The amount of publicly invisible state purchases for 2018 exceeded 7% of GDP, as RF Accounts Chamber revealed. BRIGHT is involved in developing opinions on the subject

Corporate purchases for about 7.5 trillion RUB were withdrawn from public visibility and traceability in 2018. This sum exceed in two times the rate of previous year, it was revealed by monitoring of the Accounts Chamber.

Hidden tenders 

Last year purchases made through UIS (Unified Information System in the sphere of state purchases) were 16,7 trillion RUB. And total amount of contracts, including publicly unvisible is estimated at 24,2 trillion RUB according to the reports of corporate customers. The difference was 7,5 trillion RUB – what is in two times more than the previous year ( 3,4 trillion RUB).

Hidden purchases lead to restriction of competition, increased risks of inefficient spending of budget funds, what restrains economic growth, the Accounts Chamber stressed. According to the Ministry of Finance of RF the amount of closed purchases, including state secret and purchases which the government classified by special decisions was 808 billion RUB. 

Low savings and competition 

The main problem is that there is a lack of stable competitive offer in many sectors, Denis Abakumov managing partner of consulting company Bright explained to RBK. “You can invent as many refined laws and procedures as you want but if on market there are no suppliers, contractors or their amount is strictly limited, including the reason of sanctions you won`t be able to get a nice price. Abakumov said. In Russia, not all markets have signs of pure competition. “The main aim of purchase system – is to satisfy the need of customer: to deliver the equipment in time, to bring a qualified contractor to the site and so on. And the price from the customer point of view is not a main factor of success.” – the expert emphasized. 

But even if there is competition purchases are made at inflated prices. To reduce “human factor” and corruption risks, the Unified Information System in the sphere of state purchases was introduced. From 2019 customer has to do all purchases in electronic form. But with a help of monitoring it was found out that the system is unreliable. 21% of all the period that it worked it was unavailable due to maintenance work. Overloads and technical problems make the access to purchases difficult for business, lead to delays in terms and involvement of customers to administrative responsibility as auditors say. 

It makes no sense to transfer all purchases into electronic trading as Abakumov thinks. “System of electronic purchases can provide the full cycle only for standardized goods and services with a clear connection between price and quality. Any complex equipment, multi-part service with a complex pricing system requires face-to-face negotiations, starting with discussion of technical tasks and finishing with final signing of contract” – explained the expert. 

The financial burden for business has grown  

Since October 2018, the rules for assurance of application for participation in public state purchases (Federal Law of the Russian Federation from April 5, 2013 No. 44-FZ) and purchases of state companies from subjects of small and medium-sized enterprises (Federal Law of the Russian Federation from July 18, 2011 of No. 223-FZ) has been significantly changed. That led to increase of cost loading for business.

The amount of breakdowns has grown in almost three times

The total amount of founded breakdowns by the Accounts Chamber was 293,7 billion RUB – that`s 2,8 times more than in 2017. Traditionally, the majority of breakdowns (74,6% or 219,7 billion RUB) are connected with initial minimum of contract price. At the same time the legislation doesn`t regulate pricing in purchases.

For futher information: www.rbc.ru/economics

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