Amid the scandal between The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the Defense Procurement Agency, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy Anastasia Radina, stated that Minister Rustem Umerov should submit a resignation letter.
This was reported by URA-Inform with reference to Anastasia Radina.
“On December 17, 2024, the Minister of Defense created an independent supervisory board of the Defense Procurement Agency. In the month of its existence, the board only managed to make a decision to extend the contract with the current head of the Defense Procurement Agency,” she stated.
However, according to her, the decision turned out to be so independent that it outraged the Minister of Defense. After all, on January 24, he decided to “recall” Yuriy Dzhigir and Taras Chmut from the supervisory board – perhaps the most authoritative experts in military procurement in Ukraine.
“Does this mean that the minister plans to “restart” the supervisory board of the JSC until only one hundred percent readiness to carry out the instructions of the ministry remains there?” – the deputy asked a rhetorical question.
She noted that the minister went even further and independently made the decision to appoint a new head of the Agency.
“I believe that such actions are destroying the defense procurement reform and mean manual interference in procurement processes. It does not matter who ends up on the “new supervisory board”, it does not matter who will head the agencies in the future – the minister clearly showed that these people can be shown the door with a stroke of a pen at any time,” the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy concluded.
According to her, a minister who violates the law; who, with his decisions, continues unfulfilled weapons contracts; in whose ministry, as of November 2024, the internal department, which is handling weapons contracts in parallel with the JSC, had not ensured the fulfillment of more than half of the contracts concluded in 2022-2023; who cannot simplify the bureaucracy of contract approval and destroys the country's trust in the Ministry of Defense, – must also submit a resignation letter.
“The country's Ministry of Defense in a war must be led by a person for whom legality, transparency and accountability are not just empty words,” Anastasia Radina concluded.
Recall that it was previously reported that significant personnel changes in power would take place in Kyiv: what are we talking about?