Today in our country there is a huge number of organizations involved in various types of activities. Each business owner independently decides who he is better off working with. But, as a rule, any company is trying to get the opportunity to participate in the tender, because in this way you can get a large and profitable state order.
The state itself is also interested in holding tenders, since in this way it gets the opportunity to attract bona fide companies ready to quickly and efficiently perform work. However, in order to be able to compete for the tender, the contractor must provide security for the application for participation in the tender. Without this, it will be impossible to gain access to bidding and win a state order.
general information
Securing an application is the financial resources that a company is ready to allocate to fulfill a state order, guaranteeing its solvency and confirming serious intentions to fulfill an order. Thus, the state, placing an order for a tender, receives a guarantee that it will be completed on time or a fine will be paid on it in case of poor-quality work.
What information should be indicated in the bid for bidding?
If you plan to compete in a tender for the right to fulfill a state order, then the following information should be indicated in the application:
- amount of security;
- terms of order fulfillment.
In addition, a certain package of documents stipulated by the Federal Law "On Securing the Application at Auction" 44-FZ must be attached to the application.
Enforcing and securing an application: what is the difference?
Having decided to compete at an auction for a state order, you need to understand that securing and executing an application are two different things that have nothing to do with each other and are designed to perform different functions. Securing the application acts as the price offer of the contractor for the execution of the order, and securing the execution is the guarantee of the customer that the contractor will perform all the work efficiently and on time. Thus, the first is made immediately upon registration of the application for admission to participation in the tender, and the second - after the signing of the contract between both parties.
What is the size of the security for the application?
According to the current legislation, the amount of security is:
- enforcement - at least 3% of the contract amount;
- collateral when applying - 1% of the amount allocated for procurement.
If desired, the contractor may contribute a larger amount of security, however, the minimum amount is the same for all contestants.
How is the application process going?
Today, there are the following ways to secure applications:
- with a tender;
- without a tender.
If the state order was put up for tender, then it can be carried out in two ways:
- Auction - public bidding, in which the company receives the order, offering the most favorable conditions.
- Competition is a way in which the customer selects a contractor from a large number of applicants, guided by pre-established criteria.
It should be noted that if tendering is carried out on a partially competitive basis, then the security of the application under the Federal Law can be considered as security for the tender or auction.
Tender loan
If the company plans to bid for several government orders, but it does not have enough authorized capital, then it can take advantage of a tender loan. Due to this, the contractor may not extract too much from the turnover.
In addition, a tender loan provides the following benefits:
- the opportunity to participate in several tenders simultaneously;
- the opportunity to compete for expensive orders in the absence of the necessary amount to make security for the application.
When planning to register an enterprise for a tender, one should not forget that all bids that are not secured will be automatically rejected by the auction organizer. Therefore, this issue should be approached in advance. If the company did not manage to find the required amount by the beginning of the auction, then in this case, securing an application with the provision of bank guarantees will be the only way to prove to the customer the seriousness of intentions and guarantee him timely order execution. To obtain a tender loan, you must familiarize yourself with the banking conditions and fulfill a number of requirements.
Regarding the size of the security for the application
As mentioned earlier, without securing the application, the company will not be allowed to auction to obtain the right to fulfill the state order. In order to objectively evaluate their strengths and correctly distribute the budget of the company, each contestant must know the exact amount that will be needed for collateral.
Its size is calculated based on the total cost of the order, and may be equal to:
- from 0.5 to 5% - if the amount of the state order is estimated at over 3 million rubles
- 1% - if NMCC is less than the established limit;
- 2% of the order amount - if the contractor is related to the penal system, is a representative of a small business, socially-oriented or non-profit enterprise.
Thus, having an idea of the amount of collateral, a company can evaluate its chances of winning a tender for a state order.
How to return the amount of security?
When submitting an application for participation in the auction, the company must make a security. However, what if the other contractor won the tender? Can I somehow make a refund of the security of the application? The current legislation allows contestants to receive the back payment as security, but there are some nuances.
If the bidding was conducted on a competitive basis or through the organization of a closed auction, the amount deposited will be transferred to the account of the company within 5 days from the date of the official termination of bidding.
In the case of an auction in electronic format, a personal account is created for each participant, from which the lock is released no later than one business day and if one of the following nuances occurs:
- If a protocol for evaluating, reviewing an application for company participation in tendering or about summing up has been prescribed. If one of these documents is signed, money is refunded or access to the electronic account is opened simultaneously for all organizations that participated in the auction, with the exception of the winner in the tender. The holder of the right to fulfill the state order receives collateral in full after the contract is signed between both parties.
- The tender organizer changed the supplier in the field of public procurement.
- The competitor independently withdraws its bid to participate in the auction or to determine the supplier if the deadline for accepting bids has not yet expired.
- The tenderer did not have time to submit an application within the prescribed time period agreed upon by the organizer of the auction or tender.
- The tender organizer suspended the contractor who won the tender from identifying the supplier or refused to conclude an agreement with him to perform the work.
Return Terms
If the security of the application for participation in the auction was provided through a tender loan, then the refund of the financial organization that issued it is not made. This also applies to cases where collateral was made through a tender loan.
A certain part of the financial resources contributed by the contestant as security is not returned. In case of filing an application for participation in an electronic auction, the money will be transferred to the account indicated by the organizer of the auction. In this account, all financial transactions will be taken into account, if they do not contradict the current legislation of the Russian Federation.
In what cases can a security be returned with a bank guarantee?
The security of the bid at the auction provided through a tender loan may be returned to the bidder in one of the following cases:
- the contractor refuses to sign the contract with the customer;
- the bidder who won the auction refuses to sign the contract with the customer;
- if prior to the signing of the contract any conditions were violated or enforcement was not made;
- the bidder refused to determine the supplier in the field of public procurement, however, the application was submitted after the termination of applications;
- the company changed the conditions of the application if the application was submitted within the prescribed time frame.
Russian legislation governing tenders, as well as the relationship between bidders and bidders, provides for a number of cases in which collateral is not returned. What cases are such will be discussed later.
In what cases is the return of security not made?
A competitor may not receive back application security in all cases.
The legal grounds for this are:
- The bidder, acting as a supplier in the field of public procurement, did not submit a proposal to the organizer of the tender or withdrew his bid for participation in the auction on time. An exception is suppliers who fought in the auction for the right to fulfill the order, who could not win the auction.
- Refusal to sign a contract for the execution of an order in the field of public procurement by a potential winner in a tender.
- The winner of the tender did not complete his work completely, poorly or not in accordance with the terms of the contract, which were prescribed in the accompanying documentation.
Thus, if the company’s management is not sure that it will be able to fulfill its obligations under the contract for the execution of the state order qualitatively or on time, it is recommended that you refuse to participate in the auction altogether. After all, the only way to save your capital, and not lose it as a result of rash actions.
It is worth noting that companies working in the field of public procurement and not providing security for their applications in accordance with the requirements provided for by current legislation, as well as the rules and norms prescribed in the regulatory act under number 44-F3, are not allowed to tender.