KYIV (Reuters) – Two new advisory bodies will help make Ukraine’s defence ministry more efficient and transparent, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday.
The Office for the Support of Changes and the Public Anti-Corruption Council were set up earlier this month following allegations that the ministry bought food for troops at inflated prices.
The ministry has also received heavy weaponry from Western allies as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces after 14 months of war in Ukraine.
“Today is a time for reform, even during this war,” Reznikov told an online briefing.
Reznikov said the Office for the Support of Changes had been tasked with “thinking out of the box” to propose institutional changes, including on the procurement of non-lethal resources.
The Public Anti-Corruption Council contained people who were publicly elected by thousands of voters, he said. It will monitor potential corruption risks at the ministry.
Ukraine has stepped up efforts to tackle graft as it seeks accession to the European Union.
A former deputy defence minister and another ministry official have been served with “notices of suspicion” over wrongdoing involving contracts for food purchases for the army, the state anti-corruption agency said last week.
Reznikov said in February that hundreds of officials at the defence ministry or in the armed forces had been disciplined last year after internal audits, and that he had “zero tolerance” for corruption.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
