What are tenders (the difference between government and commercial procurement). What is a two-stage tender and request for quotations? Online auctions and their benefits

Conducted in competitive conditions for the right to provide services or supply goods.

Types of customers

1. Commercial (corporate) customers. Purchases are carried out in accordance with the requirements put forward by the customer himself.

2. Legal entities specified in 223-FZ “On the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities.” The purchase is carried out within the framework of the “Procurement Regulations” prescribed by the customer himself. Information is published on websites in the public domain.

3. State and municipal bodies, state and budgetary institutions. are regulated “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs.” Criteria for suppliers are outlined (Article 31, Part 2), which are subject to mandatory declaration. Notice of procurement under 44-FZ is published openly.

Types of government procurement

Open competition

It is a procurement method in which any applicant can participate. The procedure is lengthy (about 2-3 months) and requires significant resources. contains subjective evaluation criteria for participants, in accordance with which their applications are processed. The competition will be declared invalid if there are less than three applications submitted. The competition commission determines the winner during the opening of proposals.

Closed competition

The choice of participants is limited by the customer himself. Information about the closed competition and its results is not published.

Conducting closed competitions is permitted in the following cases:

Products or required qualifications are available from a limited number of suppliers;

The purchase is confidential or for security reasons;

The cost and time spent are disproportionate to the value of the purchased products.

Open auction

The government order (lot) is published via the Internet. The main criterion for determining the winner is the price. The rates can be continuous or discrete (with a certain step).

Closed auction

Information about a closed auction is not subject to publication. The customer himself sends requests for participation to planned applicants.

Electronic auction

An open auction in electronic form (OAEF) is posted on the website of accredited electronic trading platforms (ETP). The main advantage is concluding a contract at a lower price with minimal provision of documents.

Request for quotation

The notice is posted on the official website and assumes an unlimited number of participants.

It is used when purchasing serial products, certain types of construction work, and renting premises. Request for quotations is possible at a purchase price of no more than 500,000 rubles.

Purchasing from a single supplier

When purchasing from a single supplier (SP), the customer negotiates with only one participant. Used in the following cases:

purchasing products is possible only from one supplier;

the customer needs to purchase basic key items as security for the performance of the contract;

in case of emergencies;

When purchasing through a competitive method, no suitable proposals were found.

25.03.2019

What is a tender

Today, the term “tender” is widely used in Russian business. But at the same time, there is no definition of the concept of “tender” in the legislation. This term comes from the English tender, which means “offer”. It was first mentioned in the model law on the procurement of goods and works, adopted by UNCITRAL on July 16, 1993 (). It contains such definitions as tender documentation, tender application and tender security. The word “tender” in this context should be interpreted as an offer to participate in tenders. A modern economic dictionary gives the following definition: “A tender is a competitive tender of an open type (open tender) or closed - for a limited number of participants (closed tender), a competitive form of placing an order" [Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B. "Modern Economic Dictionary" (INFRA-M, 2006)]. In Russian legislation, a similar definition is given to bidding, namely, in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, bidding is understood as a competition or auction. However, nowadays it is customary to understand a tender as other ways of selecting a supplier for concluding a contract.

The organizers of tenders can be both government customers and many commercial structures, as well as owners or holders of rights to property. And the participants can be any legal or natural persons capable of fulfilling their obligations.

A special feature of tenders is that this procedure makes it possible, through free and transparent competition, to conclude contracts on the most favorable terms for all parties. The organizer satisfies his needs by purchasing or selling with the best conditions at a favorable price. Participants get the opportunity to participate in competition on equal terms.

