Public Procurement Efficiency as Perceived by Market Participants: The Case of Russia

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the indicators of public procurement efficiency as perceived by procurers and suppliers and what barriers must be overcome to consider procurement efficient. The authors used an online survey of Russian procurers and suppliers conducted in 2020 as the main data source. Methods based on comparison of descriptive statistics and distributions of answers for different subsamples were exploited. The analysis reveals that, despite the importance of fighting corruption and increasing competition, most participants consider the supply of high-quality goods and timely contract execution the most important criteria. COVID-19 has mitigated the rigidity of the regulation but exacerbated the ambiguity problem. During the pandemic, contract execution worsened. To improve procurement efficiency, the regulator should clearly specify requirements and consider the main participants’ interests.

KEYWORDS:

• Public procurement
• efficiency
• regulation
• COVID-19
• suppliers
• procurers

Acknowledgments

The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the HSE University. The authors express their thanks to procurers and suppliers for taking part in the survey and to Olga Uvarova for assistance in processing the survey data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For this question, respondents were required to choose a maximum of three options from the 12 available.

2. Their overall share totaled 54% (federal) vs. 27% (regional) in the general population according to the data from zakupki.gov.ru.

3. Among the procurers, 43% had 100 employees or more and 24% had 50–100 employees.

4. https://www.facebook.com/SovFedInfo/videos/504837317166012

5. In Russia, RIA procedures have been used since 2010 to evaluate the drafts of the new federal regulations governing enterprises’ activities. However, no such mechanism exists in the public sector.