Recently, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Carrying out the Work of Disclosing Government Procurement Intentions" (Cai Ku [2020] No. 10), and standardized the text format for disclosing government procurement intentions. This move has sparked heated discussions in the industry, with some praising it and others pointing out practical difficulties. For this reason, our newspaper specially publishes the special topic "Focus on the Disclosure of Government Procurement Intentions" to provide some reference opinions for the majority of practitioners.

Government Procurement Intent Disclosure Should "Connect the Past and the Future"
——Understanding of Government Procurement Demand Publicity and Suggestions on Carrying out Government Procurement Intent Disclosure

■ Wang Tao

Recently, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Work of Disclosing Government Procurement Intentions" (Cai Ku [2020] No. 10, hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). As an important measure to implement the deepening reform of government procurement and optimize the business environment, it has made specific arrangements on the steps, subjects, channels, bases, and time of disclosing government procurement intentions, pointing out the direction for the next step of pilot work.

The Necessity of Disclosing Government Procurement Intentions

We know that whether information disclosure is timely and sufficient is an important factor affecting the efficiency of resource allocation. In the process of resource allocation, information asymmetry will affect the efficiency of transactions, lead to distortion of resource allocation, and even cause serious corruption problems. In specific practice, information asymmetry exists objectively. In economics, information asymmetry refers to the fact that in market economic activities, various personnel have different understandings of relevant information. Those who have sufficient information are often in a more favorable position, while those who are lacking in information are in a more unfavorable position. Information asymmetry often leads to adverse selection and moral hazard. It is impossible to completely eliminate information asymmetry, but some mechanisms can be used to reduce the impact of information asymmetry.

The disclosure of government procurement intentions better solves the problem of the impact of information asymmetry in government procurement activities. It allows the majority of potential suppliers to know procurement information earlier, contact and communicate with purchasers in advance, and get involved in procurement activities earlier. It makes up for the imbalance in suppliers' ability to discover information, better avoids the uncertainty faced in decision-making behavior, enables both purchasers and suppliers to set better strategies, reduces transaction costs, and is of great significance for optimizing the government procurement business environment, improving the transparency of government procurement, safeguarding the rights of potential suppliers to participate in government procurement activities equally, enhancing procurement performance, and curbing corruption.

The Relationship and Difference Between Government Procurement Intent Disclosure and Government Procurement Demand Publicity

Once the "Notice" was issued, it triggered a heated discussion among relevant practitioners. Everyone's first feeling is whether the disclosure of government procurement intentions is the same as the government procurement demand publicity and the government procurement demand solicitation notice before bidding that we have seen?

The "Implementation Regulations of the Government Procurement Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Regulations") stipulates that "for public service projects provided by the government to the public, opinions from the public shall be solicited on determining procurement demands". In actual operation, many places have continuously strengthened the disclosure of government procurement information and demand management in accordance with the provisions of the "Implementation Regulations" and the requirements of documents such as the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Doing a Good Job in the Disclosure of Government Procurement Information" and the "Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Finance on Further Strengthening the Management of Government Procurement Demand and Performance Acceptance". Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong and other places have standardized the solicitation of public opinions on public services provided by the government to the society, and Shandong, Heilongjiang, Guizhou and other places have made relevant requirements on the formulation and publicity of government procurement demands, and strengthened the management of government procurement demands.

The disclosure of government procurement intentions means that budget units disclose the name, general situation of procurement demand, budget amount, expected procurement time and other contents of goods, engineering, and service procurement projects that are included in the centralized procurement catalog or above the procurement quota standard on government procurement websites and other agreed channels at least 30 days before the start of procurement activities.

Government procurement demand publicity, as an item of demand management content, means that for situations in line with the relevant regulations of the financial department, budget units publicize on designated media after determining their government procurement demand plans to solicit opinions from relevant participants. In the author's opinion, some publicity or notices for soliciting opinions on procurement documents should also be included in the concept of government procurement demand publicity.

The common points of the two include: improving the transparency of government procurement, facilitating suppliers to understand government procurement information in advance, ensuring that all types of entities participate in government procurement activities equally, and creating a good business environment; improving the efficiency of government procurement and enhancing procurement performance.

Both publicize the basic situation of the budget project, including the project name, project overview, budget amount, etc.

