Alexey Lavrov: the main conclusion of the past four years in the field of procurement is that the contract system copes with its main function
Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Lavrov spoke about the results of monitoring the contract system for the first half of 2023 at the session of the VII St. Petersburg Forum of Contract Relations.
"Since 2019, the contract system in Russia has been operating under special, first pandemic, and now sanctions, conditions. And the main conclusion of the past four years is that there are no failures, the contract system copes with its main function – it turns budget funds quickly and efficiently into the necessary goods, works and services," the Deputy Finance Minister said.
Thus, according to Alexey Lavrov, the share of purchases from a single supplier has increased, especially in 2020 and 2021, and the percentage of terminated contracts is noticeably decreasing: in the first half of this year it amounted to 2.4%, in 2022 – 9.2%. The Deputy Minister also noted a decrease in the number of complaints filed on procurement procedures: if in 2019 and 2020 there were more than 60 thousand per year, now this figure is about 12 thousand, that is, per year – no more than 25-30 thousand complaints.
"We attribute this significant drop to the introduction of universal prequalification, which made it possible to cut off a significant part of professional complainants and untrained procurement participants,- said Alexey Lavrov. In addition, in the first half of the year, 84% of complaints were found to be justified. This refutes the often–heard thesis: complainants are always bad, complaints block the procurement process. Complaints from real participants in the process are an important tool to prevent possible violations."
In addition, the Deputy Finance Minister spoke about legislative changes in the field of procurement, in particular about the adopted Federal Law No. 360. "We are also waiting for the positive impact of the so-called senatorial bill adopted in May. This is another important set of amendments that moves our system further in terms of the use of rapid procurement procedures – request for quotations, electronic stores," added Alexey Lavrov.
He also spoke about the amendments aimed at simplifying import substitution in the field of procurement submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation. "We propose to reduce the number of regulatory acts by unifying the rules in a single document, to combine in one list the goods, works, services for which restrictions apply, to abandon the "third superfluous" tool in favor of the "second superfluous" mechanism. We believe that the ban and the "extra second" will provide all the necessary support measures in different combinations," said Alexey Lavrov.
It is also planned to extend a price preference of 15% to all goods from Russia and the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Deputy Minister added that the task of these adjustments and changes in the current regulations is to make procurement procedures simpler and more transparent.
Official website of the Ministry of Finance of Russia