ProZorro and the Network of ProZorro Stakeholders

ProZorro public purchasing web portal, prozorro.gov.ua, the central electronic tenders database, and the auctions module are all administered by the state-owned enterprise ProZorro. However, the open and transparent electronic tendering system is possible due to a number of partners and stakeholders in the larger electronic governance reform effort.

ProZorro Partners and Stakeholders

The ProZorro public procurement system has become a reality thanks to the collaboration between a multitude of individual contributors and organizational partners. A number of government agencies, international financial institutions, educational organizations, businesses, civic organizations have been partners in the public procurement reform. The continued success of ProZorro is possible thanks to a large number of participants who can be described as the following groups of partners and stakeholders:


Key ProZorro stakeholders currently include:

Authorized electronic marketplaces, suppliers and other private businesses

Authorized electronic marketplaces are independent commercial partners that are key partners ensuring the transparency within public purchasing. Marketplaces register and maintain electronic accounts of both the contracting authorities that announce tenders and of the private sector businesses seeking to bid for public tenders.

Any e-marketplace can participate in the ProZorro system having passed the technical and functional requirements that grants them an official authorization.

Both the contracting authorities and private businesses register with ProZorro through one of the authorized independent e-marketplaces (or several marketplaces at once) of their choice. Representatives of the contracting authorities and businesses upload all documents using their e-marketplace accounts. From there, tender-related documentation synchronizes with the central database and is available from every e-marketplace and the official web portal, prozorro.gov.ua. 

Independent access provision to the tendering process to serve both the contracting authorities and suppliers through commercial e-marketplaces reduces the possibility of monopolistic behavior of the state in the procurement process and makes the market for state purchasing more open and more competitive.

Public procurement, as a result, becomes more attractive for private businesses as suppliers from one side, and the competition among them offers opportunities for the contracting authorities to get the the best prices on their purchasing needs.

Easier access, more transparency, more business participating in the public procurement system all lead significant decreases in the possibilities for corruption. This is why e-marketplaces and participating businesses are key to creating and sustaining checks and balances for transparency in all stages of public purchasing.

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Contracting Autorities and the Central Procurement Body

Contracting Authorities of the relevant government and government-owned organizations can publish tenders on ProZorro independently or for certain needs can access to the Centralized Procurement Body (CPB), which is a part of ProZorro infrastructure offering aggregated purchase management of frequently bought goods and services, with the goal of a more professional and thus, more efficient purchasing process.


Contracting Autorities, like the private bsuinesses, access and process tenders through authorized e-marketplaces connected to ProZorro auction module and the central database. For Contracting Authorities, registration and the use of the e-marketplaces for the purpose of publishing and processing tenders is free of charge.

Another part of the system working on centralizing the most routine purchases is the CPB. Its mission lies in professionalizing the public purchasing market by increasing credibility of the government organizations, involving business in public procurement, and, consequently, increasing competitiveness. CPB aims to take on the functions that are alien to unnecessary for some of the government entities, helping them to still buy quality products at a competitive prices.

To this end CPB aggregates, organizes and runs procurement procedures with the greatest possible savings and maximum simplification of procedures for the benefit of all government organizations that use their services.

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Ukrainian government institutions

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine is the single point of contact responsible for the development of ProZorro and for coordination of all initiatives with new partners and organizations.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine is responsible for policy making in the areas of economy and trade, including reforms in the area of public purchasing.

The Ministry is ProZorro's "single voice" champion, serving as the official source of information on public purchasing and responsible for coordination of activities in this area with all other official bodies.  

Another government organization connected with ProZorro public purchasing is called ProZorro.Sale. It is a pilot project aiming to centralize the liquidation of government-owned assets on an open electronic web aution portal.  

Currently, ProZorro public auctions lists the assets for sale by the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Ukraine, assets of state and local government organizations planned for liquidation, and it is the expected platform for the auction of planned prizatization of the small scale state-owned enterprises in Ukraine.

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The Civil Society

The development and the success of the electronic system of public purchasing in Ukraine has been supported by individuals and institutions such as the World Bank, the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) under keen oversignt by Transparency International Ukraine.

Transparency Internation Ukraine was the initial project champion during ProZorro's pilot stage. TI Ukraine was responsible for the system's initial development, funding and partner coordination. 

On December 28, 2015 TI Ukraine has officially transferred ownership of ProZorro to the people of Ukraine, administered by the ProZorro state-owned enterprise. 

TI Ukraine continues to be a reliable partner of the system in the area of monitoring and civic control. Two of its key resources for public oversight are an analytical web Business Intelligence resource bi.prozorro.org as well as the public  purchasing monitoring portal DOZORRO (in Ukrainian language only).

