry has conducted an unscheduled inspection of the warehouses of some military units in Ukraine’s east and found irregularities in the quality, quantity and timing of deliveries by the company that won the tender to supply food to the Armed Forces. 

Source: the Defence Ministry’s press service 

Quote: "Vitalii Polovenko, Deputy Minister of Defence, together with Hennadii Kryvosheia, a member of the Anti-Corruption Council, conducted an unscheduled inspection of the warehouses of some military units in the east of the country. The reason for this was complaints from servicemen about the quality of food." 

Details: The inspection is reported to have revealed that food was delivered late and its quality did not meet the required standards.

"We are responding to complaints from servicemen, so we came on an unscheduled 'visit' to the units. We are recording everything. It appears that due to the late delivery of food by the contractor, food stocks in certain areas are insufficient," Polovenko said. 

The Ministry of Defence has set up working groups to check food quality and timely delivery.  "This issue is being closely monitored. The company won 10 food bids, but now it is physically unable to cope with [delivering] the supplies," the deputy minister added. 

The ministry says that under the terms of the contract, they can replace the supplier in this case. 

"That is, for the parts where the company can’t keep up with deliveries, we withdraw from the contract and reassign [those parts] to companies who won tenders in the surrounding regions. Food must be of high quality, and its supply must be uninterrupted," Polovenko explained. 

The Defence Ministry will draw up reports on all the irregularities recorded. The ministry will also impose penalties on the company that failed to deliver food on time for non-compliance with the contract. The company will also have to reimburse the cost of spoiled and poor-quality food. 

Background: 

• On 21 December, it was reported that starting from 1 April 2024, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence will be procuring food products under new rules based on a catalogue of 409 specified food items for professionally prepared menus, taking average prices into account and with separate tenders for delivery.
• On 22 December, it became known that a senior official of the Defence Ministry's Main Directorate was detained in Kyiv on suspicion of embezzling UAH 1.5 billion (roughly US$40 million) in the course of artillery ammunition procurement for the Armed Forces. The court remanded him in custody without bail until 19 February 2024.
• On 29 December 2023, Security Service of Ukraine officers detained Ihor Hrynkevych, a Lviv businessman and major Defence Ministry supplier who offered a $500,000 bribe to a senior official at the State Bureau of Investigation in exchange for assistance in getting back assets seized from companies under his control during an investigation.

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