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Government procurement and small business. Business on government procurement for small enterprises

With the onset of crisis in the country, the most vulnerable segment of the economy is small business. Despite the ability to adapt to rapidly changing conditions, it is the first to disappear from the market. The only thing that can prevent the liquidation of such enterprises is government orders for small businesses.

Types of bidding

Research shows that the minimum share of government orders should be 10-22% of their total quantity. The attitude of entrepreneurs to this type of government stimulation of small businesses is very ambivalent. Some regard government orders as a good way to expand the market, while others do not want to get involved because of the large number of difficult issues.

The term “government procurement” itself means orders from state or municipal structures for industrial and food products, weapons, equipment, and services from enterprises that produce them.

As a rule, such companies are selected on the basis of a competition or so-called tender. In Russia, the term “placement of an order” has become more widespread.

There are currently five types of public procurement:

electronic auctions. They are carried out within special electronic platforms by placing lots on them. All documentation is also prepared electronically;
open competitions. They are carried out when the main selection criterion is the best price, and then timing, quality and other components. Often used when we are talking about a transaction in the amount of 500 thousand rubles;
requests for quotes. They are carried out according to the previous principle, with the only difference that we are talking about less expensive contracts;
purchase from one supplier. This type cannot even be called tendering, since the purchase is carried out from a single contractor;
open auctions. They differ from electronic ones in that orders are printed in the media. Recently, this type of order placement has practically lost its relevance.

These types of purchases are used by the state both to meet its own needs (weapons, medicines) and for the needs of the population (food products).

How are procurements carried out?

All categories of enterprises - public, private, individual - can take part in most types of tenders. The deal is concluded with the company that managed to win as a result of the competition.

It is worth noting that the procedure for holding auctions, signing documents and concluding a transaction is strictly regulated by law. Supervisory authorities – Accounts Chamber and Treasury. In special cases, the FSB gets involved when it comes to weapons.

The procedure looks like this: contractors send an application for participation, which indicates a price acceptable to them, and a special commission, in turn, considers each of them and selects the best option.

There are several ways to conduct procurement:

open;
selective (everyone can submit applications, but only those selected by the customer will take part in the competition);
closed (participants are invited exclusively by the organizers).

The bidding process can take place in two stages. If the tender is intended to be held in one stage, then there is no possibility that the order requirements may change. The two-stage bidding suggests that it may undergo some changes.

Some features of the participation of small companies in tenders

The specifics of procurement by small businesses are specified in the special law of the Russian Federation “On Procurement”. It states that customers must purchase from small and medium-sized companies in the following quantities:

From 01/01/2015 to 31/12/2016 – no less than 18% of the total number of contracts.
From 01/01/2017 – no less than 25% of the annual number of orders.

It is assumed that participation in auctions is often completely free. But in some cases there are still some financial and time costs involved. Minimal funds will have to be invested in electronic trading. As a rule, we are talking about a conditional contribution that is not returned regardless of the results of the auction.

Responsibility of the parties

Failure to comply with the terms of the competition is also controlled by the state. For this purpose, a whole system of fines has been developed, both for the customer and for the supplier of services or goods. The basic principles of any type of auction are equality and openness.

The customer must not:

Violate the forms and procedures of the competition.
Change the deadlines for placing applications.
Hide information about the conditions if we are talking about open competitions.
Post distorted information about participants.

It is difficult to hide the fact that at the moment there are various kinds of corruption schemes used in order to obtain a profitable order for a specific enterprise. One of the options for such a scheme could be winning a bid for a small company, which, in fact, is a subsidiary of a large-scale production.

Other frauds include:

indicating to other participants obviously impossible amounts of work and/or unrealistic deadlines for completion;
distorted payment terms that are not acceptable to the supplier;
preventing strong performers from participating;
underestimation of the order price;
involving fake clients.

Most often, such schemes are used when it comes to particularly large and profitable orders. In small tenders, it is much easier for small companies to win.

Even in world practice, there are known cases of unfair bidding. The world media especially often covers such events from auctions in the USA and Japan.

In Russia, in recent years, methods of combating such violators have been significantly tightened. However, there are still too many shortcomings in this area. For example, there is not yet a clear system that would regulate the procedure for placing orders for small companies. In this regard, they are still forced in most cases to rely on their own luck rather than on the laws.

