INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS ON PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN UKRAINE

УДК 65.712.82

Алоєв Д.Р., студент 4 курсу
ХНЕУ ім. С. Кузнеця

The state of public procurement in Ukraine is now a cause for concern not only among law-enforcement agencies, business organizations and the Ukrainian public, but also in international organizations and foundations, while their concerns are expressed by financial sanctions that are very tangible for the economy of Ukraine.

So, at the end of February 2011, the European Union officially announced the suspension of free budget assistance to state authorities in connection with the introduction by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of changes in the procedure for public procurement. The concern was caused by the decision not to tender for the purchase of energy products, as well as services for water supply and drainage. In this regard, the tranche was frozen for 31 million Euros. At the same time in Brussels, they noted that these sanctions against Kiev will not end [1]. One of the first tasks aimed at the restoration and stabilization of the economy of Ukraine under the current conditions is to overcome corruption in the sphere of state Procurement.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said: “This is the most corrupt scheme of Ukrainian state power, which, according to various estimates, wasted up to 300 billion dollars a year, according to the Government’s sitting on March 23, 2014. This is the total turnover among public procurement. All purchases must be on the Internet, all companies are transparent. All tenders should be made solely on the basis of prior information, everyone should have the right to participate in this tender, and all the public and the whole country should know who, under what conditions and on what conditions, won or lose one or another tender” [2].

Today in Ukraine there are processes aimed at European integration. The development of European integration processes takes place in a variety of spheres and manifests itself in two main dimensions: along with an internal dimension that is fundamental and encompasses heterogeneous phenomena and processes within the European Union, as well as between member states, there is also a very important international dimension. Certainly, these processes will affect practically all economic processes in Ukraine, including the sphere of public procurement.

The problem of the influence of European integration processes on the management of state resources in Ukraine were considered in their works: N.V. Antonyuk, K.O. Vashchenko, V.A. Goshovska, M.M. Bilinska, A.A. Gritsiak, B.M. Danylyshyn, V.S. Zagorsky, M.M. Izha, Y. Kovbasyuk, V.A. Landsman, A.O. Olefir, I.S. Polovets and A. Popok et al. However, there is practically no work on the impact of the European integration process on public procurement in Ukraine.

The purpose of the article is to determine the impact of globalization processes in the context of Ukraine’s Euro integration into the field of public procurement in Ukraine, as well as positive changes in this area that may occur in the event of an association between Ukraine and the European Union and its member states. One of the stages of European integration is the optimization of Ukraine’s legislation to European standards. The first stage in reforming the system of public procurement of Ukraine is the accession of Ukraine to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. Such accession would open sub Ukrainian enterprises’ access to foreign public procurement tender, the volume of which, according to the WTO is $ 80-100 billion per year. So Iryna Polovets, a lawyer of Volkov & Partners law firm, commented on the statement of the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade: “The potential benefits of joining the Agreement, apart from access to the market of other members, are increasing competition, reducing corruption, improving the efficiency of the distribution of public resources, and increasing transparency of prime decision making at the government level as a whole. Strengthening publicity and transparency standards, in turn, can contribute to attracting investment and advanced technologies to the country,”she said [5].

Regarding the Agreement itself, based on its provisions, the following changes that should be noted will affect the public procurement sectors of Ukraine [3]:

  1. the parties of the Agreement shall recognize that laws, regulations, procedures and practices relating to public procurement should not be prepared, adopted or applied to foreign or domestic goods and services, as well as to foreign or domestic suppliers in such a way as to provide protection of national goods or services or national suppliers and should not discriminate between foreign goods or services or foreign suppliers;
  2. each party is obliged, when preparing and applying laws, regulations and procedures that affect public procurement, to facilitate the expansion of imports from developing countries, taking into account the special problems of less developed countries and among those countries, which are in the lowest stages of economic development;
  3. each developed member country must, upon request, provide any technical assistance it deems necessary to developing country members in addressing their public procurement issues. Technical assistance may include the translation of documentation on qualifications and tenders made by suppliers from developing country members into the official language of the WTO.

The second stage of the reform of the public procurement system of Ukraine will be the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union and its member states, on the other hand (here in after referred to as the Agreement). Based on the provisions of the draft of the Agreement, the main changes concerning the sphere of public procurement of Ukraine include [4]:

  1. procurement proceeds on the basis of non-discrimination, equal treatment, transparency and proportionality. There is a question about the principle of proportionality. This principle is new for the public procurement system in Ukraine; today, public procurement in Ukraine is carried out in compliance with the following principles: fair competition among participants; maximum economy and efficiency; openness and transparency at all stages of procurement; non-discrimination of participants; objective and impatient evaluation of competitive bidding proposals; prevention of corruption and abuse; free transfer of goods; freedom to provide services.
  2. the parties strengthen cooperation by exchanging experiences and information relevant to their best practices and regulatory frameworks.

Summing up, it should be noted that the impact of globalization processes in the context of Ukraine’s European integration associated with the reform of the public procurement system will lead to the following positive changes:

  1. increased competition;
  2. reduction of corruption;
  3. increase of efficiency of distribution of public resources;
  4. increased transparency of decision-making at the governmental level;
  5. will open access to foreign government procurement tenders for Ukrainian enterprises;
  6. will bring legal regulation of the sphere of public procurement to a qualitatively new level.

Most of these changes can negatively affect the development of the Ukrainian economy in the absence of legally established provisions for the protection of national producers.

REFERENCES

  1. Public procurement is expensive.

  2. The order is sent to Parliament before the Parliament votes on a draft law on public procurement which is a European standard.

  3. Antonyuk N.N. Current problems of further European integration / N.V. Antonyuk // Bulletin of the University of Lviv. – 2012. – International Economic Relations. – Issue. 30. – Pp. 9-17.

  4. Ukraine can contact UTDI COT about the purchase of electricity.

Науковий керівник

старший викладач Михайлова Л.З.