Many companies and entire industries are now faced with difficulties. How is this reflected in the segment of public procurement?
Mr Lisenkov: In the first week of the holidays we saw the recession and public procurement (44-FZ), and for procurement of state-owned companies (223-FZ), because many switched to remote work. The reduction was approximately 40% and 60%, respectively. But on the second week of April the market began to recover. Today is, of course, a certain gap from the expected number of purchases. According to 44-FZ it is about 10%, according to 223-FZ – about 30%. However, the overall picture is that every day our site publishes around 10 thousand purchases, there’s plenty to choose entrepreneurs. In addition, in socially important sectors, the volume of purchases grows. This will contribute to initiatives of several regions to transfer the procurement of the second half of the second quarter. For example, recently reported Tomsk oblast.
Probably for the whole year procurement market will shrink by 10-15 percent. While such a forecast, but of course, everything will depend on the development of the situation like a pandemic, and the economy.
Despite this forecast, the economy is not in place. Entrepreneurs need to further if possible, actively participate in procurement, there is a demand and a guarantee of payment. Trading platform provide all the necessary tools to optimize work and increase its effectiveness online. Infrastructure our platform is built in such a way as to completely eliminate the need for paper documents and within the framework of procurement, and through government contracts.
the sector of public procurement has long been built online. Legislative initiatives and the development of trading platforms today allow you to effectively conduct the procurement in electronic format.
do you have some additional options for customers?
Mr Lisenkov: the Whole process takes place online today – placing procurement bids, bidding, Contracting. Two years ago we jointly with the Moscow region government has developed and launched a product that allowed to translate the entire document in the execution of contracts in electronic form. No need to send the original documents in the mail, everything is done in the system through the operator EDO. It allows you to transfer documents, and to enforce the obligations of the parties under the contracts, including due dates.
Automated payment process for contracts. From the point of view of the customer increased efficiency, reduced risk of errors, the whole process is public, transparent and understandable. Entrepreneurs this tool allows you to eliminate the negative factors which, happens, are present. Customers sometimes unscrupulous��about fulfilling their obligations for the acceptance of work under contract, delay payments. After the appearance of this tool violations in the execution of the contracts was 35-40% less. Including violations of performance decreased by 14%. That is, the efficiency of the tool is big enough, and we plan to continue to develop, because there is something to strive for.
as for some of the new tools, especially for clients, we have modified the functionality of the site based on the remote nature of the work. We are talking about the remote signing of the Protocol of consideration of applications by the Commission in the Federal law 44-FZ. While the functionality will only apply to electronic auctions and, subsequently, the version of the functionality will be updated for all types of procedures.
One of the stages of procurement is the consideration of applications of participants of tender (auction) Commission, which includes several people. Previously, you have their physical presence in the consideration of, among other things, they signed the paper Protocol. Now the updated functionality allows all members of the Commission to sign the Protocol remotely using a personal electronic signature with full compliance.
in addition, we are actively conducting online training events – both for customers and for suppliers. That the learning process is not interrupted, because there is a need. The number of online events has increased five times since mid-March.
Also, we look not only at the procurement market, but also to support the business as a whole. We are talking about providing opportunities for ordinary business activities online. E-commerce market is growing and we are actively developing this story, to help entrepreneurs in difficult economic conditions, to expand markets. As well as to optimize the cost, properly and efficiently manage them.
What, in your opinion, now need the support of your customers? They can experience difficulties?
Mr Lisenkov: In the first place is to help in building remote work without losing the quality of the result, here we are working on optimizing our functionality, I mentioned the recent revision above.
the Second is the maintenance of demand. In procurement, especially in public, he was, is and will be. In particular, in the current situation, we offer our customers the opportunity to upload their price lists with the prospects for rapid conclusion of transactions. That is, the owner loads his proposal and can expect demands from the buyers.
Information is always a valuable resource, especially now, especially for SMEs. People get mixed up in legislative changes, they have a high need for raising R��the bot. There is no common understanding of what works, what doesn’t – we have been consulting. Sometimes people come with the question “I’m new, how do I work at your site?”, and we offer a simplified entry tools in public procurement is unregulated for small purchases and our market.
There is a need for fast and affordable financing. To replenish working capital needed, there are still gaps in the supply chain, violated the terms of the contracts. In our opinion, here the customers needs to meet and not to apply penalties for violation of the terms, unless this is caused by objective circumstances.
the Important and psychological support. Not all normally perceive the lack of the usual communication and its transition online. A lot of negative news, and not all of them are true. We need to bring objective information to suppliers and to customers to avoid rumors and not to distort the facts. We need to unite and to help each other, the economic process must continue because public procurement is one of the key drivers of the economy.
the Government has already taken a number of anti-crisis measures to support the business. Some innovations relate to the procurement processes?
Mr Lisenkov: on April 17, the state Duma passed a bill to reduce the minimum threshold of the amount of security contracts from 5% to 0.5%. When a supplier concludes a contract, he is obliged to provide security – either a Bank guarantee or depositing cash to the account of the customer. Popular mainly Bank guarantees. And reducing their size up to 0.5% – this is very important, especially for large contracts. Another provision of the adopted law concerns the increase in maximum prices for procurement from a single supplier with 300 thousand to 600 thousand rubles for their simplification. In the current situation, you need to work quickly and efficiently, so that these measures indeed had the economic effect.
As a new reality has changed the terms of the RTS-tender? Had to rebuild some processes, whether the increased load on it infrastructure?
Mr Lisenkov: We are an online platform marketplace. And to work on our infrastructure, new conditions had no influence, although certain risks were due to the postponement of procedures in connection with the introduction of non-working days. Of course, the internal processes we have restructured due to the transition to the remote mode. Everything works, all processes are functioning online. We treat the enterprises of the continuous cycle of strategic importance, our work can not stop under any circumstances.
as for load, we hope that in the new reality will see a influx of new suppliers��of ICA that used on the procurement market for 44-FZ and 223-FZ are not watched due to various reasons. Someone had good partners for commercial supply, and some treated with distrust in regulated procurement. We try to convey to entrepreneurs that now all processes are transparent and objective. Participation in the auction is an opportunity to find new customers.
