Russian Parliament to Consider Arms Procurement Bill in October

14.09.2012 Russian parliament plans to consider draft bill on state defense order in October, the head of parliamentary defense committee Vladimir Komoyedov told Rosbalt.

"Currently, we're working on amendments. As soon as this work is over, the document will be considered in second reading. Roughly, that will happen in October", he said.

Speaking about the draft bill, Komoyedov pointed out that amendments determined a special procedure for military deliveries making possible to sign contracts with regard to economic interests of both orderers and executors.

"I'd like to draw attention that it is planned to set requirements for credit and insurance organizations working with defense orders, and legally settle issues related to monitoring, control and audit in this area, as well as specify responsibility", said the head of defense committee.

As for him, the key aspect is an amendment regulating competitive negotiations. "It is a method of defense order placing, when a special panel holds talks with preliminarily selected bidders and consider their offers. A company proposing optimal conditions wins a tender", explained Komoyedov.

If this norm is adopted, competitive negotiations would be carried out with at least two bidders in order to maintain effective competitiveness, added the politician.

As for him, legalization of such approach would make possible to create legal basis for "direct participation of integrated agencies in placing and execution of defense order, improve selection of best proposals, and consider optimal price, quality, and time offers".

Some amendments are related to issues of governmental administration of prices for military products.

"All prices for particular defense-related goods must be legislated, and price calculations must be conducted on formulas determined by Russian government", Komoyedov said.

Amendments also propose to consider possibility of pre-trial settling for price-controversial issues, and introduce a price review procedure for the most critical state defense contracts.