Recently, the charters of two MoD procurement agencies were amended to include new clauses approved by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. One of them allows the ministry to "appoint and revoke the powers of the head, his deputies, members of supervisory boards, the chief accountant, the company secretary, heads of independent units and their deputies in case of detection of existing or potential threats to national security". The authors of the document do not specify what kind of "potential threats to national security" they are talking about. In addition, with the amendments to the Charter, the Ministry of Defence has reserved the right to "further approve the economic commitment made by the company". This means that the MoD can impose any decision on the agencies, even if it seems irrational to the Defence Procurement Agency, the State Logistics Operator and their supervisory boards. Investigative journalist and NAKO representative Tetiana Nikolaienko was one of the first to draw attention to these changes.
"This is an attempt to level and destroy the independence of the agencies, to turn their boards into 'marriage generals' and to be able to decide manually who will supply the Defence Ministry with certain important goods. If this situation is not changed, if the position of the supervisory boards on changes to the charters is not taken into account, then everything that the public has been fighting for in the Ministry of Defence for two years will be destroyed in one day".
According to Tetiana, the members of the Supervisory Board of the Defence Procurement Agency have already submitted their proposals for new amendments to the Charter to the Ministry of Defence. A similar document is being prepared by the supervisory board of the State Logistics Operator. The Independent Anti-Corruption Commission calls on the MoD to reconsider the decision, which we believe carries significant corruption risks, to cancel the changes and return to the previous charters of both agencies.
On 11 October, the MoD announced the establishment of boards of directors for its two procurement agencies. Both boards were to consist of five members — three independent and two government representatives.
