A brief history of electronic public procurement in Russia

In 2009, they decided to put the federal experiment on the transfer of purchases to digital form. This is for openness, so that activists and competitors can file complaints against each other to the FAS and other regulatory agencies, and more suppliers come to bid, which also helps reduce corruption.

The experiment was first conducted on Moscow, since the purchase of the city is greater than that of several subjects of the Federation. In some positions, they are generally comparable with the all-Russian ones.

Those who remember 2010 in Moscow: we already had a digital society here. In the regions, they did not believe then, not only in EDS, but even in payment for goods with a card. And not with delivery, but just in the store. This was the main problem of the experiment: the suppliers were simply “not friends” with computers. Say thank you to them (it is for the most part - factories) at least the Internet was.

At the same time, another idea was run in: to make a platform for publishing information about tenders and simply announce what is happening in paper procedures. This is what the State Procurement website (UIS) has become now: it contains all the information about the upcoming procedure.

As you understand, the experiment was successful, and we (being one of the three sites that started then) fully felt all the specifics of ourselves.

But, before telling further about the history of the digital world, it is necessary to touch on the procedures themselves. The point is this: the state customer forms a procurement plan and a procurement schedule at the beginning of the year, publishes it, and then masters the money of this plan all year. The costs are broken down by items, and how much is in the article lies, so much and must be spent, otherwise there will be a surplus of funds, and the plan for the next year will be “cut” to this surplus. The schedule for a kindergarten, for example, looks like this: we spend so much on the purchase of products, so much on stationery, so much on work. Most of the enterprises are trying to cluster purchases into one article like “Consumables and disposable shoes”: this makes it possible to transfer money from consumables to shoes and vice versa. It is impossible to redistribute between articles (more precisely, it is possible, but this is such a complicated procedure that it is impossible). From the point of view of cost control, the more detailed, the clearer what money is spent on.

There is no 100% coincidence of what they want and what happened in reality, because 10–15% of the procedures may not take place (no one came to purchase, the winning supplier refused the contract, etc.).

It is clear that there are force majeure, and the law provides for cases of urgent purchases. In fact, for such purchases, you can allocate the required amount of finance within the allocated funds and then make it into the plans on the date of the contract (if this is a purchase from a single supplier).

But whatever plan is made, there are always situations when you need to buy something here and now. For example, in the aftermath of natural disasters. Tents, heaters, food in such a case will not work out to plan.

So, in the parallel branch of the experiment it was assumed that the site of public procurement will be in the form of an information database on these plans, so that you know who is going to buy what and when.

Our branch was bold for that time: not only informed about purchases, but also conducted them.

The technical ability and understanding of the law were only in relation to the auction (this is one of the procedures - not the easiest, but very common due to the flexibility and relative simplicity of the preparation of the documentation). More precisely, reductions: the participants consistently reduce the NMCC (the initial maximum contract price) for the execution of the TK.

It was possible to implement quickly. The cornerstone of the procedure is transparency and cost savings. We understand what we spend, and we understand at what price. There is a clear selection criterion without an assessment of incomprehensible factors for which at that time there were no exact algorithms. For example, “similar experience” is very difficult to automate.

There are three main entities in the auction: technical specifications, NMCC, suppliers' offers.

In large companies, they tried to hold auctions less frequently because they wanted to insure themselves against the “left” participants. Usually in strategic industries, in the oil and gas: there "vagrants" participant always means risk. Attracting a supplier without personal certainty is an accident. And one accident on the main pipeline - then half the country will deal with it. Therefore, their procedures were non-auction.

After a couple of years, all the auctions that were held began to be played on the sites in digital form, but the contests, quotation requests and requests for proposals remained on paper. The course was taken to make all purchases electronic: from January 1, 2019, all procedures were transferred to the electronic form with a rare exception (purchases of customers located in foreign countries, and requests for quotations for emergency situations).

Savings are provided by competition. With the competition was unhealthy. The real competition in procurement is 3-4 suppliers. But do not blame only the customer. Many suppliers were frightened by the electronic format (in 2013, 2014, even in 2015, these people had to be persuaded): they had to be accredited at the site, get an electronic signature, deposit security, train an employee to organize the bidding process and preparation of all necessary documents.

Another feature of the then edition is a long payment. You won, concluded, bet, then you suffer for a long time and after a very long time you receive money. The process stretched indecently for months.

Then they made edits for 44-FZ, the payment terms were set to no more than 30 days. But for someone, even 30 days to wait a long time, so they began to develop another tool - factoring. This is when the factor (in particular, the bank) transfers all the money to the supplier at once, and then waits for payment from the customer. The supplier pays a commission for this, but there is no problem with a deferred payment.

Now, too, many carp at the stage of acts. In general, it often happened that a bona fide supplier won 1-2 procedures, fulfilled his obligations and knocked out money with a scandal. Then he said that it was difficult and unpleasant, and that he was used to the fact that his business was to bring and exchange goods for money. Many said that they are not collectors for government agencies and do not want to be. It scared many and scares so far.

There was a difficulty with the application of the requirements of the procurement legislation both in 44-FZ and 223-FZ: we carried out many activities and traveled around the regions. If in Moscow - still in the know, then in Kaluga, in Vladimir, in Ryazan, they knew nothing either about the public procurement site or about the procedures. By local standards, there is a large business, for example, a large dairy production. We tell them: try to participate in municipal procurement (the municipalities of their district are also procured on the site; this does not compare with the federal procurement scale, of course, but decently). And now there is a supplier from a neighboring city. We: come in, compete, everyone would be happy, local business earns, power provides needs. Everyone is happy. In fact - people decide to give up and say, well, that it, to understand the computer.

