“Gostech” put things in order at the entrance – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) dated 04/11/2023

The Ministry of Digital Development intends to expand its influence on financing government spending on IT. The Ministry has developed a draft government decree detailing the transfer of state information systems (GIS) to the single digital platform Gostekh, and plans to assume the authority to carry out the necessary purchases at the expense of the Digital Economy state program. De facto, in order to stop the practice of government ordering repeating IT systems, the Ministry of Digital Development intends to become a single customer for such software. On the one hand, such a solution will allow for more efficient cost management, on the other hand, it may increase competition in the market.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation has published a draft government decree on regulation.gov.ru, which describes in detail the procedure for interaction between the department and government agencies and non-budgetary funds in the creation, development and operation of GIS on the Gostekh platform. The document is a detail of Presidential Decree No. 231 “On the creation, development and operation of state information systems using the unified digital platform of the Russian Federation “GosTech”” dated March 31, 2023 (Kommersant wrote about him on April 4). In accordance with the project, the ministry will be able, upon concluding an agreement on interaction with departments, to purchase the goods, works and services necessary for this within the budget, the Digital Economy national program, while government agencies and non-budgetary funds will take on the function of a functional customer, the Ministry of Digital Development will take on the function of a technical customer.

“Thus, the authorities will act as customers and give requirements for the functionality of GIS, and it is proposed to purchase these works and monitor the implementation of the Ministry of Digital Development. Such a solution will allow the use of uniform quality standards and standard components for systems. This will save money and reduce the time for the translation of information systems, ”a source close to the ministry told Kommersant. The Ministry of Digital Development will be able to carry out such purchases at the expense of its budget – the funds for this are included in the national program, he added.

As Kommersant was told in the apparatus of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, a plan has now been prepared that provides for the transfer of 59 priority systems of departments and subjects of the Russian Federation. The list will be specified in the process of interdepartmental coordination. It should be noted that the developed document assumes that the department, within 15 calendar days after the inclusion of the GIS in the plan, is obliged to conclude an agreement on information exchange with the Ministry of Digital Development. It should reflect, among other things, the procedure and term for the preparation of technical specifications, the procedure for conducting procurement and acceptance work.

For procurement, it is planned to create a project office with the obligatory participation of at least deputy heads of departments and the Ministry of Digital Development, as well as responsible persons of the supplier (contractor, performer). This measure should allow coordinating and controlling the activities of the participants in the process. “If the document passes public discussions and is approved by the government, we hope that the mechanism will start operating this year,” a source close to the Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant. Technically, this should ensure the uniformity of requirements for manufacturers of state systems included in Gostech – the platform itself should become a new environment for the digitalization of the state, designed to reduce government spending on the creation of GIS by reusing modules already implemented at the state expense of IT projects.

It should be noted that, for example, the Ministry of Construction already has a similar experience – the transfer of part of state construction projects to the public law company “Single Customer in the Sphere of Construction” was aimed at increasing the efficiency of disbursing allocated funds through a deeper and more uniform examination of the department and its “vision » construction projects in the context of the entire public construction industry. For the market, the creation of a single technical customer in IT may lead to increased competition between suppliers, which, however, is most likely also a concomitant bonus for the Ministry of Digital Development.

Venera Petrova