Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) is simplifying the requirements for the company’s tender purchases by reducing the list of goods that required inspection by almost half – from 92 to 47 nomenclature items.
“The company’s board has decided to no longer apply the requirements for railway use of products in procurement and has significantly limited the list of goods subject to inspection control,” the company’s press service said in a statement on Telegram on Monday.
The list of products requiring inspection control – procedures for checking the quality and compliance of products with established standards at the stage of production – will be reduced to 47 items. Currently, the list of products approved by Ukrzaliznytsia’s order No. 44 of February 1, 2016, includes 92 items. In particular, the list includes locomotives, electric trains, passenger cars, freight cars, traction motors, auto-braking equipment, tanks, refrigerated cars, wheelsets, railroad rails, and turnouts.
The new list of products subject to production and inspection control will be published on the website of Ukrzaliznytsia. The company also said that in the coming weeks, changes will be made to the standard tender documentation and announcements with amended requirements for specific procurement items will be made.
The company noted that about a quarter of the product range purchased by Ukrzaliznytsia is labeled “railway products”, which requires it to undergo a special procedure for putting into production.
The rule made it difficult for most manufacturers and suppliers to participate in tenders and created significant corruption risks, the company emphasized, noting that reducing the requirements for participants and strengthening incoming control by Ukrzaliznytsia will simplify participation in tender procedures, increase competition in bidding and ensure the required quality, the company said.
“As promised in December at the Supplier’s Day: Railway Partnership conference, we have excluded from the list all products that are not specific to railways and do not directly affect traffic safety. This makes it much easier for many suppliers to participate in our tender procedures. In fact, for the vast majority of items, we have moved the quality control stage from the qualification of participants to the delivery stage, as we are primarily interested in the quality of the products supplied to us, not the certificates that artificially restricted competition,” the press service quoted Oleksandr Nakhod, director of Ukrzaliznytsia, as saying.
The next step will be a significant reduction in the list of products requiring a conditional number (a unique identifier assigned to railway products subject to mandatory inspection control – IF-U), Ukrzaliznytsia said.