Free online courses in public purchasing monitoring are also available via Maidan Open University (in Ukrainian only).

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ProZorro in Global Context

Public purchasing in Ukraine is subject to the Global Procurement Agreement that country-members of the World Trade Organization sign. 

ProZorro is also one of the most innovative open source electronic public purchasing systems and is recommended by the World Bank.

Ukraine has joined the Global Procurement Agreement GPA in 2016 as part of its membership obligations with the World Trade Organization. 

The GPA standards are based on open trade and free access to all markets, meaning the removal of all trade barriers and preferences in the area of public purchasing. This is why articipation in public purchasing in Ukraine is open to international companies.

However, ProZorro is well-known outside of Ukraine for other qualities as well. In its first year of being the official public purchasing platform, the system has earned a prestigious international award in the area public purchasing, the World Procurement Award, and has earned recognition by the Open Government Partnership. 

In 2017 ProZorro has earned the status of an exceptionally successful example of an electronic procurement reform by the European Bank of Recunstruction and Development (EBRD) and has been recommended by the World Bank during the Procurement, Integrity, Management and Openness (PRIMO) conference as such.

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Educational Institutions

ProZorro has partnered with a number of educational institutions aiming to increase the level of professionalism within the area of public purchasing.

One of ProZorro's key partners in the area of professionalization of public purchasing is the Kyiv School fo Economics. The university has created a Center of Excellence in Public Purchasing, which aims to analyze public purchasing markets, advise on public purchasing effectiveness based on research, fight corruption by developing monitoring and other practices, as well as support the participants of the public purchasing system with the help of training and learning initiatives.

A variety of initatives and resources aim to increase the level of professionalism in the area of public purchasing. An online resource for beginners to electronic public purchasing is available on a learning portal created by the employees of ProZorro called the Infobox, with online classes (in Ukrainian). Another online learning resource called Prometheus is offering free online courses in public purchasing for beginners, advanced users and businesses (in Ukrainian). 

In terms of offline interactive learning, SOE ProZorro has developed interactive one and two-day courses (in Ukrainian) for contracting authorities and businesses in its Kyiv office. 

Regionally, twelve ProZorro representatives hold individual learning sessions, also for both the contracting authorities and businesses. Their contact information is available in Ukrainain here. 

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At the very core of the public procurement reform since its inception is the Prozorro team that consists from two structures that ensure its day-to-day operation:

Public Procurement Department (PPD) of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

The Public Procurement Department (PPD) of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine has initiated the successful public procurement reform that now bears the name "ProZorro". PPD is the Ministry's legislative arm in the field of public procurement in Ukraine. 

SOE ProZorro

The State-Owned Enterprise "ProZorro" is the administrator and owner of the central database, the auction module and the web portal, prozorro.gov.ua. 

How the “ProZorro” Reform Became a Reality


In the Spring fo 2015 the SOE responsible for then paper-based procurement that now bears the name of the reform "ProZorro" (meaning "transparent" in Ukrainian) has joined the e-government reform initiative. At that time the web portal of the SOE served as a repository of scanned paper documents in PDF format. User accounts were paid yet still the SOE was not profitable.

The reform initiative was initiated by Alexander Nakhod and Nadiya Bigun. 

The ProZorro team has been focused on: implementation of the reform through the public-private partnership, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, involvement of the civil society and other stakeholders in the reform, transparency in making all the necessary decisions, as well as the extensive use of the open source software.

A former state purchasing agency had been rebranded as "ProZorro" with a mission to fulfill the reform vision outlined by the newly passed law on public purchasing. The process has transformed the bureaucratic enterprise with a reputation for corrupt practices into a fully reformed and effective organization that serves as the foundation of the e-procurement reform. Within two years the organization has become a succefful and profitable IT-driven enterprise with a proven track record of innovative world-class achievements under its belt.

One of the key reasons why the reform has succeeded was that the fouonding team not only shared similar values, common ideas and goals, but also posessed high-level competencies, was motivated and strived for continuous personal development. The Prozorro team as a result conducts all activities and tasks folowing the principles of a High Perfomance Organization (HPO) and serves as an example of a public sector entity with an efficient, competent and productive environment. 

Today, SOE ProZorro is responsible for maintaining and developing the IT infrastructure, as well as further education, consulting, technical and marketing support for the public procurement system. Future plans include further digitization and integration of related e-government services and knowledge sharing with representatives of countries seeking to digitize their public purchasing function.

The Enterprise is fully state-owned and is overseen by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

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