So far, electronic auction systems cannot boast of smooth operation. In the total mass of all orders, it is quite difficult to single out those intended for small businesses. Moreover, as practice has shown, it is much easier to hide dishonest actions of the customer at a small auction than when it comes to a large tender.

However, even taking into account all of the above, it should be noted that certain steps by the state towards small businessmen are still being made. Even in conditions of bureaucratic and corruption schemes, obtaining an order for the supply of services or goods has become much easier than several years ago.

State order. Making dreams come true: Video

Procurement by budgetary institutions, natural monopolies and state-owned organizations is regulated by two main regulations - Law No. 44-FZ “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs”, as well as Law No. 223-FZ “ On the procurement of goods, works, and services by certain types of legal entities.”

The first regulates all purchases of all government customers and fully prescribes the conduct of the trading procedure. The second establishes the general principles of procurement, and at the same time describes in more detail procurement from organizations with a state share of more than 50%, natural monopolies, as well as procurement from budgetary organizations carried out at the expense of extra-budgetary sources.

What should representatives of small and medium-sized businesses pay attention to when preparing to participate in government procurement, based on the requirements of the legislator? A few important notes.

Unified Register of Small and Medium Enterprises

Article 30 of Federal Law No. 44-FZ “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs” established the obligation of customers to carry out certain purchases only among small businesses (SMB).

In this case, procurement is carried out through open tenders, tenders with limited participation, two-stage tenders, electronic auctions, requests for quotations, requests for proposals, in which only SMEs are procurement participants. In this case, the initial (maximum) contract price should not exceed 20 million rubles.

The main innovations for small and medium-sized enterprises were the maintenance of the Unified Register of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises from August 1, 2016. The NSR Register is a publicly accessible database containing a wide range of information about the Russian NSR. The Register information can be used to confirm that business entities belong to the SME category, search for counterparties, and develop additional measures to support small and medium-sized businesses.

Differences between 44-FZ and 223-FZ

Unlike purchases under Federal Law-44, purchases under Federal Law-223 can only be made from small and medium-sized businesses, if such a company is included in the Register of Small and Medium Enterprises.

An organization will not be able to participate in procurement under Federal Law-223, which is carried out only among small and medium-sized businesses, if information about it is not in the unified register of small and medium-sized businesses. This is what the Russian Ministry of Economic Development thinks in its letter No. D28i-3468 dated December 29, 2016.

Procurement among these persons is regulated by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1352 of December 11, 2014. According to its provisions, participants in procurement under 223-FZ, carried out only among small and medium-sized businesses, must confirm their status with information from the SME register. This rule does not apply to newly created companies and newly registered individual entrepreneurs. They are required to submit, instead of information from the register, a declaration of compliance with the criteria for classification as an NSR entity.

If information about the participant is not in the SMP register or a declaration has not been submitted, the customer on this basis makes one of the following decisions:

On refusal of admission to participation in the procurement of such a participant;

On refusal to conclude an agreement with a procurement participant who is the only supplier.

It should be noted that participants in procurement carried out under Law No. 44-FZ among small businesses are not required to confirm their belonging to a small business with data from the small business register. They must submit only a declaration in the application.

Criteria for classification as small and medium-sized businesses

From August 1, 2016, the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 4, 2016 No. 265 “On the maximum values of income received from entrepreneurial activities for each category of small and medium-sized businesses” established new criteria for SME income.

When classifying organizations and entrepreneurs as SMEs, instead of the category of revenue from the sale of goods (work, services), they switched to using the category of income from business activities.

The income limits are set the same as the revenue limits:

For microenterprises - 120 million rubles,

For small ones - 800 million rubles,

For medium-sized ones - 2 billion rubles.

Since the criteria have changed, when forming the Register, the category of an enterprise (micro, small or medium-sized enterprise) will be determined on the basis of data on income received from business activities only for the previous year 2015, without taking into account data for 2013 and 2014.

Thus, an organization can be classified as a small enterprise if its total income for 2015 is up to 800 million rubles. At the same time, other conditions must be met (in particular, the average number of employees for 2015 should not exceed 100 people).

