Izvestiya: "Government buys into Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina’s government procurement bill"
On Thursday, while chairing a meeting, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a preliminary decision to adopt a new law based on a bill proposed by the Ministry of Economic Development. This decision effectively ends the several month-long dispute between the ministry and the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS), with Elvira Nabiullina's bill winning out.
"I must admit that the current mechanism for drawing up and performing state contracts is seriously flawed and has many omissions and drawbacks," Putin said. "We must purchase quality and innovative products for state and social needs and form a system that will reduce corruption and ensure maximal transparency of this work – starting with purchase plans and ending with the performance of contracts."
He expressed hope that the state contract system would become an effective tool of state investment policy and will play a major role in modernising Russia's economy.
However, a final decision is still to be made about the planned government procurement reform, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the meeting.
"Work will continue on the issue discussed at the meeting," Peskov said adding that the provisional decision is to adopt a new law.
This work is not going to take long. Another meeting scheduled for October 11, chaired by the president, will focus strictly on the procurement bill.
A final draft of the new government procurement bill was to be brought before parliament on October 1, but the Ministry of Economic Development and the FAS have failed to reach an agreement by this deadline, and therefore it was moved to November 1 instead upon request by Minister Elvira Nabiullina. The policymakers have limited time to finalize the state contract system by that date.
"We need to continue our work and finalize the bill by that time," Olga Anchishkina, head of the Federal Contract System Department, told Izvestia. "We have limited time. On the other hand, we have received some very good proposals during public consultations from specific professionals as well as regional authorities. We need to consider them."
"A provisional draft is ready now, compiled following the workgroup meetings, and we will continue to finalize it," she added.
The ministry held an in-house conference to discuss the details of the meeting with the prime minister. The FAS has yet to hold their own conference. The ministry's Igor Artemyev did not return to the office after meeting with Putin, and his deputy, Andrei Tsarikovsky, left without gathering his team. Mikhail Yevrayev, Head of the FAS Department for Control Over Public Procurement, was unavailable for comment.
It seems like the anti-monopoly officers have nothing to celebrate. Their reform proposals, which involved amending the existing law, have been rejected. This means the government procurement system will be thoroughly revised and responsibilities will be redistributed. Whereas the FAS supervises government procurement now, after the new federal contract system goes into effect, the control will be split between several different agencies and possibly even specific services within these agencies.
"Why should we regret getting rid of something which isn't working anyway?" said Martin Shakkum, a member of parliament who has helped write the current government procurement law. "This draft is encumbered by so many references, additions, and amendments that it needs rewriting in any case. Technically, it isn't difficult to write a new draft or rewrite the existing one, rather the new bill aims to solve an existing problem with the current law. It is based on a certain philosophy in which priority is given to procedure over results. This breeds state functionaries who could care less what they purchase with state money. As a result, out of the 1,500 facilities which were to go on stream under a target investment programme, only 300 actually began operation," he said.
The new bill is likely to be brought before parliament before yearend. If it is passed, the new system will begin gradually replacing the old one next year. According to Anchishkina, the transitional stage has only been described "conceptually," not in detail. The specific procedures will have to be worked out. Shakkum said he is not certain that this is advisable. "We'll do so much damage during two years," he added.
Maria Zhebit
