Efficiency and openness
In May of this year, the Federal Agency for the Supply of Arms, Military, Special Equipment and Material Resources marked three years from the date of its formation. In such a short period of time, Rosoboronpostavka, from a newcomer taking the first steps, managed to become a key participant in the placement of the state defense order (GOZ), became an organization that has accumulated considerable trading experience, conducting a rigid, consistent policy of developing the GOZ. The effect of such an ideological sequence of the leadership and the whole team of the agency is clearly visible today. The results of the placement of the state defense order for 2013 year, its features, as well as the specifics of the work of Rosoboronpostavka aimed at the effective use of budget funds, told the Red Star agency agency head Nadezhda SINIKOVA.The scope of tasks is growing
- As part of the placement of the state defense order 2013, Rosoboronpostavka received bids for 1.300 lots for the sum of 306 billion rubles. Compared to GOZ-2012, the number of applications has doubled, the amount of orders for them has increased four times. When placing GOZ-2013 as of 9 in July, Rosoboronpostavka announced 1.270 procedures for the sum of 298 billion rubles, of which 1.083 was completed for 255 billion rubles, 820 contracts for the amount of 209 billion rubles were concluded. At the same time, the agency managed to achieve quite impressive budget savings - 2,9 billion rubles. To date, 183 procedures for the sum of 36 billion rubles have not been completed, a winner has already been determined for 85 contracts for more than 17 billion rubles, and they are in the process of being finalized. This period of the agency’s work not only shows the scale of labor of Rosoboronpostavka itself, but also the vector of development of interaction with customers. In many ways, thanks to close and businesslike cooperation with representatives of the customer, we were able to quickly and accurately place such a volume of state defense order.
Interaction and planning
- The coherence of interaction between Rosoboronpostavki and customers directly affects the result of the placement of the GOZ. How clearly and correctly managed to build such a relationship?
- Our relations with customers are built on mutual respect, understanding of the tasks of each of the participants of the state defense order, based on the professionalism of both customer representatives and Rosoboronpostavka employees. Taking this opportunity, I want to thank all our colleagues for their constructive cooperation and effective cooperation in the field of public procurement.
At the same time, it should be noted that the agency has been actively working with many government customers for the third year. First of all, it is the Ministry of Defense, the main government customer for the state defense order. The Federal Security Service of Russia is the second largest government customer in terms of orders, in whose interests Rosoboronpostavka has been hosting a large package of orders for the second year, including more than 200 positions. Close cooperation has been built with other security agencies. - Perhaps the first and most important stage of the procedure for placing the state defense order is planning. What are its features this year?
- You are right, planning is one of the strategic moments of placing the state defense order. Planning, strict observance of the pace of re-equipment of the Armed Forces with new equipment, personal responsibility for the timing and quality of the development and production of each type of weapons and military equipment were discussed at the last meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
For us, this stage of placing an order is very important, because it determines the procurement strategy, its main parameters. Work on the placement of GOZ-2013, including the phased receipt of the nomenclature from customers, was initiated by Rosoboronpostavka in the middle of last year. The government has set clear deadlines for concluding government contracts - until April 15. In accordance with this date, schedules were drawn up. This is the first document that, at the initial stage, determines the basic parameters of the upcoming order placement and the timing for customers to send their applications to the agency.
Rosoboronpostavka drafted these documents, working in close business contact with government customers. The first applications from customers began to arrive in July last year, and before the beginning of this year, the agency received more than a hundred and fifty applications. Such deadlines for submission of documents, as practice shows Rosoboronpostavki, bring their results. The submission of applications for the GOZ-2013 since the third quarter of 2012 has ensured the conclusion of contracts up to 15 in April and 2013, even in those cases of failed trading, when they had to be announced twice and even three times.
Unfortunately, government customers did not send all applications to the agency on time. This has led to a shift in the planned dates for the conclusion of contracts. Schedules made and agreed with government customers had to be changed. In order to shorten the terms of the placement of the GOZ, we often had to organize work in two shifts, to conduct an open bidding in electronic form up to 24 hours. We would like to hope that in the upcoming deployment of GOZ-2014 our state customers will take comprehensive measures to facilitate the timely filing of applications for placement.
The key to success is the quality of applications.
- One of the main factors for the success of placing a state order is rightly considered the quality of the application. What difficulties did your employees have in working with applications this year?
- The analysis of the quality of applications Rosoboronpostavka attaches great importance. This allows already at the first stage of documentation development to exclude many inaccuracies and contradictions that can lead to filing complaints, postponement or the cancellation of tenders. All the "work on the bugs" takes place with an active dialogue with customers. On the most difficult issues arising during the preparation of the documentation, working meetings are held with our partners, at which the readiness of customers for operational interaction allows to avoid unreasonable loss of time for interdepartmental correspondence or return of applications for revision.