It should be noted that on January 1, 2017, Part 8.1 of Article 3 of Law No. 223-FZ also came into force, according to which, in the event of failure to fulfill the obligation to purchase from SMP during a calendar year, the customer during the next calendar year, starting from February 1, is obliged be guided by Law No. 44-FZ. Moreover, this restriction comes into force provided that:

The customer did not make purchases from SMEs in the amount provided for by Resolution No. 1352 of December 11, 2014;

The customer provided inaccurate information in the annual report on the volume of purchases from SMP;

The customer did not post an annual report on purchases from SMP.

Thus, the latest innovations in the field of procurement mainly affected the determination and confirmation by organizations of the status of a small entrepreneur in connection with the introduction of the Unified Register of Small Business Enterprises. This resource allows you to quickly check the classification of an organization as an SSE without checking its constituent composition, average headcount or annual revenue.

Small businesses are often afraid to participate in government procurement: it seems that the procedure is complicated, collecting documents takes a lot of time, and it is impossible to win, because the winners are known in advance. We will debunk these myths and prove that government procurement is accessible to any entrepreneur if everything is done correctly. “Business.ru” has released the first detailed guide on government orders for small and medium-sized businesses.

The only stage of government procurement where it will be difficult to do without highly specialized specialists is settlements with the customer and accounting reporting. But these features are easy, it's inexpensive.

You will have to do the rest yourself. Good news: it's not as difficult as it seems. We present a step-by-step algorithm with practical advice, life hacks and the experience of small companies that have won more than one government order. At the end of the article there is a bonus: what to do if the customer does not pay money for work performed, and how to protect yourself in advance.

Step 1. Decide on the scope of government procurement

Please note: a lot depends on what law the customer works under. A customer who purchases under Law No. 44-FZ can choose absolutely any procurement item that he purchases from a small business. Each customer, according to Law No. 223-FZ, approves and posts on the procurement website a list of goods, works and services that it purchases from small and medium-sized businesses.

Goszakupki.ru", "Supplier"

Most often, small companies participate in purchases where they need to supply food or office supplies. Typically, it is more profitable for customers to work with a small business from their region or city than with a federal-level company. Don't be afraid to participate in procurement. No matter what you produce or what services you provide, there is always a good offer for you.

Is it possible for a beginner to win? Certainly. But for this you need to correctly assess your capabilities. Very often we see that some participants reduce prices below the cost of the project. Yes, they win the bid, and then, having realistically assessed their chances of success, they try to either deliver products of poorer quality or evade fulfillment of the contract.

Before you begin to participate in government procurement, determine the goods or services that you can offer to the customer. Choose the specifics that are most familiar to you - this will allow you to soberly assess how much you are willing to fulfill a government order for and make a profit. Once you gain enough experience, you can expand your horizons and explore new areas.

Valery Ovechkin, individual entrepreneur, expert on making money on government procurement

I started participating in government procurement with small amounts by the standards of government procurement - from 300 to 500 thousand rubles. At that time, I was involved in the event industry and organized large events in my city. Then I tried purchasing in other areas, first related ones - renting a stage, lighting equipment, sound equipment. Then I moved on to areas that I had not yet dealt with: the supply of firewood, machines, chairs for large public spaces. The main thing I understood during this time is that government procurement is a risky business, it is not a “magic pill.” Competitors are constantly being added, there are risks with non-payments, but This is the largest market in the country and it’s simply stupid not to make money on it.

Step 2. Find a tender

Small and medium-sized enterprises can participate in procurements that are carried out exclusively for them, as well as in any others on a general basis.

Bidding procedures are regulated by two Federal Laws - No. 44-FZ and No. 223-FZ. According to 44-FZ there are preferences for small businesses, according to 223-FZ - for small and medium-sized businesses. In such procurements, customers are required to set restrictions on all other bidders. The minimum volume of purchases per year for small and medium-sized businesses under 44-FZ must be at least 15% of the total annual volume of all purchases. According to 223-FZ - no less than 18% (Paragraph 1. Article 30 44-FZ and paragraph 5 of the Regulations, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 11, 2014 N 1352. Information about restrictions is indicated in the notice and procurement documentation.

According to 44-FZ, small enterprises can also act as a subcontractor for large organizations that have won the tender.

Note! According to Law No. 44-FZ, separate procurements are carried out only for small businesses and socially oriented non-profit organizations (SMP and SONO). According to Law No. 223-FZ - for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Notices about government procurement are posted on the website zakupki.gov.ru. This is a unified information system (UIS) with information on procurements of all state and municipal customers, budgetary and autonomous institutions, unitary enterprises, state corporations and state-owned companies. It’s easy to find procedures that are carried out separately for small and medium-sized businesses: click on the “Purchases from SMP and SONO” tab on the main page of the UIS.

