The end of the 20th century was marked by the revolutionary introduction of Internet technologies into 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 increasingly becoming formal. The sphere of preparation and conclusion of contracts is shifting to electronic platforms.

Features of legislative regulation

Starting from 2011, state regulation of relations on procurement from organizations with state participation, as well as natural monopolies with commercial organizations, is regulated by the law: FZ-223 of 07/08/2011 "On the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities".

The procedure for competitive procurement is being formalized. The basic concepts of the forms of relationship between the customer and the contractor are introduced. From Article 3.2 of this law follows the basic concepts of how the "competition" differs from the "auction", what is the "request for quotations", how it differs from the "request for proposals". The activities of electronic platforms that operate on the Internet and provide competitive procurement services are regulated.

In 2013, the relevant law was adopted - FZ-44 dated March 22, 2013 "On the procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs."

It regulates purchases if the customers are state or municipal authorities. The concepts of "open competition" and "competition with limited participation" are introduced. The clarification of the difference between an electronic auction and an open tender has been further formalized.

Using the concepts of two fundamental laws, electronic platforms develop their own regulations, which describe in detail the technology of interaction between the customer and the contractor.

Electronic trading platforms

The current legislation provides for a gradual transition in the field of public procurement from paper documents to electronic procedures, which are carried out through specialized platforms developed for the Internet.

In fact, any resource that provides intermediary services for document flow 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 platforms. These include Gazprom or Russian Railways.

Currently, there are 5 such Internet resources:

1. ZAO Sberbank, a subsidiary of Sberbank of Russia.
2. EETP JSC, the largest trading platform established by the Government of Moscow.
3. FSUE "SET", started as an operator serving the government structures of the Republic of Tatarstan.
4. LLC "RTS - Tender", among other things, works on servicing property auctions.
5. 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 an auction differs from a competition.

Procedure types

All types of procurement procedures are formally described by the concepts:

• Request for quotations, when the customer fully formalizes the requirements for the terms of the contract, and the contractor is selected only according to the criterion of the proposed price. The opportunity to offer a price to the contractor is provided only once.
• Request for proposals.
• The competition provides several criteria for choosing the winner. At the same time, according to the price criterion, the customer can go through a multi-stage procedure. The plurality of criteria is the main difference between a competition and an auction.
• Auction (for the purposes of FZ-44) - under this concept, a price reduction procedure is carried out, which is somewhat different from the generally accepted trading practice. As a rule, auctions by commercial structures were held to increase supply at prices. For the price reduction procedure, the concept of reductions was used. And how auctions differ from competitions is well spelled out in the law itself. For the auction, only one indicator is taken as a basis - the price.
• Competitive negotiations are used when an urgent execution of an order is required or the competition did not lead to the conclusion of a contract.
• Purchasing from a single source.
• Preliminary selection.
• Complex purchase.
• Collection of commercial offers.
• Competitive selection.

One of the most popular is the competition. The customer conducts it when it is necessary to choose the most worthy among the applicants according to several criteria. For example, the experience of 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 legislation provides for the holding of closed tenders. Otherwise, only the presence of several criteria for selecting the winner is what distinguishes an open tender from an auction.

Auction

As already mentioned, an auction is a form of bidding, when the only criterion for evaluating the winner is the proposed bidding price. For the purposes of FZ-44, trading is conducted only for a decrease, and for FZ-223, prices can also be raised. The remaining bidding criteria are used only for the admission of the participant to the bidding and do not affect the further decision-making. And this gives an answer to the question of how an electronic auction differs from a competition.

Reduction

When working with trading platforms, it should be borne in mind that FZ-44 and FZ-223 interpret the concept of an auction differently. For the purposes of public procurement, only price reduction for bidding is allowed. At the same time, FZ-223 provides for working with such types of proposals when an increase in the initial price is required. For example, conducting an offer for the sale of goods and services by the customer. For a reduction, as well as for an auction, the requirements for the qualification of the contractor are put forward only at the stage of determining the possibility of participating in the procurement procedure. For the purchase of goods and services, the reduction procedure is used. This is the main difference between competition and auction and reduction in terms of FZ-44 and FZ-223.

