When Well-Intentioned Legal Reform Goes Awry : A Case Study of Legal Loopholes and Challenges to Anti-Corruption Reform of Russia ’ s Complex Procurement System
small enterprises by 52 % depends on the number of state and municipal customers who place their orders within them .
The democratic community pinned great hopes on the system of public commenting on procurements , but this method of protecting the interests of the participants was not highly effective . The participants ' activeness in the discussions is often not large ( 0-10 comments per purchase ), while in most cases comments are reduced to an emotional discussion of the need for such a purchase in general . In such discussions , the participants ’ arguments about violations in these purchases , signs of misuse of funds and so on are far less common .
However , this method of finding public opinion is very important and necessary . In our opinion , it needs to be popularized through a large-scale social advertising campaign . It is also important to increase the number of cases when public discussion of procurement is necessary , or to make it mandatory and open to all procurement .
Justifying the initial maximum contract price gives customers more opportunities to pursue their personal interests . In this regard , there are two options for violation of state interests by customers . On the one hand , the initial maximum contract prices are often inflated . This allows participants , who , through the use of certain methods of restricting competition , obtains a state contract at such an inflated price , receive additional profit , a part of which they can share with the official contributing to them in the form of a so-called “ kickback ”. However , in itself , overstating the initial maximum contract price is not a way to restrict competition , rather , on the contrary , such contracts attract more participants , so here unscrupulous customers are forced to use additional tricks .
Another option is less common , but no less interesting . Often , the initial maximum contract price is , on the contrary , underestimated . However , this does not always indicate that these customers are too thrifty . This method is used by unscrupulous officials to exclude all unwanted participants from participating in the purchase , who immediately see that participation in the purchase is unprofitable for them for such a small amount of money .
The only organization that takes part in such a purchase knows in advance that the customer does not really need a part of the work , services or goods . This often happens when the so-called “ empty ” works are included in the estimates . For example , it may be cleaning work , which according to the documents is made more often than in fact . Often such things are found in repair contracts , when additional layers of screed , plaster , paint or repair of objects that have recently been repaired are included in the estimate . Also , such phenomena are not uncommon for contracts of compensated provision of services , in which a larger volume of services is included than is required , for example , consulting services , repair of office equipment , and so on . A good example is also the contract for the
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