Multi-win situation of government procurement

Improve public services, help overcome poverty, lead green environmental protection and support small and medium-sized enterprises.
Multi-win situation of government procurement

In 2019, the national government procurement scale was 3,306.7 billion yuan, accounting for 10% and 3.3% of the national fiscal expenditure and GDP respectively. The government procurement system not only regulates and saves financial expenditure, but also undertakes more policy functions, which strongly supports the development of various national undertakings. With the continuous improvement of standardization and transparency of government procurement, it has a direct role in promoting budget performance management and promoting government affairs openness.

On December 29th, 2020, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Administrative Measures for Government Procurement to Promote the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to further support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of government procurement. Government procurement helps "small" and "micro", and the measures are practical.

In recent years, the term "government procurement" has frequently entered the public eye. What policy role can this expenditure mode play? How to further improve government procurement? The reporter conducted an interview on this.

The scope of government procurement is constantly expanding and its functions are constantly upgrading.

In 2019, the national government procurement scale was 3,306.7 billion yuan, accounting for 10% and 3.3% of the national fiscal expenditure and GDP respectively. The government procurement system not only regulates and saves financial expenditure, but also undertakes more policy functions, which strongly supports the development of various national undertakings.

-Improve the efficiency in the use of government procurement funds for public services and safeguard social public interests.

"Government purchasing services" is a major innovation in the way government services are provided in recent years-from the services required by the government to public services, from the initial sanitation cleaning services to public legal services, public cultural services, public sports services, medical and health services, education services, disabled services, old-age services, youth services and other fields.

On January 3, 2020, the Ministry of Finance promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Government Procurement of Services, which regulated the subjects, undertakers and contents of purchases. "In the future, public services in the field of people’s livelihood will be more provided by the market, and the government will choose to undertake the main link and apply the relevant policies and regulations on government procurement, which will enhance the cost performance of the purchased services and safeguard national interests and social public interests." Yang Zhiyong, vice president of the Institute of Finance and Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences, said.

-purchasing agricultural products from poverty-stricken areas to help fight poverty.

At present, "poverty-relief commodities" from 22 provinces and 832 poverty-stricken counties in China are being purchased in batches by budget purchasing units on the "online sales platform for agricultural and sideline products in poverty-stricken areas" built by the Ministry of Finance and the National Supply and Marketing Federation. As of December 27th, 2020, this government procurement e-commerce platform, referred to as "832 platform", has put more than 90,000 items on the shelves, with a total turnover of 8 billion yuan.

"Integrating government procurement policies into the fight against poverty will help the poor to increase their income and get rid of poverty, and promote the stable poverty alleviation of the poor and the sustainable development of industries in poverty-stricken areas." Shen Xuefeng, a researcher at the China Academy of Fiscal Science, said.

-expanding the scope of green procurement and giving play to the demonstration effect of environmental protection.

"Coal to electricity projects, urban black and odorous water treatment, water source protection, soil pollution prevention and control projects, mainly by government procurement. In addition, the use of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly products by government procurement has a significant leading demonstration effect on the formation of energy-saving and emission-reducing and green consumption habits in the whole society. " Yang Zhiyong said.

The data shows that in the "bill" of national government procurement in 2019, the national compulsory and priority procurement of energy-saving and water-saving products was 63.37 billion yuan, accounting for 90% of the procurement scale of similar products, and the national priority procurement of environmental protection products was 71.87 billion yuan, accounting for 88% of the procurement scale of similar products.

-expand the share of procurement contracts for small and medium-sized enterprises and support the realization of national macro-control objectives.

As early as 2011, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Interim Measures for Government Procurement to Promote the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, which expanded the share of small and medium-sized enterprises in government procurement contracts through measures such as reserving shares and evaluating preferential treatment. In 2019, the contract amount awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises by national government procurement was 2,451.91 billion yuan, accounting for 74.1% of the national government procurement scale. The new policy at the end of 2020 will further expand the share of government procurement for small and medium-sized enterprises, which will more strongly support the development of such enterprises.