Classification of tenders

Tenders are classified according to various criteria. Depending on the purpose of holding, they are divided into sales tenders and purchase tenders. According to the procedure, they are divided into: competition, two-stage competition, auction, request for proposals; request for quotations, competitive negotiations and other procedures. Depending on the form of tenders, tenders can be open or closed. An open form gives everyone the opportunity to participate; in a closed form, invitations are sent only to a limited number of participants. This procedure is carried out when the contract is related to commercial or state secrets, when the circle of participants in the area in which the tender is being held is small or the costs of holding an open tender are not justified. A notice of tender is not subject to publication if information constituting a state secret is contained in the documentation or draft contract. When choosing an open or closed form of tender, the tender organizer must rely primarily on the current legislation. There are also tenders in electronic form and in “paper” form. In electronic form, procurement is carried out on an electronic trading platform - “a hardware and software complex of organizational, information and technical solutions that ensure interaction between the customer and the tender participant through electronic communication channels” or by submitting an application signed with an electronic signature to the customer’s email [GOST R 51303- 2013. National standard of the Russian Federation. Trade. Terms and Definitions]. The specifics of conducting a tender in electronic form are regulated by law and in local acts of the organizer.

It is advisable for the organizer to conduct contest, when the subject of the contract is something technically complex, for example, design or construction work that requires highly professional specialists, and when an important criterion is the financial stability of the contractor. In this case, qualification and quality criteria are established by which the participant in the competition who offers the best conditions for the execution of the contract is selected. When holding a competition, the offer price may not play the most important role. If it is difficult for the customer to formulate clear requirements, then he can hold a two-stage competition, where at the first stage the corresponding technical task will be selected, and at the second - a participant who is ready to fulfill it.

Auction should be done when price is the only criterion. A distinctive feature of this type of auction is that the participant can change his price offer during the auction period by analyzing the offers of his competitors. A similar procurement method, in which the only criterion for selecting participants is price, is request for quotation (customers can also give this method names such as request for quotation price or request for prices). However, it is customary to request quotes for small amounts, because First of all, this method is attractive for its efficiency and does not provide for a detailed assessment of proposals based on other parameters. Request for quotation may have other names - request for prices, request for price quotes .

Among others, there is such a way as request for proposals . It is not regulated by the Civil Code, as is the request for quotations. However, organizers quite often use this method. A request for proposals makes it possible to evaluate participants not only by price, but also by qualification and technical components and, after considering the applications, refuse to enter into an agreement. This type of tender can be used as an analysis of the existing market situation in a particular area.

Another type of tender is competitive negotiations . This type of procurement is the freest of all of the above, since the organizer actually freely chooses the best one according to his preference among the participants.

In addition to the above, there are many other ways to conduct tenders: request to make offers, collection of commercial proposals, price monitoring, competition with limited participation and others.

State procurements

The tendering procedure varies depending on the law governing the procurement. All government tenders are regulated by Federal Law No. 44-FZ dated April 5, 2013 “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, and services to meet state and municipal needs.” The organizers in such cases are government agencies, public authorities or the Rosatom corporation. This law strictly regulates the tender procedure, establishing specific rules for the selection of participants. In addition, there is a strict system of planning and reporting of public procurement. To participate in a government tender, it is necessary to understand the unified scheme of the procedure in accordance with the law. The customer is prohibited from establishing requirements other than those specified in Law No. 44-FZ. In addition, the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 31, 2013 No. 2019-r approved a list of purchases of goods, works, and services that should occur exclusively through an electronic auction. For this purpose, five official electronic trading platforms have been approved. The law also establishes a ban on customers purchasing goods of a certain brand and manufacturer, which makes it possible for a wider range of participants to apply for participation in the tender, providing different price offers. Public procurement is aimed at saving and targeted spending of budget funds, so price will often be of paramount importance. However, the law establishes a number of interim measures, such as anti-dumping measures, application security and special requirements for a bank guarantee acting as contract security.

Procurement by certain types of legal entities (under 223-FZ)