Thousands of people broke down on an electronic signature. Understanding about the electronic signature entered into the minds very hard. Especially about the analogue of the handwritten signature that it is enshrined in the law. The idea to sign with a flash drive paralyzed minds. This is how 200 years ago a finger was applied - it was a clear interface. Now we do the same with the touch-id. And then people were outraged by everyone. For example, that the signature is valid for one year: “This is my signature! It will not change in a year! ”Or that a signature cannot be trusted to another, because this is a thing of strict accountability. It should be stored in a safe. And the confidentiality of the signature must be respected. In fact, the head is often given to her employee. Because of this, everything happened. Albeit infrequently, but still. For example, the employee quit along with the signature and signed it for another two months. The director in one case even wanted to file a lawsuit in court, but he had a clear analogy about the seal of the organization, and he seemed to understand.

Previously, it was necessary to install the software on their own, and then install the ES certificate on their own. It turned out longer than today, and more difficult. Needed an admin. It is today the media with all the installation files stuck, and everything itself is put on the Win-PC. Then it was shamanic dance.

Electronic signature with automatic installation appeared in 2014, spread in 2015. By the way, this is the development of our CA.

Before that, more viruses were distributed on the ES. We made a built-in antivirus. They also made it so that now, for convenience, all the necessary documentation can be stored on a flash drive along with an EDS. There was also a problem with the software necessary for working with electronic signature, the license was for the workplace, and the person was chained to the office. We bypassed the license built into the EA, and you can even bargain on the beach.

Development was tight, problems persisted. There are many movements, a lot of noise, platforms and new platforms opened. The idea of ​​a complete transfer of all procedures into an electronic form was constantly formed. 44-ФЗ and 223-ФЗ were constantly corrected.

And then suddenly decided to leave the paper once and for all. It cannot be said that everything was fine: in the laws, when making changes, many copies were broken, the edits were made randomly. Fussed for a very long time, the movement began only in early 2017 - when the supervising body was changed. On December 31, major changes were made. Then we set the deadlines, how and in what format to implement the innovations. Along the way, questions have arisen in terms of financing the activities of the sites. For 44-FZ, the tariff was once, then again returned to the tariffs: from whom to take, in what amount, a fixed amount or as a percentage, from all or from the winner. There were a lot of questions. Almost all the answers were sensible: the same tariff, for example, only charge the winner.

The branch on the participation of small businesses in procurement has become a separate branch of suffering.

In general, such activities are regular. From time to time a powerful idea appears, regulatory documents begin to rivet under this idea. At first there were innovations, then - import substitution. In the framework of import substitution, it was necessary to coordinate at the interstate level the recognition of electronic signatures created by foreign CAs (for example, Belarus and other friends from the CIS). It was simple with the Republic of Belarus: they have one state certification center, they don’t have a zoo. Belarusian suppliers can participate with us - signatures are recognized both there and there. Kazakhstan with a single CA disowned - the issue of recognition of the Kazakh signature has not yet been resolved. They were asked to pay a premium for CA activities. They: but he is a state, how do you not trust our state? Swing continues. Armenia wanted easier: in general, it offered to confirm by e-mail. The Kyrgyz were friendly, they say: come to us in Bishkek, open the CA, we will be signed.

In 2018, the Ministry of Finance began to close all these questions. In 2016, 2017, even in 2015, there was an intermediate state. Only the ENI was developing: there used to be a government procurement site, just a procurement bulletin board - on all sites and on paper. The supervising authority came up with the idea that the ENI already knows everything about everyone, is connected to all state systems, they wanted to create one state site on its basis. The customers are there, the purchases are there, they say, we attach the merchant and we get suppliers, and everything will be super. Just at this moment, the IIS lay down for 15 days in January (it was laid down, it was laid down, and not according to the rules, but they had more than 120 days of maintenance work for them). That is, 80% of customers could not publish the schedule. This would be an argument in favor of the fact that if the state platform lay down with competitions, the whole country would have fun. If now one platform will fall - there are still options, seven whole will remain.

A platform was created for purchases within the state secret as a result of terrible political events. We wanted to keep the electronic format and close access, so we came up with a closed area. There were ideas for the introduction of a second closed site, so that the competition was for purchases with a state secret. But then they also refused it. Purchases on a state secret - they are very expensive in monetary terms, but the closed procedures themselves are not very many in quantity. This is a limited number of very expensive purchases. Many purchases of missiles can not be. And before that, various interesting things surfaced on ordinary platforms. There was a scandal interesting because the purchase of equipment for the submarine surfaced on one of the sites. If the foreigners have read - the shop can be turned off.

We are now in the final stage of transferring all procedures to an electronic form. Since this year, electronic procedures have become mandatory. From January 2019, no paper procedure can be started.

From this point on, the supplier will need to register with the ENI for accreditation at the site: from January 1, they must register with it. Anyone who will be accredited at the site before January 1, 2019 and who has accreditation valid during 2019 will have to register with the ENI by December 31, 2019, they have just been given a year to do so. Those whose accreditation expires before January 1, 2019, and they want to be accredited at the site from January 1, 2019, will have to first register with the ENI. And the site ceases to maintain a register of participants accredited to it from January 1, 2020.

And, yes, and there are still a lot of suppliers who perceive our site as a state branch.

All claims are addressed to the site. The only thing - a small business is still not guarding the door to shoot for debt. And that is good.

But it all moves, moves. Soon we will have a garden city. But it is not exactly.

References:

• Ecosystem of the digital procurement world (to steal less)
• Electronic signature for participation in procurement
• Why do we need purchases, and what does it look like from an IT point of view
• Attack model: where they are mostly abused on competitive purchases and how they are struggling with it
• What are the procurement procedures (in simple terms)