Chair of Ukrainian parliamentary anti-corruption committee says defence minister should resign

Anastasiia Radina, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, says Defence Minister Rustem Umierov should resign.

Source: Radina on Facebook

Details: Radina was commenting on the row between the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Procurement Agency.

Quote from Radina: "I believe that such actions are destroying defence procurement reform and are indicative of hands-on interference in procurement processes.

It doesn’t matter who’s going to be on the ‘new supervisory board’ or who will head up the agencies going forward – the minister has clearly demonstrated that these people can be shown the door at any time with one stroke of the pen.

A minister who breaks the law; whose decisions prolong the non-fulfilment of arms contracts; within whose ministry, as of November 2024, the internal department of the State Department of Military Trade and Industry, which deals with arms contracts in parallel with the Defence Agency, has failed to ensure the fulfilment of more than half of the contracts (concluded back in 2022-2023!); who is unable to simplify the bureaucracy of contract approval and is destroying the country’s confidence in the Ministry of Defence, must also submit his resignation."

Background:

• Bezrukova became the head of the Defence Procurement Agency in January 2024. Her contract expires at the end of the week.
• In a column for Ukrainska Pravda summing up the DPA's work in 2024, Bezrukova said the supervisory board – comprising independent members Kateryna Kuznetsova, Lukasz Stoliarski and Patrick Auroy, and state representatives Taras Chmut and Yurii Dzhyhyr – had started working in December.
• Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, said that in September 2024, Umierov had planned to dismiss Bezrukova and appoint Holos (Voice) party member Oleksandra Ustinova to the position.
• Umierov said that Arsen Zhumadilov, head of Ukraine’s State Logistics Operator, would be appointed as the director of the DPA.
• Zhumadilov said he had agreed to head up the DPA "at this difficult time".
• Bezrukova has announced that she will continue to carry out her duties.

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