”, which is so often used in business. This foreign word has not found a place in Russian legislation. For him there is an equivalent word in Russian - "bidding", so the article is devoted to electronic trading and terms of electronic commerce.

There are several types of procurement (electronic trading):

The winner in this type of electronic auction is the participant who offers the lowest price. So the main criterion here is still the price. However, there are higher requirements for participants. The customer has the right to require each participant to have licenses and certificates for products. The bulk of this type of electronic trading is construction tenders.

Open competition - form of procurement, where the proposals of the participants are evaluated comprehensively, and the price offer is only one of the criteria for choosing the winner. With the help of an open competition in electronic form, tenders for the design of exhibitions or tenders for development are carried out.

Thus, electronic bidding is present only in an electronic auction, where participants submit their price proposals several times.

Auction and competition of distinction

The difference between an auction and a competition is that you can win in a competition at a price higher than that of a competitor due to quality. Auction and competition are held by the same customer for different needs. The auction procedure involves competition, when electronic auctions take place and participants make bids several times.

The difference between a tender and an auction is that there is no bidding. Participants of the competition submit their proposal on the conditions once, they do not see the proposals of other participants and cannot change it.

Tender (bidding)

Tender (tender - offer) - a competitive form of selection of proposals for the supply of goods, the provision of services or the performance of work according to the conditions previously announced in the documentation, within the agreed time frame, on the principles of competitiveness, fairness and efficiency. The contract is concluded with the winner of the tender - the participant who submitted a proposal that meets the requirements of the documentation, in which the best conditions are offered.

The term "tender" used in everyday speech can be both an analogue of the Russian terms competition or auction, and other competitive procedures, such as a request for quotations, a request for proposals. Bidding in the Russian Federation is divided into open and closed, can be held in one or two stages, in the form of a competition or auction. Bidding carried out for state needs within the framework of the state order is carried out only in one stage.

Legislation on the placement of state and municipal orders (Federal Law of July 21, 2005 No. 94-FZ “On placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs”) also provides for other methods of procurement that are not bidding - this is a request for price quotations - which can be used for small volumes of purchases (less than 500,000 rubles), as well as purchases from a single source used in cases specifically specified in Russian legislation.

Russian legislation

On July 21, 2005, Federal Law No. 94-FZ “On placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, and provision of services for state and municipal needs” was issued, which came into force on January 1, 2006. This law regulates all state and municipal procurement in the Russian Federation, and also introduces a number of mandatory requirements for the publication of information about ongoing procurement on the Internet.

Law 94-FZ does not contain the term “tender”, since it is borrowed from the English language by tracing (borrowing the structure of an element of a foreign language) without translating it and reflecting the true meaning of the word. Instead, a more correct term is used, which is present in the legislation of the Russian Federation - an open competition. The law also defines such types of purchases as a request for quotations, open auction, open auction in electronic form, preliminary selection, exchange trading.

On July 24, 2007, Federal Law No. 218-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Placement of Orders for the Supply of Goods, Performance of Work, Provision of Services for State and Municipal Needs” was adopted.” This law introduced significant changes to the procedures for placing state orders, the list of grounds for purchasing by the “single supplier” method was expanded, the procedure for calculating terms was changed (from calendar days to working days), etc. Subsequently, Federal Laws No. 257-FZ of 08.11.2007, No. 160-FZ of 23.07 were adopted. 2008, No. 225-FZ of 12/01/2008, No. 308-FZ of 12/30/2008, No. 323-FZ of 12/30/2008, No. 68-FZ of 04/28/2009, No. 93-FZ of 05/08/2009 and No. 144- Federal Law of 07/01/2009, No. 147-FZ of 07/17/2009, No. 155-FZ of 07/17/2009 and No. 164-FZ of 07/17/2009 introducing numerous clarifications and amendments to the law The current version contains amendments that entered into force on July 17 2009 with the release of Law No. 164-FZ (Art. 7) Based on materials from ru.wikipedia.org

Types of public procurement

• With bidding
  • Contests
    • Open competition
    • Closed competition
  • Auctions
    • Open auction
    • Closed auction
    • Electronic auction

Open competition

The most common way of competitive procurement is an open tender, in which any supplier can take part. A notice of an open tender is published in specialized publications, on the customer's website, and in the media. The open tender procedure lasts at least a month and requires a lot of resources (preparation of tender documentation, evaluation of applications, etc.).