Competitors without small business status will not come to such purchases. This means your chance to win and get favorable conditions will increase.

The procedure itself, based on the results of which a supplier will be selected, is not carried out in the Unified Information System. From January 1, 2019 Customers determine winners only electronically. All competitive procedures for small and medium-sized businesses are carried out on 9 large electronic platforms. To participate in them, you must be accredited at the sites. For a list of these sites, see the table at the end of the article.

It is important for entrepreneurs who are just starting to master government procurement to know: before being accredited on the site, you need to register with the Unified Information System. Until you enter information about the company into the register of procurement participants, you will not receive accreditation at the sites, and you will not be able to participate in competitions and auctions.

Not all suppliers yet know about Berezka, also known as a single trade aggregator. It is especially useful for small businesses: in this electronic store, federal customers are required to choose their only suppliers. From March 1, 2019 they do all their small purchases here. Moreover, the entire procurement cycle takes place on this site: from the announcement to the conclusion of the contract.

Beware, risk! Avoid bidding where the customer initially has his own contractor, and he prescribes all the conditions exclusively for him. Key signs: conditions that are too narrow or too broad. For example, the warranty period for a product should be 25 years, compared to the typical 5 years for a given product. For small companies, getting involved in such trades means wasting time, money and nerves.

Irina Sklyarova, editor-in-chief of the magazines “Goszakupki.ru”, “Supplier”

Government procurement even has its own terminology for this, which also appears in judicial practice - “sharpening”. This is when the customer specifies non-competitive conditions in the contract that only its supplier can fulfill. If you have read the terms of the contract and understand in advance that the conditions are hardly feasible, and the purchase is deliberately tailored, you simply should not participate in them. It’s another matter if, based on the results, you see that the winner is clearly a figurehead, for example, he is not able to fulfill the order. You can fight this absolutely legally and lawfully. You have the right to file a complaint with the FAS. Complaints are considered within 5 days and an order is issued. If there are indeed restrictions on competition on the part of the customer, the FAS will issue an order to hold the tender again.

Anatoly Maslov, CEO of the IT company Ensign

Even if you win such a tender, the customer will not allow you to complete it - he will hinder the implementation in every way, make demands beyond the technical specifications and make claims on unimportant issues. There is a possibility that the customer will use the result, but will not pay, accusing the contractor of failure to fulfill the contract. This may result in fines and loss of contract security. On one contract we were left with a minus of 300% of the stage price. It is difficult to insure against this if you want to participate in a large number of tenders. Of course, it is worth reading the terms of reference and asking for clarification of the documentation as much as possible before submitting the application. And in no case should you count on the customer’s loyalty and think about the possibility of meeting halfway.

Alexander Inozemtsev, entrepreneur

I participated in a tender for the supply of educational materials. The terms of reference were very simple and, in fact, for 2 million rubles it was necessary to develop six games that would make it possible to find out which of the customer’s employees copes well with their duties and who should be transferred to another position. The yield from the tender could be more than 100%. Already at the development stage, the customer directly said that he was not expecting me as a performer. The terms of reference were not specific; many points put me in an awkward position. As a result, the customer never accepted the work. I had to go to court. Six months later, the court sided with me, and the customer paid the money. Since then, I have firmly adhered to the rules of risk diversification: under no circumstances should I invest in one tender or take out tenders with borrowed funds.

Step 3. Prepare documents for participation in government procurement

The package of documents must be prepared carefully: you can cut off your path to the order if you miss at least one document or submit an expired certificate.

Three mistakes are most often made:

provide an invalid extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (valid for no more than 6 months);
the documents are not stamped with the organization's seal;
documents are submitted by an unauthorized person. For example, the general director and executive director have the right to submit documents. The rest must have a power of attorney that they have the right to represent the interests of the supplier.

Carefully fill out the application form No. 2 (information about the product). As a rule, the customer gives detailed instructions. It must be followed at every point. In practice, due to an incorrectly completed application, about 50% of applicants are not allowed to participate in government procurement.

