Ukraine revises public procurement rules

Ukraine

On 19 September 2019, the Ukrainian parliament passed a revised Public Procurement Law, aimed at making public procurement more efficient and aligning legislation with EU Directives 2014/24 and 2014/25. Ukrainian President is expected to sign this draft legislation into law soon.

The key changes to public procurement brought on by the law include:

  • introducing a simplified procedure for procurement for tenders of between UAH 50,000 (EUR 1,835) and UAH 200,000 (EUR 7,350);
  • increasing the importance of criteria other than pricing in tenders (e.g. introducing life-cycle costing, which refers to the costs incurred during the lifetime of a product, job or service, when evaluating tenders);
  • allowing bidders to correct minor mistakes in tender proposals within 24 hours of filing in order to prevent a rejection of the bid;
  • introducing electronic catalogues for minor tenders that enable procuring entities to order goods through the online marketplace;
  • introducing special rules for a ‘subnormal price of tender proposal’, which is a price that is 40% or more lower than the average price of other tender proposals, or 30% or more lower than the price of the initial tender proposal;
  • introducing liability if the procuring entity’s officers fail to comply with procurement laws;
  • combatting “appeal trolling” by cancelling the right to withdraw a submitted appeal and reducing the time for considering an appeal to ten business days; and
  • allowing procuring entities to reject the proposal of a participant who failed to fulfil obligations under a previous procurement agreement.

The Law, except for several provisions, is to enter into force after six months upon its official publication.

Once in force, these changes in rules should result in greater supervision over low-valued procurements, give better practical tools to procuring entities and provide greater protection to bidders.

If you have further questions on this law or would like more information on how it could impact your business, call or email your regular CMS contact or the following CMS local experts: Olga Belyakova, Mykola Heletiy, Anna Pogrebna or Evgenia Prudko.

Legislation: The Law On Amendments to Public Procurement Law and Other Legislation Regarding Improvement of Public Procurement (No. 1076)