Lukashenko approves draft agreements with Russia, EAEU to recognize bank guarantees in state procurements
MINSK. July 6 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday approved draft agreements with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on mutual recognition of bank guarantees for government (municipal) procurements as a basis for negotiations, the president's press service reported.
"These international agreements stipulate mechanisms for mutual recognition of bank guarantees when making purchases, as well as define requirements for guarantors and bank guarantees," the statement said.
The signing of the agreement with Russia will enable the country's businesses to use Belarusian bank guarantees in Russia, and the subsequent signing of an international agreement within the context of the EAEU will make it possible to do so in other countries in the union. This will help Belarusian businesses gain access to government contracts in other countries and reduce their expenses on obtaining bank guarantees, the press service said.
The Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade and National Bank of Belarus (NBB) have been authorized to hold negotiations on the draft agreements, and the ministry has been authorized to sign them when agreement is reached within the bounds of the approved drafts.
The Russian government approved the draft agreement on mutual recognition of bank guarantees for government procurements at the end of June and is ready to sign it.
The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Board approved the document in May. "The [draft] agreement sets out requirements for banks that have the right to issue bank guarantees for government procurements, and approaches to compiling a list of such banks, as well as maintaining a registry of bank guarantees. A list of banks will be compiled and registry will be maintained if this is prescribed by the legislation of the purchasing country," an aide to the chairman of the EEC, Iya Malkina said earlier.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Lavrov said earlier that the problem of mutual recognition of bank guarantees in government procurements is one of the main barriers to companies from fellow EAEU countries bidding for Russian government contracts. At present, purchasers cannot accept bank guarantees of bidders from other EAEU countries for the purpose of securing bids and fulfillment of contracts, he said.
However, Russia and Belarus have tackled this bank problem in a pilot project launched last July that has allowed Belarusian banks to participate in Russia's system for guaranteeing government procurements in 2022-2023. Belarusbank, Belvneshekonombank, Belinvestbank, VTB Bank (Belarus) and Minsk Transit Bank initially took part in the project on a voluntary basis.
In order to start working in the system for guaranteeing government procurements, these banks had to obtain individual insurance account numbers (SNILS), individual taxpayer numbers (INN) and qualified certificates for digital signature verification keys. They also had to register in the Unified Identification and Authentication System (ESIA) and Unified Information System (EIS) in the area of procurements. After having met these requirements, they were included in the list of guarantors in line with the provisions of the law On the Contract System (44-FZ).
Under the current version of this law, banks that have the right to provide independent guarantees to bidders for government contracts must have a credit rating of at least 'B-(RU)' on the national scale of the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA) or at least 'ruB-'on the national scale of rating agency Expert RA.
In addition, as of January 2022 independent guarantees for government procurements can be provided by VEB.RF and regional guarantee organizations (RGO).