How to incorrectly purchase radio-electronic products: violations on the example of public procurement for the data center for almost 1.2 billion rubles

2023: FAS revealed violations at the tender

The FAS found violations of the law on the contract system in the purchase of a set of equipment for equipping the data center with an initial price of almost 1.2 billion rubles, which in the fall of 2022 was carried out by the "Single Customer in the Field of Construction" for the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAS). Violations were revealed following an unscheduled audit at the end of December, which the FAS conducted after publishing an article on the TAdviser portal about how Russian suppliers of electronic products find themselves out of business on public procurement due to customer actions. The FAS published the results of this control event in January 2023^[1].

In this case, heterogeneous goods were combined into one lot in the form of a set. For example, scanners, power distribution cabinets, a temperature sensor, a mechanical lock for a door kit, and others. Part of the goods refers to radioelectronic products, the purchase of which, according to the law, is subject to special requirements.

The FAS Commission revealed violations of the law on the contract system for the purchase of a set of equipment for equipping the data center INION RAS "(photo: Gorodenkoff - stock.adobe.com)"

In accordance with the current legislation, in order to purchase radioelectronic products, when announcing a tender, it is necessary to establish a PP-878 restriction, indicate the properties of the product according to the "Catalog of Goods, Works, Services to Meet State and Municipal Needs" (KTRU) and find the required analogue of the product in the register of radioelectronic products (RAP) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade .

At the same time, the customer does not have the right to establish additional requirements for purchased products that are not provided for by the KTRU if the purchase of radioelectronic products included in the list approved by the PP-878 is carried out, subject to the establishment of restrictions on the admission of radioelectronic products originating from foreign countries in accordance with this decree.

In addition, in accordance with paragraph 7 of the PP-878, for the purpose of restricting the admission of foreign radio electronic products, radio electronic products included in the list approved by the PP-878 and not included in it cannot be the subject of one contract (one lot).

The FAS Commission concluded that in the case of the purchase for the data center INION RAS, the customer did not apply the mandatory characteristics of the KTRU to the goods to which he was supposed to apply them, and also established additional characteristics when describing goods in violation of the law on the contract system. In addition, the FAS commission established that goods included and not included in the list approved by the PP-878 were combined into one procurement object, which is also a violation.

Also, the customer did not establish a ban on the admission of imported software in accordance with the PP-1236 or justification for not applying this ban, which is required to be established on public procurement.

Thus, the FAS commission came to the conclusion that during the purchase there were several violations of the law on the contract system at once. The inspection materials will be transferred to the FAS State Order Placement Control Department, where they will consider the issue of initiating cases of administrative offenses.

At the same time, since the state contract has already been concluded, it was decided not to issue an order to eliminate the identified violations to the customer.

It follows from the register of procurement complaints that the antimonopoly authorities regularly recognize as justified complaints about situations in the procurement of electronic products, including those similar to the one described above. But most often we are talking about not very large purchases. And not every participant can complain about large purchases. The fact is that from January 2022, new rules for appealing procurement came into force. Among the most significant changes, it can be noted that complaints about electronic purchases are filed only through the UIS, and if the purchase provides for universal pre-qualification, then only those participants who correspond to it can complain.

Universal 44-FZ pre-qualification is also an innovation established to confirm the experience of the supplier. It means that in order to participate in purchases with an initial price of over 20 million rubles, a company must have experience in executing contracts in the amount of at least 20% of the contract price. In the case of the purchase described above for INION RAS, it turns out that you need to have experience in successfully fulfilling a similar contract in the amount of more than 250 million rubles.

It turns out that manufacturers of certain types of domestic goods, including electronic products, cannot even file a complaint if they do not meet the established pre-qualification requirements.

2022: Tendering

In September 2022, the "Unified Customer in the Field of Construction" at EPGU announced an open auction for the supply of a set of equipment for equipping a data processing center (engineering infrastructure, IT infrastructure, LAN and Wi-Fi, scanning) for the object "Restoration of the building of the federal state budgetary institution of science of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FSBUN INION RAS)^[2]. The initial price was 1.195 billion rubles.

The selection was made from two applications for the competition. The winner was the SysSo ft company, with which a state contract of 1.189 billion rubles was concluded.

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