Matvienko proposed to “drastically” speed up the disbursement of funds during the special operation

Speaker of the Federation Council (SF) Valentina Matvienko at a meeting of the upper house of parliament proposed to impose a moratorium on the implementation of federal law No. 44 “On the contract system in the procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs” until the end of the special military operation in Ukraine. She made the relevant statement after the speech of her deputy Nikolai Zhuravlev, who called on the regions to “provide maximum assistance to accelerate” the implementation of infrastructure projects, contracts for which must be concluded before June 1 (for federal facilities) and before July 1 (for regional ones).

“Time is such that we need to speed up, ignore redundant procedures. Colleagues, you know that the 44th law provides certain opportunities for the flexibility of procedures, although, of course, Valentina Ivanovna, it is obvious that, given the new challenges, this law must be very seriously unloaded and revised,” the vice speaker said. Matvienko, in turn, drew attention to the fact that the Russian government has streamlined the public procurement system and reduced the time for a number of procedures, but this “does not fundamentally solve the problem.” According to her, “even if everything goes according to plan, from July 1 until the end of the year there is almost half a year for the development of funds allocated for social facilities, schools, kindergartens, roads, etc.”

For the northern regions, the speaker of the Federation Council noted, “this is generally unacceptable – there is a short construction period, because of frost, etc.” She agreed that the regions can “shift [сроки] left”, but suggested “taking into account the current conditions, the new reality in which we live, do not cling to any dogma”. “Maybe to impose a moratorium on the 44th law and give the opportunity to quickly absorb the funds? Because the 44th law was presented as a fight against corruption, putting things in order. Those who stole, those who, as they say, behaved unscrupulously, those who gave contracts to their pocket companies, they find ways within the framework of the 44th law, and conscientious companies suffer, ”said Matvienko.

The senators supported her proposal with applause. Matviyenko instructed Zhuravlev to “apply to the government” in order to “impose a moratorium for the period until the completion of the special military operation and give the regions the right to make decisions on the start of construction of infrastructure, social and other facilities in an accelerated mode.” “It is impossible to stop the whole machine for the development of federal funds and the development of the country because of theoretical suspicions,” the speaker added, adding that she would also “talk to Prime Minister” Mikhail Mishustin.

“I believe it would be right to impose a moratorium, untie hands and enable effective, and not in a hurry, fast, low-quality development of the allocation of money for the development of the country and investment in the economy,” Matvienko concluded.

Zhuravlev wrote on his Telegram channel that the moratorium on the law on the contract system “will allow customers to choose the most optimal procurement method and significantly reduce the time of procedures, which is critical in the current period.” Matvienko’s initiative was “resolutely” supported by another vice-speaker of the Federation Council – Konstantin Kosachev. According to him, he receives many appeals on this subject from Mari El, which he represents in the upper house of parliament. “At one time, Federal Law No. 44 was adopted with the best of intentions, the main of which were two: reducing the cost of contracts for the budget and eliminating the corruption component. As experience has shown, neither the first nor the second was 100% successful,” Kosachev stated in his Telegram channel.

Andrei Klishas, ​​head of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation, also announced support for the initiative of the speaker of the upper house of parliament on his Telegram channel.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Matvienko’s proposal should be worked out at the government level. He does not know that this was discussed with Vladimir Putin. Matviyenko herself told reporters that she had not discussed the issue with the government in advance, but on January 31 it was discussed at the council of the upper house of parliament.

A high-ranking official, in an interview with Vedomosti, called the idea of ​​​​the speaker of the Federation Council “absolutely unrealistic”, since the initiative “will not be missed [министр финансов РФ Антон] Siluanov, nor [первый вице-премьер Андрей] Belousov (supervises the Ministry of Economics – Vedomosti). Vedomosti sent requests from these members of the Cabinet to the press service of the White House. A representative of the press service of the Ministry of Finance told Vedomosti that “the current legislation provides all the necessary tools for concluding contracts in the shortest possible time, including both within the framework of competitive procedures, and without their use, according to decisions of the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local administrations “.

“Currently, the definition of executors of state contracts, including contractors for construction work, can be carried out within a period not exceeding 26 calendar days during a tender or 18 calendar days during an auction,” the source said. “At the same time, for construction sites, a turnkey purchase can be carried out simultaneously for the design and construction of a capital construction facility, as well as for equipping with equipment.” In addition, as recalled in the Ministry of Finance, from 2022, the subjects of the Federation and municipalities are empowered to independently establish any additional cases of determining sole suppliers.

However, the idea expressed from the rostrum by the speaker of the upper house of parliament will definitely be supported by customers from the real sector of the economy. According to the interlocutor of Vedomosti in the industry, Matvienko “certainly timely” came up with an initiative that would allow not to drag out the procurement process for many months, especially in the state defense order sector. This will not only speed up the process of interaction in strategic sectors, but also give impetus to the development of the real sector and the economy as a whole, the source of Vedomosti believes. According to him, now the industry is “groaning because of the lengthy and bureaucratic procedures.” This can be called a consolidated position of the industry, which, of course, will find support from all its representatives, says a Vedomosti source.

Freezing the contract system will indeed allow more efficient spending of budgetary funds, but a moratorium, albeit temporary, may cross out all its achievements, Forward Legal lawyer Rostislav Katz told Vedomosti. According to the expert, the contract system, which was created to structure the bidding, which without it “are in chaos”, “allowed to significantly reduce corruption” and “the percentage of abuse in the bidding”. “Since the contract system is public and open, it successfully provides both public control and state control over the spending of budget funds. If the contract system is turned off for six months, law enforcement agencies will simply lose this opportunity, ”Katz explained.

Varvara Knutova, a partner at Sotheby law firm, also agrees that a moratorium on the law on the contract system or some of its provisions will help speed up all processes, since “the procurement procedure is not without bureaucracy, its launch and execution takes time, as well as the process of conducting and debriefing. Pavel Kushnarev, project manager for the Action of the State Order, drew attention to the fact that, although Matvienko ties his proposal to the completion of the special operation, we are talking about all public procurement. In his opinion, it is extremely unlikely that a moratorium will be completely imposed on the operation of the law: an instant, albeit temporary, cancellation of the contract system could paralyze procurement of the entire public sector.

“Technically and legally, it is very difficult to stop the operation of such a large-scale federal law. 44-FZ is supplemented by hundreds of by-laws and separate resolutions. Thousands of customers have already planned millions of purchases for 2023,” says Kushnarev. It is more likely, in his opinion, that, for example, construction will be completely or partially withdrawn from the contract system by offering some alternative mechanism, or all deadlines will be shifted to the left: so that procurement for infrastructure development starts earlier and passes faster.

“A compromise option, in which 44-FZ will somehow continue to operate, is the temporary transfer of all purchases to the status of urgent purchases from a single supplier,” admits Katz. Either way, customers will be able to simply choose the supplier of their choice, Katz added. He recalled that in 2011 it was proposed to introduce a moratorium on the “ancestor” of the modern law on the contract system – the law on procurement No. 94. . There has never been such a large-scale moratorium, as is being discussed now,” Katz added.