The competition is held by the customer or his authorized representative. All requirements for the subject of procurement and suppliers, as well as the criteria for selecting the winner and the tender procedure are set out in the tender documentation. Participants of the competition submit applications drawn up in accordance with the requirements. If only one application is submitted for the competition, it is considered invalid.

At the public bid opening procedure, the bidders and their price bids are announced. The competition commission evaluates all applications and determines the winner - the participant who submitted the most advantageous offer. He is negotiating a contract with him.

If the negotiations reach an impasse, the organizer of the tender conducts them with the supplier who made the next best offer.

Closed competition

The rules of the closed competition are the same as in the open competition. The difference lies in the choice of participants. If any eligible supplier can participate in the open tender, then the invitation to participate in the closed tender will not be published. Only those suppliers invited by the customer can participate in it. Information about the results of the closed competition is also not published.

A closed competition is held in the following cases:

• products are only available from a limited number of suppliers or a limited number of suppliers have qualifications that suit the customer;
• products are purchased for security purposes or the purchase is confidential;
• The time and expense that would be required to review and evaluate a large number of competitive bids is not commensurate with the cost of the purchased products.

Open auction

An open auction allows you to implement a government order by submitting an application via the Internet. A government order contract providing for the provision of goods, works or services is called a lot. The main criterion for determining the winner of any auction is the price. Therefore, the winner of the auction is the person who offered the lowest price for the state or municipal contract.

A notice of an open auction is published in the official printed publication and posted on the official website at least twenty days before the deadline for submitting applications for participation in the auction. In cases specified by law, the notice of an open auction may be reduced to seven working days before the deadline for submission of bids.

Rates at the auction can be discrete (with a certain step) and continuous. An auction can consist of several rounds, in each of which participants have the opportunity to place a new bid. If no new bids are placed at the end of the round, the auction ends.

To confirm the seriousness of the intentions of the participants in the auction, they usually take a non-refundable monetary contribution, a deposit or other security for the bids.

Closed auction

Like competitions, auctions are open and closed. However, if the rules in closed tenders are exactly the same as in open ones, but a limited number of suppliers are allowed to participate, then there are no such restrictions in closed auctions. The only difference between closed auctions is that the auctioneers do not know the bids of other participants, as they are submitted in sealed envelopes, while in open auctions each bid becomes known to all participants.

The notice of a closed auction, the auction documentation, changes made to it, as well as clarifications of the auction documentation are not subject to publication in the media and placement on the Internet. Not later than twenty days before the deadline for submitting applications for participation in the auction, the customer, the authorized body shall send in writing invitations to participate in a closed auction to persons who meet the requirements of the law, have access to information constituting a state secret, and are able to supply goods , performance of work, provision of services that are the subject of the auction.

Closed auctions are most often used to reduce the risks of the customer, primarily related to the possible collusion of participants. However, this comes at the cost of reduced efficiency.

Electronic auction

An open auction in electronic form (OAEF) is an auction in electronic form on the website of electronic trading platforms accredited by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. Its procedure is regulated by chapter 3.1. Federal Law No. 94-FZ and government decrees.

The notice of the auction, as well as other information about the course of the auction and the results of the auction, is posted directly on electronic platforms.

From July 1, 2010, federal state customers, and from January 1, 2011 - customers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipal customers are required to conduct open auctions in electronic form. In such conditions, it is not known who is bidding until the end of the auction, which ensures competition and reduces the possibility of corruption.

