Due to the failure of arms procurement, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov initiates the dismissal of his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov and does not extend the contract with the director of the Defense Procurement Agency state enterprise Maryna Bezrukova.
Umerov announced this on his Facebook page, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
Umerov noted that the only criterion that the Defense Ministry sets for the Defense Procurement Agency is to provide the front with all necessary weapons on time and in full.
"Unfortunately, over the past six months, instead of timely provision of ammunition to the army, we have received political games, "drainage" of contracts, "drainage" of information (law enforcement officers will definitely check these facts), PR of inaction and non-fulfillment of the KPI by subordinate enterprises of the Ministry of Defense. Weapons purchases, which should be closed during martial law and a full-scale war with Russia, have somehow turned into "Amazon", where every Internet user can see in real time who is buying what, in what quantities and from which manufacturers. And the scale of these purchases, which would be at least commensurate with the PR in the media, our defenders at the front have never felt," he wrote.
Umerov said that he had decided to suspend everyone who failed this job.
"1. I am submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers a motion to dismiss my deputy, Dmytro Klimenkov. 2. The contract with Maryna Bezrukova is not being extended by the Ministry of Defense," he said.
The Ministry of Defense is also recalling two state representatives from the supervisory board of the Defense Procurement Agency.
"This will become a precedent in the history of state corporate governance, when two independent representatives of the Supervisory Board supported the position of the state, and the representative of the state's interests authorized by the state ignored the recommendations of the governing body," the Minister noted.
He announced the restart of the Supervisory Board in the near future.
Umerov also reported that Arsen Zhumadilov will be appointed director of the Defense Procurement Agency.
"This year, the Defense Procurement Agency and the State Operator for Non-Lethal Aquisition had the same conditions. One agency did the job, the other only created media noise. There is a lot of talk about purchasing weapons for the army, the result is unsatisfactory. We are changing the system so that the result is on the front, not in the news," he noted.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in January 2024, the Ministry of Defense appointed Bezrukova as the director of the Defense Procurement Agency state enterprise. The Supervisory Board extended the contract with the director of the Defense Procurement Agency for a year.
In November 2023, Umerov appointed Arsen Zhumadilov as the director general of the State Operator for Non-Lethal Aquisition state enterprise.
In October 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Klimenkov as Deputy Minister of Defense, he became Deputy Minister for Procurement, previously worked as the commercial director of the Ukrtransgaz JSC.
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