Researchers from the Public Management Department of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) made presentations on methods for identifying collusion between suppliers in the procurement of medical organizations.

The presentation of the preliminary results of the research project "Methods of countering collusion of suppliers in the process of conducting electronic auctions for public procurement in the healthcare sector in Russia" took place at the research seminar at GSOM SPbU.

Presentations were made by Andrei Ivanov, Associate Professor of the Public Administration Department, Academic Director of the Healthcare Management program, Deputy Head at the Center for PPP Research, and Evgeny Gilenko, Associate Professor of the Public Administration Department, Head of the Research Group.

The seminar was held in a blended format: managers and employees of the contract service of medical institutions, suppliers of medicines, medical equipment and consumables, representatives of the Health Committee of St. Petersburg came together at the downtown campus of GSOM. Participants of the executive education Healthcare Management program watched the reports and discussions virtually.

The study collected data on purchases of all hospitals and clinics in St. Petersburg for the period 2014-2020 (more than 100,000). Procurements,  in which the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) revealed the coordination of suppliers, were singled out from the other, and from that number of deals 257 procurements, in which, according to experts, coordination really led to a restriction of competition and a decrease in procurement efficiency, were singled out.

In his report, Andrei Ivanov formulated the conditions for purchases with a slight decrease in the initial (maximum) contract price (up to one and a half percent, in the reduced FAS base of such purchases — 94%) under which the collusion in the purchase can be considered established. Using these sufficient collusion conditions automatically identifies purchases in which the likelihood of collusion is very high. The results of the research made it possible to formulate a set of proposals for amending the legal regulation of public procurement and introducing a number of measures into the procurement activities of medical institutions aimed at reducing incentives for collusion.

Evgeny Gilenko spoke about methods of collecting and analyzing big data for a research project. The speaker showed how to use the obtained data and sufficient collusion conditions to build a priori logistic regression model, which allows us to estimate the collusion probability based on the information available before the procedure.

The format of the seminar confirmed the practical value of the results (both in terms of the formulated sufficient conditions for collusion and in terms of significant regression coefficients), made it possible to determine what recommendations of researchers can be implemented in the modern practice of state purchases.