Accredited electronic trading platforms (ETP) for government orders

According to the decision of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, five electronic trading platforms were selected by January 1, 2010:

• ZAO Sberbank-AST;
• JSC "Unified electronic trading platform";
• State Unitary Enterprise "Agency for the State Order of the Republic of Tatarstan";
• ZAO Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange;
• LLC "RTS-tender"

Differences of electronic auctions from other types of auctions

Characteristics	Electronic auction	Quote request
Submission of proposals	Multiple entry/electronic form		Single entry/on paper
Obligations of the customer and the winning bidder	Legally secured (based on electronic digital signature)	Missing	Legally secured
Relative volume of workflow	Minimum, submitted one time	Small

Advantages of electronic auctions

In addition to saving budgetary funds and reducing the risk of corruption, the UAEF provides wide access to government orders for small and medium-sized enterprises, expanding markets for their goods and services. Among the advantages of electronic auctions, compared with conventional auctions and competitions, are the following:

• Short lead times;
• Saving budgetary funds on the organization and conduct of tenders;
• Transparency and openness of the procurement process;
• Fair competition, excluding non-price methods of struggle;
• Equal rights for all suppliers of goods, works and services;
• Participation in the auction is possible from anywhere in the world, without leaving your office;
• High level of security and protection, the use of electronic digital signatures;
• Accessibility for representatives of medium and small businesses who previously could not enter the field of public procurement.

Regulations for holding open auctions in electronic form:

• To participate in the auction, you need to register on the electronic trading platform and on the day of the auction go to the auction website using identification tools or digital signature.
• The auction is for a price reduction. If the price drops to zero, then it goes up.
• At the beginning of the auction, the participant can make a price offer within the current auction step, not exceeding the initial (maximum) price of the contract, using a special form on the website.
• The participant can repeatedly submit price offers.
• Bidding is considered to be completed if within 10 minutes from the moment of the beginning of the auction or the last price offer the participant has not received an offer providing for a lower price.
• The winner is the participant who offered the lowest contract price.
• The participant who made the next best price offer after the winner is also revealed.
• The system automatically generates a protocol with the results of the auction within a few minutes.
• Without bidding
  • Request for quotes
    • limit on the amount: up to 500 thousand rubles. per quarter for goods/works/services of the same name
    • restriction on goods: there must be an existing market for goods/works/services, customer requirements must be fairly general
  • • limit on the amount: up to 100 thousand rubles. per quarter for goods/works/services of the same name

Quote request

Request for quotations is a method of placing an order, in which information about the needs for goods, works, services for state or municipal needs is communicated to an unlimited number of people by posting a notice on the request for quotations on the official website. The procedure for conducting a request for quotations is regulated by Chapter 4 of Federal Law No. 94-FZ of July 21, 2005.

This method is usually used when it comes to serial, standard products, for example, computers, office supplies, fuels and lubricants, some types of construction work, rental of premises, etc. The winner is the participant who offered the lowest price. contract.

The limit for placing an order by requesting quotations at the maximum contract price should not exceed 500,000 rubles.

The method of requesting quotations is the simplest and fastest of the competitive procedures. In this case, it is not necessary to develop tender documentation and criteria for evaluating bids, and since serial products are most often purchased, the evaluation of quotation bids, taking into account all approvals, takes about 1-7 days.

The disadvantage of the method of requesting quotations is the ability of interested parties to influence the outcome of the purchase, because all offered prices are known to the organizers before the deadline for accepting applications.

Placing an order with a single supplier

When purchasing from a single source, the customer sends an offer to conclude a contract and negotiates with only one supplier.

Purchasing from a single supplier is used in the following cases:

• when the product is provided by only one supplier or the equipment is patented and can only be purchased from a single source, and there is no equivalent replacement;
• when extending the concluded contract, if it provided for such an opportunity;
• if the contractor needs to purchase key items from a specific supplier as a guarantee of the performance of the contract;
• under emergency circumstances (liquidation of consequences of natural disasters);
• if there were no suitable offers during the procurement by a competitive method.

It is advisable to purchase products from one supplier with insignificant purchase amounts, when the customer's expenses for the search and selection of suppliers are much higher than the price of the purchased products.

According to the norms of Russian legislation, there are two main forms of public auctions - a competition and an electronic auction. The main difference between them lies in the principle by which the winner is chosen. We will talk more about this in this article.

