Questions about government procurement centralization in the All-Russia Popular Front

Новости (EN) 04 декабря 2014 15:23

The round table on "Problems and prospects of development of the institution of standardization of public procurement" took place on the base of the All-Russia Popular Front on December 3.

The discussion was attended by Director of the Department of the contract system of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Chemerisov, Head of the control of public procurement by the Federal Antimonopoly Service Tatiana Demidova, Deputy Chairman of the Central Auditing Commission of the Front, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship Victor Klimov , Head of project "For fair procurement" Anton Guetta, member of the Presidium "SUPPORT OF RUSSIA", executive director of the Association of Electronic Trading Platforms Iliia Dimitrov, as well as by representatives of the federal government and business community, experts in public procurement.

The agenda included issues related to the valuation of costs in public procurement for officials at all levels, as well as problems associated with practical application of standardization in this area and the measures to be taken to enhance the effectiveness of work in this direction.

By the way, the issue of costs valuation in public procurement has already been initiated by the Association of Electronic Trading Platforms, particularly during the work on changes in the Federal law # 94-FZ "On placing orders for goods, works and services for state and municipal needs".

Now due to the fact that the government adopted a resolution "On the procedure for determining the cost of providing regulatory functions of the federal government bodies, state budget funds control of the Russian Federation, including the subordinate state-owned institutions" on October 20, 2014, the theme of normalization become relevant once again.

The document comes into force on January 1, 2015. Until the end of 2014 the Cabinet of Ministers shall issue a similar document for the regional and municipal levels.

According to this document, only cars purchase (from 1.5 to 2.5 million. rubles) and mobile communications are normalized in absolute values. As for the other expenses of officials - property maintenance, transport services, purchase of furniture, fuels and lubricants, repair, rental of premises and equipment, purchase of information services - they are not normalized in absolute terms, and must be calculated using special formulas. According to the Front experts, this is not possible to check all these expenses without a single information system and catalogs of standard products.

The initiative to create a centralized system of such purchases, for the purpose to be able to buy goods cheaper and to control the procurement process easier was made by the head of the Presidential Control of Russia Konstantin Chuichenko.

"Now each municipality, each budgetary institution conducts procurement independently. It is not clear why it is impossible to buy cars at once, and then to distribute them to different departments. So you can get a discount for a large party, it is cheaper for customers and help save budget money. Now we need less procurement structures. Then the process will be easier to control, "- said the head of the Presidential Control of Russia.

Deputy Minister - Head of state purchases of the Ministry of competition policy of Kaluga region Sergey Cherikanov shared experiences in the use of centralized procurement systems in the region. "For the Kaluga region a centralized system is a traditional one. We have focused most of costs on the regional budget and centralized at the level of the regional customer. Unlike other regions, which experience we have studied, we centralize all auctions and tenders, regardless of the amount. Municipal order is also centralized - most municipalities of the region work through a single specialized organization - the regional budgetary institution that provides its services gratis. What does this mean for us? Firstly, reduction of customer labor costs and qualification requirements, prevention of a significant number of unintentional violations in procurement and reduction of corruption risk. In addition, we have an information and marketing center, which assists customers in determining the nomenclature of goods,"- said the expert.

Deputy Head of the Presidential Control of Russia Valentin Letunovskiy, speaking about the need of centralization in the procurement system, said that cost optimization and procurement of state enterprises is a global task, particularly relevant in times of crisis, when Russia is experiencing pressure due to economic sanctions. According to him, cost reduction is not only economic, but also a strategic objective of government.

The discussion participants agreed to compile proposals and submit them to the Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, along with a wish to organize public participation in the formation and development of regulations, now being prepared by the Cabinet.