Ukraine to sanction suppliers of low-quality food to Defense Forces

9 November, 2024 Illustrative photo of military food. Photo from open sources. The State Logistics Operator (DOT) will start publishing lists of suppliers of low-quality food to the Defense Forces that have been sanctioned.

This was stated by Dmytro Bihunets, Director of Risk Management at the State Logistics Operator, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. This was stated in regards to the application of operational and economic sanctions, as already provided for by the current Economic Code. It also refers to a restrictive measure and a list of suppliers to whom this measure is applied.

"We plan to post this list on our official website and, accordingly, take it into account when deciding on future cooperation with such suppliers in future tenders," Dmytro Bihunets stated. Mr. Bihunets explained that the DOT had developed a procedure for applying the operational and economic sanctions in its contracts.

These sanctions mean that if a supplier delivers low-quality goods or submits forged documents or commits fraud, all contractual relations with the supplier may be terminated for up to 1 year. "This means that the supplier is more motivated not to abuse its right to supply the Armed Forces," Mr. Bihunets shared.

Thus, such a supplier will theoretically and practically not be able to participate in procurement. According to him, the State Logistics Operator has already taken the first steps to apply appropriate restrictive measures to such suppliers. There are several mechanisms in Ukraine where the military can apply if they spot or receive goods of inadequate quality.

"There is a mechanism directly tied to the Armed Forces themselves. There is the Logistics Forces Command and the Central Food Supply Department, which, according to its functional responsibilities, aggregates this information. There is also a contact on the DOT website that aggregates all information on the quality, completeness and timeliness of the products provided under our contracts so that we can summarize this story and take appropriate measures," the DOT representative stated in the press release.

Meals in the Armed Forces under the new system.

Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

At the same time, he noted that in practice, the State Logistics Operator usually received acts of complaint (acts on problematic supply issues) directly from the responsible persons.

Recently, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has also tightened the quality requirements for a number of food products supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.