To avoid making mistakes in the application form No. 2, hire specialists who have extensive practical experience in such work. They will carefully analyze the customer's documentation. These services are inexpensive on the market.

Along with the package of documents, provide the customer with the passport details of the head of the organization that participates in government procurement. Formally, the electronic platform will accept them according to the rules only from January 1, 2019, while the law obliges them to be provided now. We recommend that you do this without fail, otherwise your application may be rejected.

Check if your organization or the director of the organization is on the register of unscrupulous suppliers. The customer most often sets a requirement for participants - absence from this “black list”. If you are actively involved in procurement, one of the customers may have included your company in it, but you were not notified. You can check if everything is in order with your accounting using.

If your company participates in tenders that are held exclusively for small businesses under Law No. 44-FZ, you are required to confirm your status with a declaration (Part 3, Article 30 of Law No. 44-FZ). Participation in the status of small and medium-sized businesses according to Law No. 223-FZ is confirmed by a declaration and information from the register of small and medium-sized businesses (clause 31 of Resolution No. 1352 of December 11, 2014). In any case, you need to be in the SMSP register: if the customer does not find your company on ofd.nalog.ru, he will reject the application.

Step 4. Prepare application security

Securing an application is a kind of collateral for participation in the procurement. According to Law No. 44-FZ with the initial contract price of 1 million rubles. and below, customers may not require application security. In procurement under Law No. 223-FZ with a starting price of 5 million rubles. and below, customers should not require security for applications.

How exactly to provide security - in cash or a bank guarantee - each participant decides for himself. If the customer requires the bid to be secured, the amount of security should not exceed 5% of the initial maximum tender price. In purchases under 44-FZ with a “starting” price below 20 million rubles. The maximum amount of security is 1%.

If the procurement participant decides to provide the application with money, you need to open a special account in one of the authorized banks. Without this, there will be no access to trading. Select the bank in which you can open a special account from the list of Government Order No. 1451-r dated July 13, 2018.

Irina Sklyarova, editor-in-chief of the magazines “Goszakupki.ru”, “Supplier”

Some small business owners are deterred by the need to provide application security. And there is no need to be afraid. Even if you lose the competition, your security will be returned to you. Money to secure the application can be taken from the company’s turnover or borrowed for a while. Such services are also provided on the electronic platforms themselves for a small percentage. Banks issue so-called bank guarantees at a small percentage, and processing takes from 1 to 7 days.

Another opportunity to get money to secure an order is to take advantage of crowdlending platforms. Here you can get the necessary funds to participate in government procurement without going to banks, and the procedure itself is simplified as much as possible. An example of such a platform is Penenza.ru.

Galina Kharnakhoeva, crowdlending platform Penenza.ru

During 2017 and the first half of 2018, at Penenza.ru we issued 14,000 loans to representatives of small and medium-sized businesses to participate in state tenders in the amount of 14.7 billion rubles. The most popular loans and, accordingly, government tenders are for construction and repair work, for the supply of food, drinks, clothing and other manufacturing products, for maintenance services for buildings and territories, security and other administrative and economic services. The most common loan for participation in state tenders is for an amount of up to 1 million rubles. Peak requests are April and November.

Step 5. Go through the government procurement procedure

From January 1, 2019, all auctions under laws No. 44-FZ and No. 223-FZ will be conducted exclusively in electronic form. This will make the procedure more transparent and fair.

All procurement for small and medium-sized businesses is carried out only in a competitive manner in four forms: competition, auction, request for quotations and request for proposals. To find out exactly how each procedure goes, click on the orange blocks:

How the competition works in electronic form

The customer enters the purchase into the schedule.
The customer prepares a draft contract, which includes a mandatory condition for payment to the contractor.
The customer places a notice, procurement documentation and a draft contract in a unified electronic system.
The customer accepts applications from procurement participants. The procedure takes place in two stages. At the first stage, participants submit price proposals, reducing the initial contract price. At the second stage, all participants, except the leader, have the right to improve their price offers. After the competition has passed on the site, the results are sent to the customer. They are reviewed by the customer's commission. If the leader’s application meets the documentation requirements, the customer recognizes him as the winner.
The parties enter into a contract. This happens after the winner provides security for the contract - from 5 to 30% of the initial contract price. The contract is signed on an electronic platform.