Tenders, which are regulated by the Federal Law of July 18, 2011 No. 223-FZ “On the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities,” are carried out by state corporations and companies, natural monopolies, state and municipal unitary enterprises, autonomous institutions, economic or subsidiaries companies in the authorized capital of which the share of participation of the Russian Federation or a constituent entity of the Russian Federation in the aggregate exceeds 50%. A special feature of these tenders is that the customer independently develops its own procurement regulations, in which it prescribes the mechanism for conducting procurement and concluding contracts based on their results. The law does not determine exactly what types of tenders customers can conduct. Only the competition and auction are indicated, but this list is currently open and the organizer has the right to come up with any procurement methods and establish the procedure for conducting them himself. In order to participate in the tender, the applicant must first study the customer’s procurement regulations, then study the documentation and only then submit an application. But even after this, tenders are fraught with many difficulties. Firstly, Law No. 223-FZ defines adequate deadlines for submitting applications only for a competition and an auction, while the customer, to please himself, can conduct a tender in the shortest possible time, using other procedures not regulated by law. Secondly, the list of requirements that the customer can present to participants is not clearly defined. As a result, the customer often abuses this opportunity, limiting competition and prescribing inflated requirements. Thirdly, the documentation may establish immeasurable criteria for evaluating a participant's applications, and it is often difficult to determine which qualification requirements will satisfy the customer. In addition, the government provides a list of goods, works and services that must be purchased electronically. This can be any type of procurement, applications for participation in which are submitted with an electronic signature, or the procurement must take place on an electronic trading platform. The difficulty is that there are many commercial platforms, and to participate you need to be accredited at the site where the customer places his tender. However, there are also positive aspects of participation in tenders regulated by 223-FZ. Due to the difficulties that arise during procurement, this market has not yet been sufficiently developed, and on the path to victory you can not meet many competitors. Also, often the customer, due to the fact that he is not limited in establishing the procurement method, can carry out a simple procedure for a large initial maximum contract price.

Commercial tenders

Commercial tenders are tenders in which the organizer is any commercial entity. They choose to hold a tender for themselves, since for them this is an excellent way to economically spend their own money. The conduct of these tenders is not regulated by law; the organizers have the right to conduct any procedures according to their own rules. Unlike the above-mentioned tenders regulated by laws, the organizer does not have the obligation to place a notice of procurement in a unified information system. In addition, the organizer is not subject to administrative liability for violating the tender procedure if the organizer’s actions do not contradict current legislation (primarily the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Law No. 135-FZ on the protection of competition).

Features of government, commercial procurement and procurement by certain types of legal entities

In general, the regulation of government and commercial tenders is aimed at savings, targeted spending of funds and the development of healthy competition. However, in government tenders, despite the strictness of the law, more lenient conditions are created for participants and more opportunities are given to participate in procurement. While commercial tenders and tenders regulated by 223-FZ, although they provide more freedom to the organizer and participant, the existing difficulties often repel potential participants, which does not contribute to the development of effective competition.

Table 1. Comparison of government and commercial tenders

Thus, there are a large number of types of tenders: for purchase and for sale; government and commercial; open and closed and so on. The emergence of each of them is determined by the specific needs of the market and, accordingly, has its own characteristics in the order of implementation. Today, not only the number of types of tenders is growing, but also the number of tenders themselves, new areas for the application of competitive selection procedures are emerging: sale of state property, selection of a tenant, selection of subcontractors and many others.

Finding a reliable supplier at a tender is no more difficult than matching on Tinder. There are only so many mistakes you can make. I will list the main ones and explain how to avoid them.

Don't work blindly

Example: A buyer from a large manufacturing company conducts tenders manually. He calls partners to find out current prices, finds several new suppliers on the Internet and sends them requests by mail. A few days later, the buyer selects the five best offers and calls the suppliers again to bargain. And then again and again - until he gets the desired price.

What's wrong: This approach has three disadvantages at once. Firstly, the buyer did not cover all the suppliers that are on the market. Secondly, it has not created a competitive environment - suppliers do not see the best offer and are reluctant to bargain. Thirdly, with this approach there cannot be a common understanding of the rules of the game.

How to correctly: To systematize procurement, you need to select a tender site and collect proposals through one communication channel - your personal account.

Choose your site carefully

Example: The purchasing director of a restaurant chain from Yekaterinburg registered on the federal tender site to conduct a weekly purchase of vegetables and fruits in the amount of 100,000 rubles. Instead of a flurry of applications from regional and local suppliers, I received two.

What's wrong: Firstly, large suppliers usually participate in tenders on federal platforms. Therefore, they were either not interested in the volume of purchases, or they do not have production in the Sverdlovsk region. Secondly, very often there are simply no local suppliers on such sites - presence on them is quite expensive.