Auction and competition: differences

During the implementation of the state order by holding an auction, the winner is the participant who offers to fulfill the terms of the contract at the lowest price. The winner in this case is determined by stepwise lowering the initial price, which is also the maximum. Another name for such a procedure within the terminology of the Civil Code is reduction.

If a participant mistakenly or deliberately indicates in his auction application a price that exceeds the value of the NMC, then he is denied admission.

Auctions are the only form of state order implementation in a number of areas. One of them is capital construction, in which all major tenders are required by law to be conducted through an electronic auction.

At the same time, a competition is a form of bidding in which:

• The winner is determined not by the customer, but by the tender commission;
• The winner is the contractor who offered not just a low price, but the most optimal conditions for the performance of work or delivery.

Thus, we can summarize:

• When distinguishing between the concepts of competition and auction, what matters is who decides on the appointment of the winner of the auction;
• Low price is only one of the components of the concept of "best conditions" in the competition;
• Another very important point is the financial security and the associated capabilities of the performer. When submitting an application for the auction, each participant must ensure it without fail by depositing funds to the customer's account. If we are talking about a competition, then instead of this pledge, you can use an official bank guarantee. At the same time, the provision of liability for the execution of the contract in both cases can be formalized by providing a bank guarantee.

You can do it as quickly and profitably as possible with the help of qualified experts of our company. We are happy to help you:

• Choose the most suitable bank from the list of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation;
• Speed ​​up the review and approval process of your application;
• Obtain a long-term bank guarantee;
• Take advantage of special offers with reduced rates;
• Provide collateral just in time and avoid mistakes!

Bidding allows the customer to conclude a contract on the most favorable terms for him. But some novice entrepreneurs may confuse concepts, as a result of which questions arise about how a tender differs from an auction and which of these types of bidding to choose for a particular situation.

Basic concepts

To begin with, it is necessary to compare the concepts of "auction" and "tender" themselves, and the difference will immediately become apparent.

During the tender event, the customer puts forward clear requirements for the bidders, on the basis of which they submit their proposals. This is called a market form of selection, during which each of the contenders to win is required to make a decision. And this is not the last difference between an auction and a tender.

It is better to organize a tender if you need a complex product, while the selection criteria are not particularly strict. Often this is either a non-standard product that is difficult to evaluate, or several criteria are taken into account when selecting:

• quality of goods and services;
• delivery features;
• price category;
• counterparty reliability.

The decision is made collectively and thus the human factor is excluded. It turns out that this is a free type of auction, both for the customer and for the participants. All information provided by the contestants is strictly confidential. This is the main difference between a tender and an auction.

An auction is called an auction with “understandable” lots. There may be art, real estate, oil, metals or other goods that can be compared and evaluated. As you can see, it can be a unique piece of goods or simple items of a certain quality. This type of auction involves the mandatory registration of each of the participants, the presence of a minimum bid.

The price is the main criterion for choosing an auction, so the winner is the participant who offered the best price. And the customer, in spite of everything, has no right to refuse him. Here, the organizer becomes dependent on the proposal of each of the participants and, in order to avoid fraud, shifts the commercial risk to the winner, which has the form of a 100% prepayment for sales and payment upon delivery of goods.

Main differences

So, consider the tender and auction - what's the difference?

The second feature is the subject of sales. For an auction, this is any product that can have a price; for a tender, the subject of bargaining is the work, goods or services that the winner will supply. This may be works on the reconstruction of architectural monuments and roads, the construction of buildings, the supply of materials.

The tender has reliable protection against monetary fraud that can be expected from participants, since the nature of the process is strict - all proposals are confidential, submitted in sealed envelopes. Thus, the contestants do not have the opportunity to verify the agreement, which allows them to break the verbal contract between themselves.

Another difference between a tender and an auction is the main process. During the first one, you should first prepare a package of documents, which is sent for consideration to the organizer of the auction. The customer has the right to independently make a choice of the best offer from the total mass, as there are many selection criteria that he sets himself. The second "ties hands" to the organizer and forces him to appoint the winner of the participant who offers the best price. And the process itself is almost instantaneous, but with the preliminary registration of applicants.