Improve the standardization and transparency of procurement, and promote the openness of government affairs by "understanding accounts"

In July, 2020, with the supplier successfully completing the online decryption of bidding documents in the remote bid opening hall of "Zhengcaiyun" platform of Guangxi Government Procurement Center, the property service procurement project of Guangxi Public Resource Trading Center entered the bid opening procedure.

"Opening bids without meeting" lightens the burden of bidding enterprises, is conducive to epidemic prevention and control, and also improves the procurement efficiency, which is the latest achievement of "internet plus government procurement" reform. Online operation in the whole process of bid opening and evaluation, leaving traces step by step, and open and transparent online inquiry and response can effectively reduce corruption in the field of government procurement.

"Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the government procurement management system has been improved day by day, and the system of government procurement transactions with public bidding as the main procurement method has been continuously enriched, the’ internet plus government procurement’ has been steadily promoted, the construction of central and local electronic stores has been strengthened, the procurement efficiency has been improved, the regulations and practices that hinder fair competition in the field of government procurement have been comprehensively cleaned up, and the business environment for government procurement has been optimized." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Finance said.

In recent years, it is the top priority of government procurement management to establish the whole process information disclosure mechanism and carry out "transactions under the sun". In 2020, the Ministry of Finance made it clear that all procurement projects implemented by the central budget units should disclose their procurement intentions to the public in accordance with regulations, further improve the transparency of government procurement, ensure all market entities to participate in government procurement activities on an equal footing, and improve procurement performance.

In recent years, all localities have continuously improved the transparency of procurement, and achieved remarkable savings. For example, the government procurement center of the central state organs saved 3,150,650 yuan in procurement funds in the disabled elderly care service project of the China Red Cross Society Career Development Center, with a saving rate of 39.38%.

"Improving the government procurement policy not only saves financial funds, but also has a direct role in promoting budget performance management, promoting government affairs openness and curbing corruption." Yang Zhiyong said.

Accelerate the establishment of a modern government procurement system, expand the scale of procurement and improve procurement efficiency.

"China’s government procurement system has made gratifying achievements, but it is not mature enough to fully meet the requirements of the current national governance capacity and modernization of the governance system." Xu Hongcai, Vice Minister of Finance, believes that there are some problems in the current government procurement system, such as extensive management of procurement transaction system, poor policy transmission mechanism, and the performance level of procurement agencies and evaluation experts needs to be improved.

In Xu Hongcai’s view, these problems will lead to low procurement efficiency and satisfaction, and limit the implementation effect of procurement policies.

To this end, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Finance said that in order to solve the current problems in government procurement, relevant reform measures will be steadily promoted in accordance with the requirements of the "Deepening the Reform Plan of Government Procurement System" adopted by the Central Committee for Deep Reform.

For example, in view of the shortcomings of the current government procurement law in the implementation process, the government procurement laws and regulations are revised. For another example, based on the principle of "who purchases, who is responsible", establish and improve the purchaser’s responsibility mechanism for procurement results, improve the internal control management of purchasers, and improve the purchaser’s professional procurement ability.

"In addition, it is necessary to further improve the government procurement transaction mechanism and strengthen the government procurement policy function." The person in charge said that it is necessary to promote the realization of the procurement goal of "high quality and good price", and clarify the application of different competition scopes and different procurement methods in combination with different project demand characteristics, performance objectives and market supply and demand, so as to improve procurement efficiency and capital application efficiency. At the same time, efforts should be made to build a standard system of government procurement requirements and improve the implementation measures of government procurement policies.

"International government procurement generally accounts for about 15% of GDP, and in China it is less than 4%, and there is still great potential to be tapped." Yang Zhiyong said that the government procurement laws and regulations system should be further improved, and a more scientific government procurement system should be designed according to the requirements of incentive compatibility mechanism, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of government purchasers and fully release the policy role of government procurement. "In the final analysis, it is still necessary to accelerate the establishment of a modern government procurement system that adapts to the characteristics of market transactions and stimulates the enthusiasm of all participants." (Reporter Qu Zhehan)