The government procurement system is inefficient, – Accounting Chamber

The Board of the Accounting Chamber considers it necessary to review the legislative principles of the functioning of the institution of state orders for the training of specialists

The press service of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, published on January 10, notes that the system of functioning of state orders in higher educational institutions is ineffective.

The Board of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine came to such conclusions after considering the report on the results of the analysis of the formation and implementation of the state order for the training of specialists in Ukrainian universities in 2010-2011.

As noted in the Accounting Chamber’s report, the analysis showed that the practice is repeated from year to year when the government’s resolution on state orders comes into force after the customers have used the funds.

«This indicates the formality of the institution of state orders as such and puts the agenda is the issue of a fundamental revision of the legislative framework for its functioning».

The Accounting Chamber also believes that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which is a specially authorized central executive body for the coordination of state procurement, does not ensure the effective implementation of state policy in this area.

As in previous years, the specified department lacks a real strategy for the development of state procurement. Since 2005, its criteria have not been revised, and the process of formation has actually been reduced to a generalization of the received proposals.

«The Ministry of Economic Development does not make a medium-term forecast of the need for specialists and workers in the labor market, does not monitor educational institutions that train specialists under state procurement».

In turn, the Accounting Chamber notes that the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports, which forms and implements state orders for the training of specialists, does not ensure compliance with constitutional norms on free higher education in Ukraine.

For example, there is no regulatory mechanism for the employment of university graduates and compliance with legislative norms on the ratio of those admitted to study under state orders and under contracts is not ensured.

«The number of students in state and municipal institutions under state orders should be at least 51%, but in the last two years this indicator for different specialties has fluctuated within 38-49%,» the report says.

In addition, the Accounting Chamber notes that the Ministry of Education has not developed higher education standards to regulate the norms of material, technical, financial and other support higher educational institutions, and the lack of a methodology for calculating the cost of training one specialist leads to the fact that the cost of training in the same direction, but in different universities, is radically different.

«This allows the ministry and other departments to unreasonably increase the calculations for the formation of a state order for education from year to year,» the Accounting Chamber emphasizes in a statement.