How the auction and request for proposals proceed in electronic form

The customer places a notice in the unified information system and indicates the timing of the stage. All auction participants are subject to uniform qualification requirements, which are specified in the procurement documentation.
Participants fill out applications and prepare documentation. This is how they confirm that they meet the qualification requirements.
The customer rejects applications from companies that do not meet the established requirements.
Accepted participants submit their price proposals. To do this, they enter the electronic platform on the specified day and time and take part in the electronic auction or request for proposals procedure.
The winner checks the customer's draft contract, signs it with a qualified electronic signature and, together with a bank guarantee or payment order, sends it to the customer through the operator of the electronic platform.

How does a request for quotation proceed in electronic form?

An important difference between a request for quotation and other forms of bidding is that an enterprise does not need to have bid security to participate. In addition, the organizer does not have the right to require any documents from the participant other than an application in the prescribed form.

This form implies that the contract is awarded to the participant who offers the lowest price for its implementation. The contract price should not exceed 500 thousand rubles. The customer places the notice of bidding in the public domain.

Irina Sklyarova, editor-in-chief of the magazines “Goszakupki.ru”, “Supplier”

There are situations when, at the last stage, the supplier realizes that he cannot participate in the competition. For example, you planned to supply a product whose price is based on the dollar exchange rate. We submitted all the documents and an application for bidding, but suddenly the dollar exchange rate jumped seriously. You understand that this government order will become unprofitable for you and you will not be able to fulfill your obligations. How to avoid the consequences in this case? You can refuse to continue to participate in the auction, but in this case you will lose the amount that you transferred as security for the purchase. But, more often than not, it's better than not fulfilling a million-dollar contract, pay penalties and penalties and get included in the register of unscrupulous suppliers.

Step 5. File a complaint with the FAS if the customer violated the rules of public procurement

If you understand that the customer was wrong at one of the stages of government procurement, file a complaint with the FAS. This can be done on paper or use an electronic application with a digital signature. You can send an application in four ways: through the official website of the service, through the State Services website, by email delo@fas.gov.ru or a letter to the address 125993, Moscow, st. Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, 11. Be sure to indicate in the document:

information about the applicant, including postal address, e-mail, telephone;
information about the person whose actions or decisions you are appealing;
purchase number, unless you appeal the actions of the operator of the electronic platform;
reason for contacting;
documents confirming the applicant's arguments;
list of attached documents.

Sign the application with an electronic signature if you are sending the complaint electronically.

Bonus: What to do if the customer does not pay money for work performed and how to protect yourself in advance

Even an honest entrepreneur who fulfills all procurement requirements may encounter the following problem: the customer accepts the work, but does not pay the money. The arguments are usually as follows: there is nothing to pay, the enterprise is municipal, the limits have simply been revoked.

Andrey Mikhailov, General Director of FELIX company

In 2015-2016, we supplied furniture to the facilities of the Vostochny Cosmodrome and the city of Tsiolkovsky. The total amount of concluded contracts amounted to more than 1 billion rubles. We supplied a significant part of the furniture, but due to internal problems the customer never paid for it. To fulfill large orders, small businesses have to take out loans from banks and repay them from the money that the customer pays for the work performed. Therefore, a delay in payment under a government order or non-payment can put an entrepreneur in a very difficult financial situation.

What to do in this case? File a legal claim stating that in case of non-payment you will demand a penalty. Small business contracts must be paid within a limited time frame. For example, according to Law 44-FZ - within 15 working days (clause 8 of Article 30 of Law No. 44-FZ), according to Law No. 223-FZ - within 30 days. If you don’t have an in-house lawyer, turn to outsourcers.

Irina Sklyarova, editor-in-chief of the magazines “Goszakupki.ru”, “Supplier”

In the contract, each customer is obliged to stipulate the responsibility of the parties in case of failure to fulfill obligations. This concerns not only the party that performs the service or supplies the goods under the contract, but also the responsibility of the customer himself to pay for the work performed on time. This clause of the contract includes penalties and fines. That's why Please read the draft contract carefully before participating in the procurement.
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This is the purchase by the government of goods, works or services.

Government procurement is the same market for goods and services with one caveat: the buyers are state, regional and municipal enterprises and organizations. They also need ordinary paper clips and pencils, medical supplies, office furniture or their own website. They need to maintain and restore buildings, remove garbage and install Internet and telephony.