The experience of Rosoboronpostavka shows that technical assignment issues are the most vulnerable point of the application. The provisions of the applications are very diverse and require a careful and professional approach, because they must take into account all the subtleties, details, characteristics of the purchased products, fully revealing the requirements of customers, as well as to be clear to potential contractors or suppliers.
The development of a system for classifying and cataloging defense products, accounting for weapons, military and special equipment (VVST) should be a good help in questions of the formation of requirements for products, including the terms of reference. Its absence is the cause of the overwhelming majority of questions that arise. We all - both customers and suppliers - must speak the same language. The creation and implementation of such a system is a national task and, in practice, will allow you to have a clear understanding of the characteristics of products and their compliance with customer requirements. Creating a regulatory framework and relevant conditions, establishing the mandatory application of regulatory documents, in particular GOST, will help solve this problem.
A fairly effective form of interaction between the agency, customers and potential order performers is public discussion of large purchases. The practice of public discussion conducted by the agency allows to get a frank and businesslike dialogue between customers and suppliers, which in turn leads to prompt and effective resolution of emerging issues.
Problems and solutions
- You mentioned complaints. What is their statistics this year?
- The work carried out jointly with government customers allowed the agency to ensure a sufficiently high quality of preparation of auction and tender documentation. This is evidenced by the results of consideration of complaints against the actions (inaction) of Rosoboronpostavka when placing GOZ-2013. The entire 1,6 percentage of the prepared and approved bidding documents and the 0,6 percentage of commission protocols were appealed. If last year a significant amount of disputes was associated with the conclusion of contracts for which the security of their execution was presented, in 2013, our active efforts to resolve this situation reduced the number of such complaints to almost zero.
- Nadezhda Valentinovna, as far as I understand, you meant first of all bank guarantees?
- A significant condition for orders placed on the state defense order is advance payment in the amount of 80 percent. In this regard, one of the important tasks faced by Rosoboronpostavka is the verification of the enforcement of state contracts submitted by participants.
At the conclusion of the contract, the contractor is obliged to provide security for the execution of the contract in the form of a pledge agreement or a bank guarantee. Due to the absence of a legislatively defined mechanism for interaction between government customers and credit organizations, the timing and procedure for exchanging information, our agency took the initiative to conclude information agreements with banks in order to exclude the possibility of providing fictitious bank guarantees to the customer.
Rosoboronpostavka developed and sent to all credit organizations a draft agreement on information interaction. Such an initiative was supported by the Central Bank of Russia. As a result, to verify the authenticity of the issuance of the bank guarantee, Rosoboronpostavka concluded more than 300 agreements with the leading banks of Russia, providing for the submission of information about the fact of issuing the guarantee prior to the day the state contract was concluded. The work carried out allows us to minimize the risks for our customers and exclude the possibility of concluding government contracts with fictitious bank guarantees. Work with credit organizations continues, as the agreements on cooperation have not yet been signed by all banks.
Keep up with time
- Today, Russia, like the rest of the world, is committed to electronic document flow between partners, which will virtually eliminate “paper” documents. How close is this method of work to Rosoboronpostavka?
- The electronic document actively enters the life of our agency. This method of work only contributes to the efficiency of the bidding process. This happens at the expense of reducing the time of interaction between government customers and the agency. Now it is necessary to expand the use of electronic document management. Organizational and technical platform for the use of modern technologies in Russia already exists. This is an interdepartmental electronic document management (MEDO), which allows data transfer to the level of service information inclusive. And on the basis of the state-run MEDO, it is possible to organize a completely paperless document flow in open tenders. At the same time, it is necessary to develop the established systems of the closed segment of communications in order to ensure interdepartmental cooperation during closed auctions. Using this style of work with the use of modern information technologies will speed up the process of placing the state defense order from the moment the application is received to the conclusion of the contract and will provide relevant participants in the process with prompt access to information.
As an example - our relationship with the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Already today, state contracts concluded by Rosoboronpostavka on behalf of the military department immediately come to monitor the implementation of all interested military authorities.
Issues of more efficient use of electronic document management were raised at the extended meeting of the board of Rosoboronpostavka “About the location of GOZ-2013 and the tasks of placing GOZ-2014 of the year” and were supported by all representatives of interested parties.
- Experts believe that joint bidding should be one of the most effective options for interagency cooperation. Rosoboronpostavka conducts them?
- We have been carrying out this work consistently and purposefully for the third year in a row. To date, the agency has concluded agreements on conducting joint bidding with five departments - government customers. Considering not the most successful experience of conducting joint trading of previous years, in preparation for GOZ-2013, Rosoboronpostavka requested in advance from the government customers a nomenclature of armaments and military equipment and conducted its detailed analysis to identify similar positions. According to the results of this work, Rosoboronpostavka, when placing GOZ-2013 for joint bidding, received applications for 26 positions totaling 319,2 million rubles. Compared to previous years, the number of joint trading conducted has a positive trend. However, this result is still far from desired.
