It was a challenging 7-month journey of training, support and joint work to improve the procurement efficiency of the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Program lasted from April to the end of November this year. The free educational and consulting course «Project 100» was aimed at increasing the procurement capacity of 100 military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2024.
We would like to finally summarize the results of the work of both the participants and the team that implemented the course.
And there is a lot to tell.
To begin with, it is important to recall the reasons that prompted the creation of this course.
Firstly, significant volumes of decentralized procurement require a competent approach to working with them. Only in 2023, procurers in military units spent about UAH 52 billion, and in 2024, more than UAH 60 billion was expected.
Secondly, our team was among those who actively advocated for the introduction of a full-time procurement position in the Armed Forces. Thus, realizing the progress in this matter, we wanted to have a lot of specialists who would be able to professionally meet the needs of the military units by the time a positive decision was made.
Before the course started, we planned to train 100 authorized persons from 100 military units. This is quite a large number, so we were not completely sure that there would be so many people eager to learn.
However, when the application process began, it became clear that we would have to select among those who wanted to take the course. We received 260 applications from procurers for the training. We selected 104 procurers.
801 hours of individual consultations, more than 213 hours of group meetings and discussions, 10 online webinars, assessment of procurement systems in each military unit and development of individual recommendations for them.
That is how many efforts we made to ensure that all participants reached the level of confident procurers in six months.
Now, let's look at the main indicators of the procurement work of the Project 100 participants from the start to its completion (April – September 2024).
- The efficiency of the procurement process of military units that participated in Project 100 has doubled. According to our methodology, the average procurement efficiency score of the participants before Project 100 was 33 out of 100, and after – it was 66;
- The total number of procurements made by the participants was 8,265 lots with a total expected value of over UAH 5,417 million;
- 43% of procurements were competitive. Moreover, the percentage of competitive procurement has been constantly increasing – in April it was 40%, and in September it was already 47%. We believe that this growth is crucial, as competitive procurement contributes to cost savings, transparency of bidding and increases the overall efficiency of the bidding process;
- On average, 27% of procurements were simplified, which means a significant growth of participants' awareness of fast and competitive procurement;
- The authorized persons from Project 100 spend 60% more money than other units of the Armed Forces. The average budget of a Project 100 military unit is UAH 56.4 million, while the average budget of other military units is UAH 35.1 million. This demonstrates that the funds are not frozen on the accounts but are actively used for the needs of the army;
- The average cost savings rate was 11%, and the total savings amounted to over UAH 327 million. This was due to the increase in competitive procurement, the use of clear and systematic procedures, and the knowledge and skills gained from Project 100.
We also provide a comparison of the procurement process of participants in August – September 2023 (Period 1) and August – September 2024 (Period 2).
- The total number of procurements increased by 175%: from 1168 to 3216.
- The expected value of all procurements has also increased – from UAH 237 million to UAH 3.057 billion. That is an increase of 1191%.
- In Period 1, only 8% of procurements by military units were conducted under simplified procurement (94 lots), while in Period 2 this figure reached almost 30% (930 lots).
- The number of competitive procurements increased by 23%. In August-September 2023, this figure was only 22% (254 procurements) of the total procurement volume, and a year later it was 45% (1443 procurements).
- During Period 1, UAH 12.6 million was saved, and during Period 2 – UAH 126.6 million, not only due to the increase in procurement volume, but also due to the increase in competitive procurement, the use of clear and systematic procedures, and the knowledge and skills acquired in Project 100.
During the Second Military Procurement Forum, which took place on November 29 in Kyiv with over 150 representatives of the procurement community, one of the main topics of discussion was: what's next?
The answer is that we are working to continue training. Moreover, in the context of the launch of the introduction of a full-time procurement position in the Armed Forces, we need to train as many personnel as possible for this work.
Let's stay in touch and keep our focus on defense procurements! 💪🏻
ℹ️ The Project 100 was implemented by the Defence Procurement Reform Project in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence’s Office for Support of Changes (OSC). Funding was provided by the Defence Procurement Reform Project with the support of the UK Special Defence Advisor and the Foundation for Support of Reforms in Ukraine.