The Ministry of Finance’s experiment in selling non-core assets of state-owned companies electronically in the GIS “Torgi” is postponed

According to Kommersant, the Ministry of Finance’s experiment in selling non-core assets of state-owned companies electronically in the GIS “Torgi” is being postponed – the department needs to agree on its terms with state-owned joint-stock companies, not all of which agree to transfer transactions to a single platform. The Ministry of Finance believes that the experiment will increase the reach of potential buyers and increase the efficiency of asset sales. Some state-owned companies, on the contrary, believe that the changes will reduce the efficiency of trading and are afraid of additional costs due to the integration of their own sites with the GIS “Torgi”. Attempts by the Ministry of Finance to convert trading in non-core assets of state-owned companies and state property in general into electronic form repeat the course of a similar reform of government procurement – then the ideas of increasing publicity and transparency in the sphere also aroused objections from the market, but were pushed through by the Ministry of Finance in order to increase competition and save on government orders.

The government returned to the Ministry of Finance for revision a draft government resolution on conducting a pilot project to transfer sales of non-core assets of state-owned companies into electronic form and mandatory placement of trading data in the GIS “Torgi” system, follows from a letter from First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government Valery Sidorenko to the Ministry of Finance dated March 28 . In 2023, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov instructed the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Federal Property Management Agency to conduct an experiment on the sale of non-core assets of state-owned companies in the GIS “Torgi” and to prepare appropriate directives for the largest state-owned joint stock companies. The reason for the experiment was an appeal from Business Russia: it is inconvenient for businesses that are interested in purchasing such assets that data is published spontaneously and on different platforms.

The draft directives prepared by the Ministry of Finance in this context (Kommersant has it) suggest that representatives of state interests in state-owned companies from the special list No. 91-r (government order No. 91-r dated January 23, 2003) and organizations that will take part in the pilot, you need to vote for the sale of non-core assets at auctions exclusively in electronic form, for posting data on auctions in the GIS “Torgi”, for their holding on trading platforms accredited under the law on public procurement (44-FZ), as well as for the registration of auction participants in GIS “Trading” for automatic registration on electronic platforms. Aeroflot, Russian Railways, SO UES and ALROSA should take part in the experiment.

According to Kommersant, some state-owned companies did not agree with the change in the process of selling non-core assets. For example, Gazprom, in a letter to the government, said that the obligation, and not the right, to place data on the company’s trading in the GIS “Torgi” will reduce their effectiveness: they will have to train employees to work in the new system and integrate their own platform (ETP GPB) with the GIS “ Bidding”, which entails additional costs. Aeroflot agrees to participate in the experiment, but is also ready to use the Bidding GIS only as an additional tool for informing potential buyers about ongoing auctions.

The Ministry of Finance explains that the amendments imply the possibility of posting information on the sale of non-core assets of state-owned joint stock companies in the GIS “Torgi”, but not an obligation. The department adds that the obligation will apply only to a few state-owned companies that, based on the results of a survey by the Ministry of Finance, expressed a desire to participate in the pilot project. It is expected that the initiative will maximize profits from the sale of non-core assets at public auction. Thus, according to the Treasury as a GIS operator, public sales at auctions make it possible to increase the selling price of property by 20–30% of the initial one. “First of all, placing data in the GIS “Torgi” will ensure publicity of auctions and wider coverage of potential buyers,” says the Ministry of Finance.

According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, who is familiar with the discussion of the project by regulators, state-owned companies and sites, the goal of the former is to ensure publicity of the process of getting rid of non-core assets by companies with state participation, to prevent them from going into the hands of affiliates and to maximize budget revenues: putting such assets up for public auction with a wide number of potential participants allows you to get the maximum selling price, and the GIS “Torgi” guarantees, among other things, the transparency of sales and the transfer of funds to legal recipients, while their sales on “pocket” electronic trading platforms (several state-owned companies have) often turn out to be opaque for the state . The details of the pilot project are now being discussed with all its potential participants, and the fundamental approaches to the sale of “non-core” are being discussed with a wider list of state-owned joint-stock companies, described by list 91-r.

According to a letter from the government office, the Ministry of Finance will have to convince state-owned companies of the feasibility of changes, namely: prepare and agree on the regulations for the pilot project with those of them who are ready to participate in it, and also submit proposals agreed with the state-owned joint stock company according to list No. 91-r in terms of responsibilities placement of tender data in the GIS “Trading”.

The Ministry of Finance’s experiment in selling non-core assets of state-owned companies in the GIS “Torgi” complements the department’s initiatives to transfer all tenders of state property into electronic form based on the same system. The department, we recall, is seeking the introduction of legally significant electronic document management with the registration of bidders in the GIS “Torgi” to collect data on sales of state property throughout their entire cycle (see “Kommersant” dated March 24). These attempts by the Ministry of Finance did not find support from the GPU, but the director of the relevant department of the Ministry of Finance, Andrei Vorontsov, recently confirmed that registration of participants in the GIS “Torgi” system will still be mandatory – the department is preparing amendments. Note that the current plot is de facto a repetition of the situation that developed when the law on public procurement came into force – then the idea of ​​​​increasing publicity and transparency of the sphere (see Kommersant of March 15, 2018), as well as limiting the pool of sites admitted to bidding for government orders (see “Kommersant” dated September 28, 2015), also raised objections from the ETP, but were pushed through by the Ministry of Finance for reasons of competition and savings on government orders.

Diana Galieva, Oleg Sapozhkov