We understand that the creation of a workable system of organizing and conducting joint bidding is a complex and multifaceted process that requires regulation at the state level. But to solve this issue is necessary now. The results of the joint bidding for GOZ-2013 once again confirmed the need to form at the federal level a regulatory legal framework that would clearly and unambiguously regulate the tasks, rights and obligations of all participants in the joint bidding.
Only then will these procedures cease to be advisory in nature, become binding for all bidders, which, accordingly, will achieve the goal of joint bidding: maximizing savings of state budget funds, centralizing procurement and increasing the transparency of the procedures for placing the state defense order.
Interaction reduces risks
- What other interaction tools does Rosoboronpostavka use in its daily work on placing orders?
- Rosoboronpostavka since its inception, has begun to organize information interaction with federal executive bodies. We obtain the information necessary for organizing work on checking the requirements for the order item and participants in order placement, checking the enforcement of contracts. Today, the agency has organized cooperation with 14 federal executive authorities, among them Rosoboronzakaz, the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and many others.
The streamlined cooperation has led to the creation of a tool that, when reviewing applications from participants in the placement of state defense orders and at the stage of concluding contracts, we can verify the accuracy of the information submitted by the participant, and if they are unreliable, either reject the application or refuse to conclude a government contract. Thus, in many respects, the risks of a possible failure to execute a state contract by the winner of the auction are removed.
This information helps to significantly reduce the number of failed trades. Unfortunately, today their figure is quite large - it is 156 announced bidding for more than 25 billion rubles. The main reason for which the bidding was declared invalid, both in quantitative and sumarnous terms, was the lack of bids. This is about 75 percent of failed procedures.
A significant proportion of failed procedures accounted for the bidding, during which all applications received were rejected. Moreover, the majority of applications submitted were rejected due to the lack of specific indicators and non-compliance with the documentation requirements of the information specified by the participants in the applications.
Of course, this number of failed trades is a total negative result. After all, the significant work done on the formation of the application, the preparation of documentation, the conduct of all placement procedures did not lead to the only necessary result - the conclusion of the contract.
Rosoboronpostavka, in conjunction with government customers, conducts a serious analysis of all the causes of failed trading. After a joint adjustment of the documentation, orders are re-placed. As a result of this work, when re-placing 73 procedures, contracts worth more than 4 billion rubles were concluded.
- Legislators are also working on improving efficiency in the field of placement (SDO) ...
- Since January 1 2014, Federal Law No. 44-ФЗ “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services for state and municipal needs” comes into force, which is designed to enhance the effectiveness of all procurement procedures, including in the state defense order . For the first time, the law establishes the concept of “centralized procurement”, which for three years has been carried out by the Federal Agency for the Supply of Arms, Military, Special Equipment and Material Resources as one of the main participants in the work on placing the state defense order. This law regulates the entire cycle of placing orders, including at the stages of planning the procurement and execution of contracts.
I am ordered to store the order
- It will take quite a bit of time, and Rosoboronpostavka will begin placing orders and bidding for GOZ-2014. Work to be significant. In anticipation of this, what would you like to say to Rosoboronpostavka partners?
- Placement (GOZ) is not a static process, it should be considered as a process for which the presence of external and internal factors that build the system of its execution is characteristic and important. This system must have a harmonious state, be able to respond to modern requirements. And in the aggregate, it should be subordinated to the specific task of equipping the Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies with modern samples of defense products.
I want to express my gratitude to our colleagues - the federal executive authorities - to state customers, the Military Industrial Commission under the Government of Russia, the Federal Service for Defense Order for teamwork and cooperation in placing GOZ-2013. I am sure that we equally understand the degree of importance and significance of the tenders held, and consequently, we will work in this area of activity in a coherent and consolidated manner.
- Nadezhda Valentinovna, in conclusion let me congratulate you and your team on the three-year anniversary of the establishment of the agency. You recently celebrated this date and, undoubtedly, summed up the results of the three-year period of the formation of Rosoboronpostavka ...
- Thank you for your congratulations. The past three years were for the agency a period of formation, development and the beginning of dynamic work. They were not simple. Rosoboronpostavka team had to make a lot of effort to perform important government tasks. Over the past three years, the Agency has been able to achieve efficiency and planning when placing the state defense order. This allows you to buy high-quality, reliable and modern products, more efficient to spend budget funds. At the same time, the Agency is assigned the role of a central link as an integrator of the interests of state customers and defense industry enterprises in the process of placing the state defense authority.
Today we can say with confidence that the main difficulties are behind. We confidently look to the future, continuing to staff the agency’s staff, as this process is not yet complete. We clearly understand that the Rosoboronpostav team has a lot of work, responsible and important, in the success of which we are convinced.
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