How to correctly: To select a tender site, you need to study the list of suppliers and make sure that there are suitable ones. You also need to compare the volume of your purchases with the cost of the supplier’s presence on this site. If the amount of expenses is more than 1% of the potential transaction, it is hardly worth registering.

Retain old suppliers

Example: The buyer of a manufacturing company placed a tender on one of the large trading platforms. I previously called current suppliers, invited them to register and take part in the auction. I expected to receive offers from at least seven companies, but received from two.

What's wrong: Firstly, the buyer did not foresee that suppliers would not want to offer their goods through tenders. For them, this means a guaranteed reduction in price and, possibly, income. Secondly, he did not say that he would now purchase only from those who participate in online trading. This means that suppliers will soon start calling with offers again.

How to correctly: To transfer suppliers to the tender site, the buyer must send official letters to the heads of partner companies, describe the new procurement conditions in them, call several times with a reminder about online bidding, and also find backup options for supplying goods if no one takes part in the first bidding .

Do not hurry

Example: The plant's purchasing specialist issued a tender for the supply of butter and received bids from current and new suppliers. The best price was offered by a company with which the plant had not previously cooperated. He immediately made a contract with her. As a result, I waited two months for the delivery, but it never arrived.

What's wrong: The buyer made a big mistake - he deviated from the plant’s internal rules for working with suppliers. This means that he did not take into account that he could only purchase goods from those who had already provided documents confirming financial stability and brought a consignment of goods for evaluation.

How to correctly: One of the current partners who offered the best price should have been appointed as the winner of the tender. After this, the buyer had to request documents and samples from the potential supplier. If he passed the internal check, we could start purchasing goods from him at the next auction.

Avoid bureaucracy

Example: The general director of a large trading holding decided to purchase products through tenders. Having seen enough of his colleagues from state corporations, where organizing this procedure requires the preparation of a large number of documents, he introduces the same ones. This includes asking the buyer to generate a notification letter, analytical note and summary table personally for each potential supplier and to coordinate all stages of the procurement with the financial and legal departments.

What's wrong: The buyer has no desire to hold a tender. It is easier for him to call one of the current suppliers and negotiate a suitable price. And when the time comes to explain why the auction is not being held, he will definitely come up with something. For example, he will say that the goods were running out of stock, they were informed about it late, but they needed to buy it urgently.

How to correctly: To avoid this, the CEO must determine exactly why the company is tendering. If to reduce the price, then a large number of documents is not at all necessary. It is important to record only three points in them: delivery conditions, received applications and criteria for selecting the winner.

News and best articles of “The Secret of the Company” are in our Telegram channel: @businesssecrets. Subscribe!

The development of the tender system has been observed in Russia since the end of the last century. The concept of tender is equivalent to the concept of competition. Its meaning is to find a contractor for government orders on a competitive basis. The entire regulations of this system are spelled out in the winner and a contract is concluded for any work, services or supply of goods. Today we will talk about what is needed to participate in tenders.

What are tenders?

Such competitions can be open or closed, held in one or two stages. In addition, there are varieties of specialized closed tenders, single tenders and requests for quotations.

What does participation in competitions give? The winner is given the opportunity to receive a profitable large order, and if it is a start-up company, to make a name for itself in the market. Many people are put off by the rather complicated participation procedure, but anyone can figure it out. Of course, beginners often need help, practical guidance explaining what needs to be done and in what order. Have you decided to take part in tenders? The step-by-step instructions will come in handy.

Why is it beneficial?

Information about where and what tenders are planned to be held is constantly available on specialized websites and in the media. When the competition is announced, the tender commission begins to consider applications from applicants.

It is not typical for small and medium-sized businesses to be active in bidding for government orders - there are many apparent difficulties. It does not take into account that the lion's share of municipal budgets these days is distributed, as a rule, through tenders.

Government orders support business no less effectively than benefits and subsidies. In addition, the law obliges customers of the municipal and public sector to transfer at least 10% of the volume of work and deliveries of goods per year to entrepreneurs.

Electronic auctions

Unfortunately, only large companies are seriously involved in tracking promising tenders, and all because of the need to maintain a special service for this.

Government orders are placed in different ways - in the form of a request for quotation, procurement from a single supplier (performer) or through bidding. The last method is the most common.