The differences between the two are: the disclosure of government procurement intentions is more to inform suppliers of procurement information in advance, so that they can make various preparations for participating in government procurement activities, and at the same time welcome potential suppliers to contact and communicate; government procurement demand publicity is to solicit opinions on various requirements of the procurement subject, aiming to improve government procurement demands, which serves as the basis for formulating procurement documents and implementing government procurement activities. Simply put, the content of government procurement demand publicity should be the demand content in the final government procurement documents.

There is no stipulation on whether to demonstrate in the disclosure of government procurement intentions; before the government procurement demand publicity, it is generally required to invite relevant experts to demonstrate the demand content.

At present, government procurement demand publicity mainly plays the role of disclosing government procurement intentions

The purpose of government procurement demand publicity is to enable potential suppliers to timely understand the complete content of government procurement demands, and timely feedback unreasonable clauses such as tendentiousness, restrictiveness, exclusivity, and illegal acts involved in government procurement demands to budget units and agencies, so as to make timely corrections, avoid project stoppages due to doubts and complaints after the documents are issued, and improve the efficiency of government procurement. However, according to the current understanding, suppliers' attention to government procurement demand publicity is only to understand the general situation of the project, and their real detailed attention to the plan is after the bidding documents are issued. For example, doubts and complaints about the project mostly occur after the government procurement documents are issued. From the perspective of suppliers, the bidding documents are more comprehensive and detailed, and not raising objections in the early stage does not affect continuing to raise objections to relevant contents after the procurement documents are issued; the content of government procurement demand publicity of most budget units is more a description of the general situation of the procurement project, and the detail is far lower than the actual procurement plan in the bidding documents. Therefore, at present, most government procurement demand publicity just plays the role of disclosing government procurement intentions.

Suggestions on the Pilot Work of Disclosing Government Procurement Intentions

After the disclosure of government procurement intentions is formally included in the procurement process, for purchasers, it is equivalent to adding a process for some projects that need to be publicized and for which opinions need to be solicited in advance; for suppliers, they need to pay attention to multiple sets of information before the documents are issued, the information sources and the amount of information have expanded, and they have more comprehensive information, but it also virtually increases the time cost. For this reason, can we consider combining the disclosure of government procurement intentions with government procurement demand publicity, giving play to their respective advantages, and incorporating the disclosure of government procurement intentions into demand management?

The disclosure of government procurement intentions not only serves suppliers, but also should serve budget units. With the continuous strengthening of the principal地位 of purchasers, "absence" cannot be exempted from responsibility, and responsibility is no longer "hidden". However, at present, the actual operation ability of purchasers is not equal to their responsibilities, and purchasers cannot bear the responsibilities. The disclosure of government procurement intentions should also be an important channel for purchasers to solicit reasonable plans from potential suppliers, and a feedback mechanism should be established. On the one hand, with the assistance of social forces, solve the problems of insufficient information, knowledge and professionalism of purchasers, and continuously improve the level of formulating government procurement demands of purchasers; on the other hand, put forward the doubts and complaints about government procurement demands in advance, improve the smoothness of the government procurement implementation process, and improve government procurement performance.

Centralized Procurement Agencies Should Strengthen the Consulting Service Function

The "Notice" clearly stipulates that government procurement intentions shall be disclosed by budget units. Then, as entrusted agencies and institutions providing venues, consulting and transaction services, what work should centralized procurement agencies complete in the disclosure of government procurement intentions?

Conduct sufficient research to provide reference for relevant departments in formulating policies. Give full play to the role of centralized procurement agencies as a link between the government and the market, timely feedback the opinions and suggestions of purchasers and suppliers to relevant departments, so as to provide reference for relevant departments to formulate pilot policies in line with local reality.

Provide professional services for purchasers. In view of the difficulties in the formulation of government procurement demands by purchasers, provide professional guidance and services in combination with the actual requirements of purchasers.

Provide services in advance. After receiving the entrustment and transaction projects, or after the budget information arrives, timely determine the start time of procurement activities with purchasers, so as to facilitate purchasers to disclose government procurement intentions in a timely manner within the specified time.

Do a good job in docking with the media that publish government procurement intention disclosures, expand the scope of government procurement intention disclosure of budget units, and provide convenient channels for suppliers to obtain information.

Do a good job in the archiving of government procurement intention disclosures, improve the file management of procurement projects, and prepare for the inspection and supervision of relevant departments.

(Author's unit: Shandong Provincial Government Procurement Center)

Source of this article: China Government Procurement News, Issue 949, Page 4