The contract system often changes, but it does not work well

Constant amendment of the law on it does not bring orders to small businesses.

The authorities are unhappy with the work of the state procurement legislation, the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and the Minister for Open Government Affairs « Mikhail Abyzov . One of the reasons — permanent amendment of public procurement law: in less than two years, the basic law on the contract system was changed 18 times, the respondents say “b » lawyers, calling the latest changes at least contradictory .

Photo: RIA Novosti

The White House is dissatisfied with the implementation of the law on the contract system, said First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov at the FAS board today. About the absence of “explosive growth” » the share of small business in the procurement of state and municipal customers was also stated there by the Minister for Affairs «Open Government» Mikhail Abyzov. Note that at least one of the reasons for the slow introduction of the contract system and increasing the share of small and medium-sized suppliers in it is — just the constant changes in the basic legislation on state procurement.

State procurement determined the term

Ministry of Economy to increase the efficiency of public procurement and fight corruption in this area proposed to reduce the payment terms for state contracts up to 30 days. Thus, the norm, which is binding only for state contracts of small business, will be extended to all entrepreneurs. As noted in the explanatory note to the bill, the amendments are introduced to increase efficiency and effectiveness » government procurements, as well as “avoiding abuses”

Since the law on the contract system came into force (adopted in March 2013), the document has survived two dozen revisions. The last one was published by the Ministry of Economy for discussion on regulation.gov.ru yesterday. This document is the development of the agency’s proposal to limit the terms of payment of state contracts, of which wrote on Sept. 14 , but the new version of the document proposes to limit and the terms of their execution, and also allows to take into account, as a share of small business in public procurement, non-concluded contracts that are transferred by the customer to a single supplier.

The Economy Ministry is offered to give the government, “Rosatom” and Roscosmos the right to determine the areas of activity where the restrictions on the duration of the performance of the contract, the order of its execution are applied, and also to fix for state corporations the opportunity to determine the date for executing the contract and the calculation procedure.

The problem with the timing of the execution of state orders, when the contractor wins the tender for supply, and then either delays its execution or resells the order to a subcontractor, is known for a long time. However, lawmakers of the Ministry of Economics doubt the lawyers.

 It’s not entirely clear why the ministry is trying to limit the time for acceptance of work by 30 days. Civil legislation does not impose any restrictions on this matter. In our opinion, such a requirement belittles the right to defer, installments, as well as other possible terms and methods of payment after the performance of the contract. If you set a deadline, it should be more reasonable: 6-12 months , — says managing partner of the law firm «Prime Legal»’ Arik Shabanov .

State purchases according to the price list

Dmitry Medvedev in Sertiabre signed two resolutions introducing from January 1, 2016 the requirement of conformity of public procurement approved by the government and departments lists of allowable purchases at public expense. Documents can help prevent state customers from buying luxury goods. As stated in a conversation with adviser to the law firm YUST Dmitry Seregin, the purchase from a small business entity may not take place and through the fault of the customer, who laid down obviously disadvantageous conditions.  After this, the customer can conduct direct purchase from a single supplier, which is not a small business entity, but take it into account as a purchase from a small enterprise , — says the lawyer.

In addition, the Ministry of Economy proposed to save the state-owned suppliers (state and municipal government institutions) from the provision of applications (the transfer of funds to the customer’s account). According to Mr. Seryogin, “the proposal looks reasonable, since it will not allow you to shift money from one budget pocket to another” raquo ;, but under the Constitution all forms of ownership are equal, and innovation “can turn into an unreasonable advantage for state and municipal enterprises”.

The Ministry of Economy does not explain the project development objectives, recognizing that the document is not coordinated with the « road maps » to improve the business environment, and refer to their own monitoring of the work of the contract system.

Sophia Okun, Oleg Sapozhkov

Based on Kommersant.ru  23.09.2015, 16:52