Nowadays, the majority of orders from the state are placed at electronic auctions; their share is over half of all auctions conducted. Such events are recognized as an effective means of combating corruption due to the anonymity of those involved, great competition and the availability (as they say, transparency) of all information.

Participation in tenders: step-by-step instructions for beginning businessmen

Let's look at what participation in an electronic auction is.

First of all, a suitable auction must be “calculated”. To do this, you need to carefully read all notices about such events, regularly visiting the official website, which has nationwide status and publishes announcements about future auctions 7-20 days before a certain date, which serves as the last day for submitting applications. You must indicate your desire to take part in the selected tender during this period - later your application will no longer be accepted for consideration.

Officially, there are five federal platforms for electronic trading, on any of which you will find a search form for auctions of interest and a register of all tenders. It is also easy to obtain summary information on the official website of the Russian Federation, which is dedicated to placing orders.

What is needed to participate in tenders

Next, you should obtain an electronic digital signature (abbreviated as EDS). It is purchased from one of the special certification centers accredited on the electronic platform you have chosen. The process of receiving it will take several business days (2 or 3). The signature gives legal status to the electronic document and records the financial responsibility of the participant.

But digital signature alone does not guarantee that you will take part in tenders. The step-by-step instructions also contain the concept of accreditation. That is, in order to participate in auctions held by a particular platform, you must be accredited to it. Each of the five sites has its own accreditation. To do this, a special form is filled out on the site’s website along with an application to open an account. A number of documents are attached. Which ones? We are talking about an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (if you are an individual entrepreneur - an extract from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs), a power of attorney giving the right to participate in these auctions, a document appointing a manager (decision or protocol) with the seal of the organization, a scan of a card with the company’s details.

Further actions

The operator will review the application within five days and provide a response on access or refusal (in the latter case, with explanations of the reasons). The number of retries is not regulated, but each application will require a five-day review period.

Having successfully passed accreditation, you will receive a “Personal Account” from which you will conduct all further actions.

The next mandatory step is to top up your own account on the trading platform as a guarantee of participation in trading. The amount is fixed - for small entrepreneurs it is usually 2% of the initial order amount (its maximum). In other cases we are talking about five percent. You can get your money back after the account is unblocked (at the end of the auction).

Submit applications

The participant can now submit an application. You need to approach its preparation extremely responsibly, having first carefully studied all the auction documentation. The first part, anonymous, consists of confirming the participant’s consent to supply the desired product (service) with a detailed description. Its second part contains detailed information about the participant with the attachment of all supporting certificates and licenses.

In addition to the application of the established form, the application for participation in the tender must include the fullest possible volume of estimate and calculation documents, which shows in tabular form the cost of materials or services together with VAT at the time of bidding, detailed explanations of additional costs (transport, design and survey, etc.) , as well as taxes.

Things to remember

A submitted application automatically equates to an agreement to comply with all the customer’s terms and conditions. If it is impossible to fulfill them, the contractor should withdraw the application. It is not accepted from the participant after the deadline set by the auction organizer. Refusal to participate in the tender (withdrawal of the application) is possible only before a certain date. The deadline for acceptance may be extended by the tender commission, of which applicants are notified.

When the deadline for submitting applications has expired, the customer reviews their first parts, the results of the review are formalized in the form of a protocol, which the site operator must convey to all participants within the prescribed period. This way you will know whether you are admitted to trading or not.

A little about the process itself

What are the main points you need to know when planning to participate in tenders? The step-by-step instructions say that in the bidding process itself, two concepts are most important - the auction step and the time remaining until its completion. The first indicator is strictly fixed - it is 0.5% of the maximum initial price (as the law says). The transition to the next step occurs at intervals of 10 minutes, during which the participant must decide whether to offer a lower price or not.

Participants are prohibited from submitting proposals with a price greater than or equal to that previously proposed. Zero-price offers are also prohibited. It is also impossible to lower the price by more than a step (below the current minimum offer) in advance.

Completion of trades

If the last bid offered was the lowest (within ten minutes no more advantageous offers were received), the auction is completed. A protocol with results is automatically generated almost instantly; each participant appears in it only under an assigned number.