Simply put, government procurement exists in every field and in every region. They are interesting to business because the state is a good partner. The supplier can be a legal entity, an individual entrepreneur or an individual. Money for government procurement is included in the budget, so you are guaranteed to be paid for the goods delivered or the service performed.

Why participate in government procurement?

This is a good market.

Government organizations are a significant part of our economy. According to the FAS, the state's share in Russia's GDP has doubled in 10 years. In 2005 it was 35%, and in 2015 - 70%.

In addition, it increases the level of trust in your company and has a good effect on your reputation. Therefore, such a significant layer of the economy should not be overlooked.

I don't understand anything about government procurement. How to participate in them?

Government purchases come in different volumes. If the cost of purchases is more than 100 thousand rubles, information about them is posted on the website zakupki.gov.ru. Look for a suitable competition, submit an application and participate in the electronic auction. This is not an easy process, but if you want to compete for a significant part of the market, then it’s worth figuring it out. The main thing is to be patient.

There is an easier way to participate in government procurement, without competitions and auctions. It is of interest to small and medium-sized businesses due to the simplified participation procedure and small contract amounts. It looks like this: you offer your product or service to a government agency, and it selects a supplier and enters into a contract.

This procurement option is possible if their cost does not exceed 100 thousand rubles (or 400 thousand rubles if the purchase is made by educational organizations or cultural institutions: zoos, planetariums, recreation parks, theaters, philharmonic societies, libraries, and so on). Such purchases are called small volume purchases.

How to participate in small volume purchases?

The fact is that, according to No. 44-FZ, which regulates government procurement, information about small-volume purchases need not be published anywhere. It is believed that they are insignificant and holding auctions for such amounts is inappropriate. Therefore, government customers usually look for goods without competition (often choosing not the most advantageous offer and spending budget money ineffectively), and entrepreneurs cannot offer their services.

Moscow took a different path. To save budget and attract small and medium-sized businesses to government procurement, the city leadership created a single supplier portal. Not a single state or municipal institution in Moscow can conclude a small-volume procurement contract without going through the website. If we draw an analogy, you cannot buy bread without going to the store to buy it.

The Moscow supplier portal is focused specifically on small-volume purchases of up to 100 thousand rubles (or 400 thousand rubles if the purchase is made by cultural institutions or educational organizations). In addition, the portal hosts non-competitive purchases of medicines based on decisions of medical commissions.

And what is the Moscow supplier portal?

This is an online platform on which the city posts information about small-scale purchases and provides small businesses with access to the market for goods and services with a turnover of about 20 billion rubles per year.

Individual entrepreneurs and small businesses participate in government procurement in Moscow without auctions or unnecessary hassles. Anyone can post an offer on the portal, and city customers (there are more than 2.5 thousand of them) choose the best offer. Essentially, this is a store where you place your goods or services, offering them to the government.

Government procurement on the website takes place electronically. View orders and offer your services to state and municipal organizations and institutions without leaving your home.

The trick of the portal is that all procurement data is open and everything is transparent. You can see:

Procurement plans of government agencies and institutions for the coming year (in the “Plans” section).
Offers and prices of competitors (in the “Offers” section).
Transaction history for each registered supplier or customer (in the “Purchases” section).
Concluded contracts (in the “Contracts” section).

In the field of small-scale government procurement, clear and understandable rules have appeared that any entrepreneur can study. The chance of receiving a government order in such a system is much higher: you study the market and offer the best option available. At the same time, you do not reduce the price below the market price, do not work at a loss, but sell the product or service at a fair price.

This is just a semblance of honest procurement, isn’t it?

No, purchases are carried out honestly, without acquaintances and cronyism. 93% of entrepreneurs registered on the website received government orders and became suppliers.

Integrity is achieved through transparency, openness, electronic document management and clear procedures. It is precisely for this purpose that all data on previous contracts is open on the portal. Everything can be traced and, if something is dishonest, you can contact the FAS. Violations are fraught with heavy fines and criminal liability.

This is a cool solution for government procurement, which is used in the EU and other developed countries. For example, the top five leading countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2016 included Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, which adhere to similar principles in public procurement.

If you still don’t believe in the integrity of procurement on the portal, the numbers speak for themselves: in 2016, Moscow saved about 37 billion rubles on government procurement, topping the National Procurement Transparency Rating.

