Merging Ukraine’s two defence procurement agencies not recommended by NATO
NATO did not recommend Ukraine to merge the two defence procurement agencies, NAKO Executive Director Olena Tregub told Hromadske Radio. “During the war, even NATO itself recommended that Ukraine keep two agencies. And only after the end of a full-scale war can they be merged smoothly. Otherwise, it will simply undermine Ukraine’s defence capability and the ability of our army to defend us,” she said.
Ukraine has separated logistics and weapons procurement by creating two agencies because of the need to buy weapons quickly on the global market. Currently, the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), which buys weapons, has a much larger capacity than the State Logistics Operator (DOT), which is responsible for logistics procurement. “Umerov wanted to merge a large arms agency into a smaller logistics agency. This is completely illogical, and it has confused the employees who buy weapons. These are completely different rules for buying weapons, even during the conflict,” explains Olena Tregub.
Instead of merging DPA and DOT, it is more important to focus on creating supervisory boards for these agencies. “Why should this be done? Because there is a lot of pressure on the directors of these agencies. They need to be protected from any pressure from intermediaries,” Tregub said.
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Merging Ukraine’s two defence procurement agencies not recommended by NATO
Ukraine has separated logistics and weapons procurement by creating two agencies because of the need to buy weapons quickly on the global market. Currently, the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), which buys weapons, has a much larger capacity than the State Logistics Operator (DOT), which is responsible for logistics procurement. “Umerov wanted to merge a large arms agency into a smaller logistics agency. This is completely illogical, and it has confused the employees who buy weapons. These are completely different rules for buying weapons, even during the conflict,” explains Olena Tregub.
Instead of merging DPA and DOT, it is more important to focus on creating supervisory boards for these agencies. “Why should this be done? Because there is a lot of pressure on the directors of these agencies. They need to be protected from any pressure from intermediaries,” Tregub said.
Listen to Hromadske Radio’s interview with Olena Tregub about personnel changes in the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the idea of merging procurement agencies.