On April 22, the President signed the Public Procurement Bill into Law. According to Norma, the new version of the law consists of 85 articles (there were 79 in the previous version).

The Ministry of Finance (formerly the Cabinet of Ministers) has been appointed the authority responsible for public procurement. Accordingly, its powers have been revised.

So, the Cabinet of Ministers, inter alia:

- takes measures for the rational use of funds from the budgets in the field of public procurement, improving and expanding the use of types of procurement procedures, as well as broad participation of business entities in them;

- coordinates control over the activities of state customers in the field of public procurement;

- approves the composition of the Commission which will review public procurement-related complaints, etc.

The powers of the Ministry of Finance, as an authorized body in the field of public procurement, have been outlined. The list of entities classified as budget customers has also been expanded. These are also state institutions, funds set up at budget-financed organizations.

The procedure for planning public procurement by the state customer has been approved. Thus, the annual public procurement schedules for the next year are posted by corporate customers until December 25 of this year on a special information portal.

The types of procurement procedures have been revised. A procurement procedure is introduced in the form of selection of the best offers (previously - a competition) and government purchases carried out under direct contracts (previously - government procurement from a single supplier). It was also determined that other competitive types of procurement permitted by decrees of the President, resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers can also be attributed to the types of procurement procedures.

It was established that the selection of the best bids and the tender must be carried out in electronic form, with the exception of cases stipulated by law.

The requirement for mandatory e-procurement procedures for the selection of the best bids and the tender will take effect on January 1, 2022.