Convinced. How to become a supplier?

To become a supplier, you need to complete several steps.

In times of financial crisis, public procurement is one of the few saving opportunities for private business. This is an opportunity not only to stay afloat, but also to get help for active development. Some experts express the opinion that with the introduction of Federal Law-44, government orders for small businesses have become practically inaccessible.

How the system works

Declaring support for small businesses, the Government of the Russian Federation could not help but consolidate the legal basis for such support in state legislative acts.

In the field of public procurement, such support is reflected in the provisions of the Law on the Contract System, which oblige government customers to give 15% of the monetary volume of all orders to small businesses. The implementation of these indicators is monitored through the mechanism of posting relevant reports on the government procurement website.

As such, government agencies do not bear responsibility for failure to comply with this norm, but, according to official regulatory authorities, low efficiency indicators for attracting small businesses to government orders negatively affect the assessment of the performance of managers of government agencies.

Thus, when planning its procurement activities for the next year, the state customer still allocates the required percentage of government orders to small businesses, and the main task of small businesses is to receive this order.

Where to start

Entrepreneurs who have already gone through all stages of participation in procurement tenders and have a certain number of defeats and victories along the way are advised to start with training. Each municipal entity (city, district or regional center, etc.) has consulting and information structures for working with government orders.

A small business representative who wants to expand the market for their products by receiving orders from government or municipal structures has two options to start working in the field of public procurement:

Hire a certified specialist who will participate in tenders in the interests of the businessman.
Learn on your own or train one of your employees in the rules of working with electronic tenders.

The main advantage of the first path is the opportunity to immediately start with your offers on the exchange. There are two main disadvantages:

high cost of services of a certified specialist;
lack of prospects for independent participation in tenders (you cannot count on a specialist to train one of the employees).

If we talk about the second way, then it has only one drawback: a novice businessman will need some period (possibly long) to master the necessary intricacies of participating in procurement tenders.

A temporary delay in receiving real orders is a serious negative point. But, if an entrepreneur decides to take such a deferral, the knowledge and skills that he will acquire by understanding the science of working with government orders will open up a new long-term perspective for him to develop his own business.

Where and what to study

Today, there are several opportunities for small businesses to gain basic knowledge in the field of participation in procurement tenders:

government courses at small business support centers (two- or three-day seminars provide a general overview of government procurement and prepare the student for more specialized knowledge);
paid courses taught by lecturers who are professional bidders from both suppliers and customers;
paid and free webinars.

Each of these forms of training has its own disadvantages and advantages. Therefore, during the training period, it is recommended to use all sources of information to obtain the necessary tools that will make it possible to start making money on government procurement as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If we talk about what an entrepreneur can learn by undergoing training, then this is first of all:

the procedure for preparing documents to obtain an electronic signature and mastering the rules for using an electronic digital signature in your daily activities;
procedure for accreditation on electronic procurement resources;
search for promising tenders;
nuances of studying the customer’s technical documentation;
preparation of proposals for participation in tenders;
execution of contracts;
challenging customer decisions in the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Each item of the presented program is considered taking into account those features that are inherent in representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.

Specifics of participation of small businesses

The main features of procurement by small businesses lie in the area of financial and documentary support for participation in public procurement.

While a large enterprise can afford to buy software, pay deposits to bid and perform work, or sell products in advance, for smaller companies all these financial risks can result in complete failure.

By the way, this is one of the main reasons why representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are in no hurry to get involved with the public procurement system.

What financial expenses will an entrepreneur have to bear if he decides to receive a government order:

From 10 to 15 thousand rubles must be spent on purchasing an EDS (electronic digital signature) and software for it.
Equip the PC operator workplace according to modern standards.
To participate in electronic auctions, the supplier must provide monetary security, the amount of which is determined by the customer (from 0.5% to 5% of the contract amount); participation in the competition is ensured by a bank guarantee. If the participating supplier does not win the auction, the contribution must be returned to him within 5 working days from the date of announcement of the auction winner.
The customer makes payments for work performed or goods supplied only after the supplier has fully complied with the terms of the contract. In fact, entrepreneurs fulfill the contract for their own money, expecting that the state or municipal customer will return this money.

During the training process, small business representatives receive information on how to assess the level of benefits from participating in tender procurement, how to identify problem customers and how to defend their rights if they have been violated.