One open-source instrument to alleviate multiple challenges in the public sector—sounds dreamlike? Ukraine has been proving otherwise over the last eight years of active usage, of which two and a half have been spent fighting Russia in a full-scale war. 

Prozorro is an open source electronic procurement system developed in 2016 by Ukrainian civil activists, Transparency International, USAID, EBRD, and other partners. It was later adopted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. 

The project has brought a straightforward and clear benefit to the Ukrainian economy. Over the last two years, the state budget obtained $162 million in direct revenue, while in the period 2017-2021, the estimates accounted for $6 billion in public fund savings.

Initially introduced as a measure to tackle government corruption and bring transparency into public procurement, Prozorro has widened its potential to adapt to new issues as the war continues. 

This system, an instance of public-private cooperation, ensures that competition for the state tenders to acquire goods and services is done prozorro, using more than 50 affiliated online platforms (Note: prozorro means transparently in Ukrainian). It provides an opportunity for anyone to monitor the bidding process in an open and accessible manner.

In 2019 Prozorro expanded further, introducing Prozorro.Sale to auction all types of private and state-owned assets. The advancement resulted in a comprehensive open source system, able to sell and acquire almost anything - from unused train carriages, and state enterprises to drones and an arrested Russian tanker. 

The software of Prozorro is completely open source, modelled on the Open Contracting Data Standard that defines the process for disclosing data and documents and allows cross-country data comparison. It became the first system launched with the OpenProcurement toolkit at its core under the Apache open source licence, with the code being freely accessible in the dedicated GitHub repository. 

As a hybrid model e-procurement system, all of Prozorro’s data is centralised in a single database (CDB), enabling seamless access across multiple platforms via API integration. Its unique feature allows participants from different platforms to view and bid on tenders issued by state-owned or private organisations, ensuring broad and synchronised participation. 

According to the CEO of Prozorro.Sale, Oleksii Sobolev, the reason for using open source is two-fold. First, it makes the technological operation – and building process – fast and cheap, and second, it ensures the easy sharing of information across various governmental agencies and third parties, for the audition of the security conditions, for example. Furthermore, it corresponds to the underlying values of the project - transparency and openness.  

With the invasion of Russia in 2022, Prozorro has widened its relevance and started addressing a larger variety of policy topics. One of the newly engaged sectors became defence procurement of equipment and armament for the Ukrainian army, which already proved to reduce the purchase price for drones by 30%. 

The post-war procurement for the reconstruction is another crucial area where Prozorro can potentially be used in the future. Openness and accessibility of the software will play an important advantage in meeting the state needs quickly and for transparent placement of the tenders for the international partners and donors engaged in reconstruction efforts. 

Featured image: Viktor Bystrov via Unsplash