The Ministry of Economic Development proposes to adopt a separate law on state auctions, establishing uniform principles and a universal procedure for the sale of state property. So far, only the project concept is ready (Vedomosti has a copy). The ministry is discussing it with other executive authorities, experts and business, a representative of the Ministry of Economic Development confirmed, and the ministry is creating an interdepartmental working group.

Where are state property sold?

Russian auction house and five government order platforms: RTS-tender, Sberbank-AST, EETP, State Order Agency of the Republic of Tatarstan and MICEX ETP.

The new law will have to gradually transfer all tenders, starting with federal ones, into electronic form, and create a unified system of information about tenders based on the website www.torgi.gov.ru. Electronic trading platforms will be linked to the portal; their list, as the Ministry of Economic Development writes, will be established by the government. In December 2015, the government designated six such sites (see box). The trading portal will be multifunctional, with services for buyers (for example, payment, credit, insurance, analytical, consulting), comments a representative of the Ministry of Economic Development.

It is proposed to seriously expand the powers of the FAS - the service will be the only body that controls the bidding procedure and considers complaints about them. FAS will also maintain a Unified Register of Unscrupulous Bidders; it will include winners who did not enter into an agreement, or so-called raiders who raise the price above the economically justified price in order to disrupt the auction. Those included in the register will be barred from trading for two years. The FAS and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications will monitor electronic platforms, the FAS will be able to propose to the government to disqualify the electronic platform. A FAS representative did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications does not support the concept, since competitive procedures for the sale of state property should be described in the competition law, where some of them already exist, says Deputy Minister of Communications Mikhail Evraev. The competition law contains only general prohibitions, the Ministry of Economic Development objects in its concept. It is not clear why a new concept is needed if all the amendments necessary to transfer trading to electronic form were developed 2.5 years ago by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and State Duma deputies, but they will not be accepted, although they have been in the Duma since January 2014, explains Evraev.

Federal property in 2015–2016 was sold for 13 billion rubles, according to estimates of the Russian Auction House (RAD). While trading is taking place in the form of hammer auctions, participants must be present in the hall. There are approximately 30 ways to conduct auctions - depending on the subject of bidding, information about only 12 types of bidding should be posted on the website www.torgi.gov.ru, says the explanatory note to the bill of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.

Of course, the resource www.torgi.gov.ru needs to be developed; now it is a difficult bulletin board to search, analyze and control, says Nikolai Andreev, general director of Sberbank-AST. It is necessary to change legislation and strengthen integration with various information resources, including electronic platforms, he believes.

Not a single auction of federal property has yet been held electronically; 100% is sold at classic “hammer” auctions, says RAD General Director Andrei Stepanenko. Regional property at electronic auctions as an experiment in 2011–2012. sold St. Petersburg for 1.5 billion rubles, then Moscow, and later Tatarstan, adopted the experience, but the total share of these sales is less than 5%, Stepanenko said, so the need for a general transition to electronic form is doubtful.

Instead of the concept of transferring all bidding to electronic form, it is better to write a law on open bidding, which will allow the use of a combined bidding procedure, when the same lot is sold simultaneously on the hammer and electronic, as has been done in the West for 30 years, says Stepanenko. and it throws us to extremes.

The Ministry of Economic Development proposes a unified bidding system for the state