Russia lost 4 billion dollars on unfavorable state procurement contracts in the last year

Russia has lost 247.3 billion rubles in 2015, because of public procurements made at unreasonably high prices, according to an analysis published in a National Rating for Transparent Procurements.

The National Association of E-Trade Participants tracked government purchases for a year (from July 2014) to formulate the National Rating.

Federal clients have raised prices by 8.4 percent, which is the largest margin for the period. The national average price rise has been 5.56 percent.

In a fifth of all procurements, the maximum price for a state contract was chosen.

The National Rating finds Roskosmos to be the least transparent federal client. The agency often makes its purchases via a single supplier, and rarely lowers prices.

The Zabaykalsky Territory is the region with the most non-transparent procurements. Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, is the leading city in terms of the number of purchases from a single supplier at the highest price. 

In general, though, the authors of the study believe dynamics are fairly positive. During the crisis, controls have tightened over the spending of budget funds. Federal clients are more clearly defining their asking prices. In the coming period (the second half of 2015 to the first half of 2016), the analysts predict costs on state funds will be lower.

In 2014, losses on purchases at inflated prices totaled 278 billion rubles ($4 billion).

A National Rating for Transparent Procurements was prepared by the National Association of E-Trade Participants. Since 2004, the non-profit association has been involved in legislative work to improve public procurement, cites the association's website.