OREANDA-NEWS. On 22nd October 2013, the “Savings Bank of Russia - AST” CJSC and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) organized a demonstration workshop in Moscow - “Electronic Auction as a Method of Public Procurement” for French-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFR) and the Embassy of France in Russia.

An example of the “Savings Bank of Russia - AST” CJSC was used to demonstrate the principles of electronic auctions and the potential of employing electronic platform resources in other areas, particularly, for commercial companies.

Opening the workshop, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the “Savings Bank of Russia - AST” Nikolai Andreev emphasized the importance of organizing procurement in the electronic form because this method of concluding contracts supports the principles of openness and contestability, which encourages development of competition among suppliers. It is competition among numerous price bids that saves the maximum budgetary funds. Automated competitive bidding procedures enable customers to reduce staffing expenses and the time required for state and municipal procurement. Nikolai Andreev paid special attention to foreign suppliers, stressing that foreign companies show a considerable interest to public procurement. As of today, foreign participants won 678 auctions.

According to Deputy General Director of the “Savings Bank of Russia - AST” CJSC Yulia Sklyarova, one of the main advantages of electronic auctions is decreasing possibilities of collusions because the bids consist of two parts; and the first one does not contain information about a bidder. Also, information about bidders became available only after price bids are filed. Other advantages include the uniform conditions for everybody who wishes to take part in auctions, particularly with electronic document flow, which accelerate the process of sending and receiving documents, and also enable auction bidders to track their status independently.

The Head of FAS Department for Control over Public Procurement, Tatiana Demidova, stated that “for the first time electronic trading was legislatively formalized in No.94-FZ Federal Law “On State and Municipal Procurement of Goods, Works and Services”. During this period, electronic auctions proved to be an efficient mechanism for combating corruption and collusions between bidders and procurers”.

Due to efficiency of electronic auctions for state and municipal needs, a programme is being implemented for transferring all trading in the Russian Federation in the electronic form. Also a decision was made to devise a mechanism of organizing electronic tenders. It is especially important due to the treaty between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “Adjusting the law on issuing electronic digital signature will enable the three countries to freely participate in competitive bidding”, commented Tatiana Demidova.

Attache on Economic Affairs of the Embassy of France in the Russian Federation, Louis Toulorge, and Director General of French-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pavel Shinsky, expressed an interest towards the mechanism of organizing electronic auctions as well as participation of foreign suppliers in them.

As an outcome of the discussion, the parties agreed to devise an informational handbook for foreign suppliers and organize a conference for representatives of the business community of France.

“Practice shows that Russian electronic auctions are interesting for and popular with the foreign authorities and the business communities, so we plan to organize as many workshops as possible for representatives of foreign states”, summed up the Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova.