When Russia launched its war against Ukraine in the spring of 2014, David Arakhamia started delivering bulletproof vests and camouflage for needy Ukrainian soldiers.
Later, Arakhamia, the owner of a Mykolayiv-based information technology company, organized a special crowdfunding campaign: People’s Project, which collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for the army.
But the outdated military procurement system and abundant corruption made many of their efforts futile. The crowdfunded clothes for the soldiers often ended up at the city markets.
So Arakhamia and a group of like-minded volunteers decided to change the system.
In late October 2014, they took their work to the Defense Ministry, calling themselves the “volunteer airborne brigade” and aiming to reform services.
After a year of their work, the clothes and equipment for the army met NATO standards, and the Defense Ministry’s real estate property (some 42,000 items) were collected in one catalog, which restricted the chances of their illicit sale.
Volunteers were also early proponents of the ProZorro electronic procurement system, which cuts off monopolist supplies by imposing transparency and competition. The number of military contractors in every area increased by 60 percent.
“We have broken a monopoly and made the process transparent,” said Arakhamia of the Defense Ministry’s adoption of ProZorro, which is credited with saving Hr 200 million ($8.7 million) on purchases so far this year.
Volunteers also created electronic medical cards for soldiers. Under the new scheme, if a soldier is wounded, all of his movements at hospitals are recorded in this electronic card and kept in one centralized database, aiding treatment.
The Ukrainian army was also known for years for its poor and tasteless food, which was due to the fact that just a few companies were in charge of food preparation and delivery. But the volunteers managed to break this system, at least at the Yavoriv polygon in Lviv Oblast and at the Hetman Sahaidachny military flagship based in Odesa.
With the technical assistance of the Kozyrna Karta and Puzata Khata restaurant chains, the volunteers brought modern Italian equipment and developed a diverse menu on the level of a three-star hotel. They ordered food supplies and preparation from different firms. “And it all cost the same as it had with the previous contractors,” Arakhamia said.
But volunteers were also met with major disappointment. They failed to bring the officials to justice who were milking the ministry for years, allowing corruption to flourish. “We managed to totally break the schemes but failed to put anyone in jail,” Arakhamia said.
Arakhamia said his group reported nearly 10 cases to prosecutors but never heard about their future developments. “We investigated, found, documented this and then we hear, ‘Your evidence is not sufficient or it is too outdated to bring them (the suspects) to court,” Arakhamia said.
But some 20 ministry officials who had been neglecting their jobs were fired thanks to the efforts of his group, he said.
In early October, the volunteers’ project was closed and most of its participants went back to their normal lives. Some of them, however, stayed to work at the specially formed Project Office, an independent reformist institution sponsored by the United Kingdom and other foreign donors, which will advise the Defense Ministry on future reforms.
“This institution will allow us to make the reforms in the Defense Ministry irreversible,” Arakhamia said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected].
