The end of the 20th century was marked by the revolutionary introduction of Internet technologies in the sphere of economic activity. Virtual trading has become an element of everyday life. With the development of the digital economy, the regulation of public procurement relations is becoming increasingly formal. The scope of preparation and conclusion of contracts is shifting to electronic platforms.
Features of legislative regulation
Since 2011, the state regulation of relations on procurement from organizations with state participation, as well as natural monopolies with commercial organizations, has been regulated by law: -223 dated 08.07.2011 "On the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities".
The competitive procurement procedure is formalized. The basic concepts of the relationship between the customer and the contractor are introduced. From clause 3.2 of the said law, the basic concepts follow about how the "tender" differs from the "auction", what is the "request for quotations", how does it differ from the "request for proposals". The activities of electronic sites that operate on the Internet and provide services for competitive procurement are regulated.
In 2013, the corresponding law was adopted - -44 dated 03/22/2013 "On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, work, services to meet state and municipal needs."
It regulates purchases if the customers are state or municipal authorities. The concepts of “open competition”, as well as “competition with limited participation” are introduced. An explanation of how the electronic auction differs from the open tender received further formalization.
Using the concepts of two fundamental laws, electronic platforms develop their own regulations, which describe in detail the technology for customer interaction with the contractor.
Electronic trading platforms
The current legislation provides for a gradual transition in the field of public procurement from paperwork to electronic procedures, which are carried out through specialized sites designed for the Internet.
In fact, any resource that provides intermediary document management services between the customer and the contractor can be defined as an electronic platform. All documents are certified using an electronic signature. In this case, two classes of sites can be distinguished:
- B2G, when government agencies can act as a customer.
- B2B regulating the interaction of commercial organizations.
Some large customers have their own specialized trading floors. These include Gazprom or Russian Railways.
Currently there are 5 of these online resources:
- Sberbank CJSC, a subsidiary of Sberbank of Russia.
- EETP JSC, the largest trading platform established by the Government of Moscow.
- FSUE "SET", began as an operator serving the government structures of the Republic of Tatarstan.
- RTS-Tender LLC, among other things, works on servicing property tenders.
- ETP "MICEX-IT", specializing in work with the Federal Treasury and defense orders.
The regulations of all sites contain similar concepts that describe general procurement procedures and formalize how the auction differs from the tender.
Types of Procedures
All types of procurement procedures are formally described in terms of:
- Request for quotes when the customer fully formalizes the requirements for the terms of the contract, and the contractor is selected only by the criterion of the proposed price. The ability to bid the contractor is provided only once.
- Request for proposals.
- The competition provides several criteria for choosing a winner. Moreover, according to the price criterion, the customer can go through a multi-stage procedure. The multiplicity of criteria is the main thing that distinguishes a tender from an auction.
- Auction (for the purpose of FZ-44) - under this concept, the procedure for lowering the price is carried out, which is somewhat different from the generally accepted trading practice. As a rule, auctions by commercial entities were held to increase the price offer. For the procedure of lowering prices, the concept of reductions was used. And the difference between auctions and contests is well spelled out in the law itself. For an auction, only one indicator is taken as the basis - price.
- Competitive negotiations are applied when urgent execution of an order is required or a tender has not led to a contract.
- Purchase from a single source.
- Preliminary selection.
- Integrated procurement.
- Collection of commercial offers.
- Competitive selection.
Electronic competition
One of the most popular types of bidding is competition. The customer conducts it when it is necessary to select the most worthy among the applicants according to several criteria. For example, experience in performing similar work by the contractor or the availability of appropriate resources to carry out the required work. For the implementation of the defense order and some other types of work, the law provides for closed tenders. Otherwise, only the presence of several criteria for selecting a winner is what distinguishes an open tender from an auction.
Auction
As already mentioned, an auction is a form of bidding when the bid price is the only criterion for evaluating the winner. For the purposes of FZ-44, trades are conducted only for lowering, and for FZ-223 they can also be used to increase prices. The remaining bidding criteria are used only for the admission of the bidder and do not affect further decision-making. And this gives an answer to the question of how an electronic auction differs from a tender.
Reduction
When working with trading floors, it is worth considering that FZ-44 and FZ-223 interpret the concept of auction in different ways. For public procurement purposes, only price reductions are allowed for bidding. At the same time, FZ-223 provides for working with this type of proposal when an increase in the initial price is required. For example, holding a proposal for the sale of goods and services by a customer. For the reduction as well as for the auction, the requirements for the qualification of the contractor are put forward only at the stage of determining the possibility of participation in the procurement procedure. For the procurement of goods and services, a reduction procedure is used. This is the main thing that distinguishes a tender from an auction and a reduction in terms of FZ-44 and FZ-223.