Who exactly won the tender will become known only after the auction is completed. The customer will receive the second part of the winning application, containing the details of the winning participant. He will be sent a government contract, which must be certified with an electronic signature within a certain period of time.

What's next?

In addition, an amount of monetary security for the contract must be provided, which by law is up to 30% of the original maximum price. This is done in the form of a bank guarantee, or the funds are credited to the customer’s temporary account.

Experts believe that by participating in tenders, any company receives important advantages. And although the tender system in its current form is far from perfect, it gives beginning entrepreneurs a chance to reach a major customer and increase their own status in the market.

The choice of tenders should be made wisely, without trying to cover all offers. If you fail, you shouldn’t be upset - after all, you have gained serious business experience.

What is typical for commercial trading?

Unlike state tenders, commercial tenders are organized in accordance with the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation; the regulations for their conduct are established by the customer independently. When conducting them, the same principles are applied on which government auctions are based. But there are more competitive procedures - in the form of an open competition with or without pre-selection, closed, two- and multi-stage competition, request for prices, competitive negotiations, procurement from a single source, etc.

Thus, commercial tenders are mostly conducted similarly to government tenders. The difference lies only in the strict regulation of the latter by law. The form of private tenders is freer, and they are focused on the documentation of the customer companies themselves.

There is no single and universal law on which the organization of participation in tenders of this type is based due to the huge variety of individual areas of business, each of which has its own specifics.

Construction tenders

If your company’s activities are related to the supply of machinery (excavators, cranes, bulldozers) or equipment, as well as the sale of land for construction purposes, you will need serious clients.

This means that the company should take an active part in relevant competitions. Surely you would like to enter into a long-term contract with a large customer. Then take part in construction tenders. The principle here is the same: study the regulations for holding a suitable auction, create a package of documents consisting of an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, photocopied and tax-certified constituent documents (along with the charter) and an order for the appointment of a chief accountant, evidence of work experience along with copies of financial statements for the last period, as well as copies of passports of all official representatives of the supplier company and a certificate of state registration of the enterprise. The person who will officially represent the interests of the company at the auction must have a power of attorney to participate in the tender.

Do not forget that the submitted application must have monetary support. If there is no available amount in the company’s accounts, it has the right to use a tender loan.

Conducting a tender requires compliance with the rules and conditions of procurement laws. We will talk about them in the article, provide a step-by-step procedure for conducting a tender, as well as rules for the participation of suppliers.

In this article:

Conditions of the tender

Speaking about the rules of holding, one cannot fail to mention who can act as the organizer of the auction. These are budgetary institutions, state institutions, unitary enterprises, commercial organizations and other types of legal entities. The executors of contracts can be both individuals and individual entrepreneurs, as well as legal entities. Offshore companies and those included in the register of unscrupulous suppliers are not allowed to participate in government procurement.

The law states how to conduct a tender. First, the customer creates a contract service or appoints a contract manager. Next, he plans procedures for the year. In accordance with the volume of budget funds, the customer purchases goods, works and services, selecting the contract executor through bidding. Also at the initial stage you need to register in the Unified Information System and obtain an electronic digital signature.

To obtain full access to the PRO-GOSZAKAZ.RU portal, please register. It won't take more than a minute. Select a social network for quick authorization on the portal:

Methods of conducting tenders

All types of tenders used in government procurement are specified in 44-FZ. They are divided into competitive and non-competitive, paper and electronic, with and without restrictions. Supplier identification methods can be open or closed, paper or electronic, with or without restrictions on individuals, competitive or non-competitive. Competitive ones include a tender, auction, request for proposals, request for quotations, and non-competitive procurement from a single supplier. The predominant method is competition. But purchasing from a single supplier can be carried out in an extremely limited number of cases.

The ability to conduct electronic tenders appeared in 2018, and since 2019 the procedures have become electronic by default. Only some types remained on paper. For example, trading abroad.

There is also one non-competitive way to determine the executor of the contract. This is a purchase from a single supplier. A complete list of cases when this procedure can be carried out is contained in Art. 93 of the Law on the contract system. Customers working under 223-FZ must include such a list in their procurement regulations.