Make the government procurement market more orderly
2024-07-15
The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Three Year Action Plan for Rectifying Market Order, Building Regulatory System, and Promoting Industrial Development in the Field of Government Procurement (2024-2026)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"). The Action Plan proposes to take "consolidation, construction, and promotion" as the main line of work, striving to solve the prominent problems in the current government procurement field within about three years, making the government procurement market order more standardized, taking substantive steps in the construction of the government procurement system, and establishing a sound government procurement policy functional system to promote the development of modern industries. According to statistics, the total amount of public procurement in China in 2023 is 46 trillion yuan. In public procurement, government procurement occupies a very large volume. Therefore, regulating government procurement behavior and improving the government procurement policy system have direct and far-reaching significance for improving the efficiency of government procurement funds, safeguarding national interests and social public interests. The introduction of the "Administrative Plan" has an important background. In 2018, the Central Committee for Deepening Reform reviewed and approved the "Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Government Procurement System", which systematically expounded the guiding ideology, basic principles, and reform tasks for deepening the reform of the government procurement system. Subsequently, relevant departments actively implemented the reform plan and achieved significant results. However, it cannot be avoided that there are still some problems in the field of government procurement, such as the occurrence of phenomena that hinder fair competition and the urgent need to improve credit management mechanisms. In summary, the order of the government procurement market needs to be further standardized, the legal system of government procurement needs to be further improved, and the policy functions of government procurement need to be further expanded. The Action Plan specifies 9 key tasks in the three aspects of "integration, construction, and promotion". It can be said that each key task embodies the principles of problem orientation, source governance, and focusing on national conditions and benchmarking against the international community. Taking the rectification of market order as an example, although the relevant laws and regulations on government procurement in China clearly stipulate that suppliers shall not be subjected to differential or discriminatory treatment under unreasonable conditions, in practice, some purchasers still implicitly or explicitly set differential discrimination clauses in the government procurement process, restricting equal participation of suppliers, which undermines procurement fairness and has been criticized. The Action Plan provides a clear response to this: led by the Ministry of Finance, we will explore the establishment of a working mechanism for departmental collaboration, central local cooperation, and social participation. We will continue to carry out special rectification against four types of illegal and irregular behaviors, including the setting of discriminatory clauses by procurement personnel, which are prominent in the current government procurement field. We will expose typical cases and form an effective deterrent. This kind of special rectification, focusing on problems and making improvements, is not only conducive to solving prominent problems in the current government procurement field, promoting a more orderly government procurement market and a healthier procurement ecology, but also better maintaining procurement fairness by optimizing a fair competition market environment. In the process of government procurement, how to improve the credit management mechanism has always been a topic of concern for all parties. The Implementation Regulations of the Government Procurement Law have explicitly stated that supervision and management of suppliers, procurement agencies, and evaluation experts participating in government procurement activities should be strengthened, and their misconduct should be recorded and included in a unified credit information platform. The Action Plan further proposes to improve the mechanism for collecting and publishing credit records of serious illegal and dishonest behavior, and promote the sharing of credit information to facilitate the qualification review of purchasers. Innovation in regulatory measures can help better leverage the value of credit information and urge suppliers to fulfill their obligations with integrity, which is also beneficial for further rectifying market order. Small wisdom governs affairs, great wisdom governs systems. Another major highlight of the Action Plan is the clear requirement to establish a modern government procurement system, benchmarking against international rules such as the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement, and further improving government procurement laws and regulations. This will help to enhance the systematicity, integrity, and synergy of the government procurement legal and regulatory system, standardize procurement rules, and better assist in the construction of a unified national market. Furthermore, when it comes to government procurement, many people tend to think of spending money on the 'cutting edge'. Valuable funds should indeed be used for urgent development and people's livelihood needs. At the same time, government procurement also plays a positive role in supporting technological innovation and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. It is worth noting that the "Action Plan" clearly states that the policy of supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises should be fully implemented in government procurement projects. For engineering procurement projects exceeding 4 million yuan that are suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises to provide, the policy of gradually increasing the reserved share from over 30% to over 40% will continue until the end of 2026. With this institutional arrangement, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises will have more confidence and motivation. Government procurement is related to fiscal quality, and the larger the procurement scale, the more we need to make good use of every penny. The Action Plan has clearly defined the roadmap and timetable for "integration, construction, and promotion". Each region and department should refine their work tasks according to their respective responsibilities, formulate specific measures, fully implement various requirements, and ensure that all work is implemented effectively. Only in this way can government procurement be more standardized and effective, and demonstrate its due public value. (New Society)
Edit：Ying Ying Responsible editor：Shen Chen
Source：http://www.legaldaily.com.cn
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