The analysis of the existing plans of reorganization and rearmament of the armed forces and other military formations, in particular, testifies to their inconsistency with the available budgetary resources. Therefore, they must be realistic, clearly based on a set of documents of defence and budget planning, the capabilities of the domestic defence industry and available financial resources.
The implementation of the law on defence procurement is delayed, which in particular has a negative impact on the approval and implementation state defence procurement process. Some of the documents were adopted only in the spring of 2021, i.e. more than three months late, and some have not been developed yet. For example, the starting point for launching procurement - the list of public customers - was determined only on April 21, 2021. As of today, the profile committee of the Parliament has considered and partially approved the annual procurement plan for 2021 to only one state customer - the Ministry of Defence. There is still no state quality assurance system.
The planned measures to reform the SBU require additional assessment in terms of the effectiveness of the service in the face of military aggression by the Russian Federation. The proposed European practices are applied in Western countries, which have a radically different level and nature of threats to national security. The issue of bringing the SBU Military Counterintelligence into an independent structure is urgent and special department No.3 of the SBU National Academy (Department of Military counterintelligence), which was liquidated in 2009, needs to be re-established.
Bill №5557, on should serve as the basis for creation of a system of national resistance and, in particular, territorial defence, is quite “raw” and contains many inaccuracies and contradictions, in particular with the existing legislation. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a detailed analysis and alignment with existing laws and strategic documents in the field of defence and security at the level of the relevant parliamentary committee with the involvement of an expert community.
The existing staffing system is inefficient and does not meet the needs of the military organization of Ukraine to provide the necessary quota of trained and motivated personnel, especially given the long-term plans for its development within the concept of national resistance.
The draft Law No.3822 “On the peculiarities of reforming the enterprises of the defence-industrial complex of the state form of ownership” contains a number of corruption and administrative risks. At the same time, by the second reading most of these risks at the level of the profile committee have been eliminated - the Cabinet of Ministers has been appointed as the sole governing body to implement OECD recommendations, the exclusive powers of the supervisory board of the joint-stock company are fixed, the number of independent members will constitute from one third to half, etc.
The issue of audit of defence lands needs constant control by anti-corruption bodies. For example, today there are discrepancies between the accounting data of the Ministry of Defence and the State Land Registry of more than 175 thousand hectares, which means that there are corruption risks.
The reform of the social protection of servicemen is currently virtually suspended, in part due to the reduction of a significant number of experts from the Directorate of Defence Policy and the failure to address the issue of creating an electronic queue.
One of the main challenges for updating the system of state support for veterans is the lack of a Unified State Register of Veterans, i.e. there is currently no official up-to-date statistical information on the number of persons with veteran status and the benefits and guarantees they require. This is an obstacle to renewing state support, taking into account the necessary budget expenditures. It should be noted that the operation of the Unified State Register of Veterans in a test mode was scheduled for February 2021.
Only authenticated can comment
The Law of Ukraine "On National Security of Ukraine" remains the framework document for systemic reforms. The ultimate goal of the reforms should be to create an integrated national security and defence sector based on NATO standards, which will be subject to comprehensive democratic civilian oversight.
To adopt the bill №3196-d and implement the SBU reform. The main indicator of the success of the reform is the effectiveness of the service in combating hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation.
To focus efforts on the full implementation of the Law on Defence Procurement, which provides for the development and approval of a set of bylaws at various levels.
Given the level of existing threats from Russia, which does not plan to abandon aggressive plans against Ukraine, the experience of other countries (including Israel), and the urgent needs of national defence, it is necessary to increase funding for the national security and defence sector above 5% GDP (we propose to allocate 5% of GDP only to the Armed Forces).
On the basis of the bill №5557 and taking into account the best elements of the bill №4504, to create a legal basis for the deployment of an effective system of territorial defence considering for the geographical, territorial and socio-political features of Ukraine in the face of aggression by Russia. Bill №5557 requires the introduction of clearly defined functionalities for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police, the SBU Military Counterintelligence and their involvement in preparing the resistance movement and ensuring its internal security.
In the current environment, the principle of voluntariness should be the basis for the staffing of the armed forces and other security forces as the most effective in terms of quality. At the same time, the constitutional provision on the civil duty to protect the country must be preserved and reflected in legislation. Based on this, there should be a system of basic military training of the population, which would provide sufficient human resources to staff the professional component of the Armed Forces and other military formations, reserve forces and territorial defence. Forced conscription should be replaced by legal forms of refusal to serve (e.g. alternative service, financial benefits). At the same time, an effective mechanism should be created to increase the social status of persons who are serving in the military (for example, creating preferences and facilitating access to higher education, civil service, etc.).
To adopt the draft law No.3822 in compliance with the principles of transparency and accountability in the process of future transformation of the Ukroboronprom. In particular, we propose to involve representatives of the public and international partners of Ukraine in the nomination committee, which will select and appoint supervisory boards to corporatized joint stock companies. We also call the Ukroboropnrom to ensure maximum transparency and public access to the analysis of property expropriation processes after the expected adoption of Bill №3822. In the course of further corporatization of the Ukroboropnrom, the issue of avoiding loss of control (hidden privatization) over certain productions (technologies) requires additional control.
To complete the process of audit and proper registration of lands and property of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, taking into account all existing risks.
To complete the audit of the existing housing queue, substantially finalize and adopt the draft law "On providing housing for servicemen and members of their families with the involvement of private funds, transfer of land for rent and alienation of property." Further work on this bill requires control by civil society given the presence of corruption risks.
To improve the system of civilian control in accordance with NATO principles according to the following options: 1) creation of a state institute of military ombudsman of the Parliament independent of the ombudsman of general jurisdiction; 2) expansion of the powers of the profile committees of the Parliament on the establishment of temporary commissions of inquiry, control over the assignment of higher military ranks and appointments to military positions of the nomenclature of higher military ranks;
To update the system of state support for veterans at the legislative level on the principle of priority of public services over benefits.
To adopt the Law on State Support of Released Prisoners and Hostages in order to provide comprehensive state support to released persons (in medical, psychological, housing, educational and other spheres) and to prevent the provision of social guarantees for such persons depending on the financial or political capacity of the state.
Only authenticated can comment
Only authenticated can comment