The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine intends to intensify the School Bus program to purchase 1.5 thousand school buses from domestic producers over the next three years, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said.
“We plan to use a number of tools to help domestic producers in the near future. The first tool is public procurement. We will expand the list of categories of goods purchased from local producers. In particular, we are talking about expanding localization to defense procurement. (…) An additional incentive will be the intensification of the School Bus program. This is the purchase of 1.5 thousand buses over three years from Ukrainian manufacturers,” Shmyhal said at the Made in Ukraine forum in Kyiv on Monday.
For her part, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said that the Ukrainian government will look for opportunities to increase budget funding for the School Bus program to load up on orders from Ukrainian manufacturers.
“We have an existing School Bus program. We understand that the capacity of Ukrainian producers is twice as large as the budgeted limit of our program. Of course, we will look for ways to increase it in order to load Ukrainian producers with orders. We need 1600 school buses in the country now,” she said at the forum.
As reported, in 2024, as in the previous year, the state budget allocated UAH 1 billion for the purchase of school buses.
At the same time, Ukrainian manufacturers noted that if the amount of the subvention is maintained, bus purchases may be reduced by 15-20% compared to 2023, given the rise in bus prices.
School buses are purchased with co-financing from the state budget and local budgets.
In 2023, local budgets spent UAH 971.6 million out of the UAH 996.6 million subvention provided, while local councils purchased 434 buses out of the planned purchase of 546 school buses by the end of 2023.
In Ukraine, school buses are produced by Cherkasy Bus, Chernihiv Automobile Plant of Etalon Corporation, and Zaporizhzhia Automobile Plant of UkrAVTO Corporation.
Ukrainian bus manufacturer Cherkassy Buses JSC will supply 79 school buses to Lviv Regional State Administration for UAH 234.216 mln by the end of this year, while the expected purchase amount is UAH 238.6 mln.
According to information in Prozorro, the relevant contract was signed by the parties on July 25.
In the scope of delivery – eight buses designed for the transportation of immobile schoolchildren (with one or two seats for them).
“Cherkassy Bus” was the only participant of the procurement procedure. It offered Ataman buses manufactured in 2023 (localization degree – more than 65%), with a diesel engine, Euro 5 environmental standard.
As reported, the subvention from the state budget to local budgets for the purchase of school buses in 2023 amounted to UAH 1 billion, including Lviv region was allocated UAH 80.605 million.
School buses are purchased on the condition of co-financing from the state budget and local budgets. At the same time, the buses are purchased through the procedure of request for quotation in the electronic catalog Prozorro Market (a systematized database of actual offers of goods of suppliers).
As a result of the procurement, several regions of Ukraine will also receive Ataman buses (in particular, Ivano-Frankivsk and Mykolayiv regions), with the buses being offered by Cherkasy Bus dealers.
Lviv Regional State Administration purchased 126 Ataman school buses for more than UAH 300 mln in 2022.
Founded in 1994, Cherkassky Bus plant produces small class buses, as well as other wheeled vehicles on the units of Japanese Isuzu.
In 2022, the plant increased its net profit by almost 2.9 times to UAH 65.02m, while net income grew by 32.5% to UAH 842.29m.
Department of Science and Education of Kyiv Regional State Administration (KOSA) intends to buy 43 school buses for the expected amount of 127.84 million UAH until October 31, 2023.
According to the announced June 28 bidding on the procedure of request for bid prices, such proposals will be accepted until July 3.
Technical specifications specify, in particular, that the buses must be made not earlier than 2022, have 26 seats for pupils and two – for accompanying persons and crew members, comply with Euro 5.
As it was reported, the Cabinet of Ministers by its Resolution of 28 April 2023 approved the procedure and terms of granting subventions from the state budget to local budgets (this year’s subvention is 1 billion UAH) for the purchase of school buses.
Procurement is carried out using the electronic catalog (ProZorro Market) by the procedure of request for bid, allowing the customer to select the best price offer in four days and lower than in open bidding.
School buses are purchased on condition of co-financing from the state budget (at least 70%) and local budgets.
Subventions to the budget of Kyiv oblast makes up 87.95 million UAH.
As previously reported, a number of regions have already conducted or are conducting such purchases. In particular, the best offer in the similar procedure announced on June 23 for the purchase of 28 school buses of Odessa Regional State Administration was the offer of the Trading House “Etalon Auto” with buses of Chernihiv Automobile Plant for 82.46 million UAH. The second proposal was made by Dnipropetrovsk Avto JSC (UkrAvto corporation) with ZAZ buses for UAH 82.6 million (the expected purchase price).
