[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Public Procurement Service (PPS) will expand the monitoring of market prices for contract goods under the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS).
According to the PPS on the 14th, MAS is a system where contracts for unit prices are signed with multiple suppliers for goods with equivalent or similar quality, performance, and efficiency, and these goods are registered on the Korea ON-line E-Procurement System (KONEPS) comprehensive shopping mall. Demand agencies can directly select and purchase the goods from the KONEPS comprehensive shopping mall without separate contract procedures.
The expansion of monitoring aims to prevent some MAS suppliers from violating the obligation to maintain preferential prices by selling products in the market at prices lower than the procurement price, thereby establishing a fair and sound competitive system.
The obligation to maintain preferential prices means that the MAS price should be the "most favored price," and MAS contractors must keep their contract prices at or below the prices directly contracted with demand agencies or the market supply prices.
The main inspection targets are electronic and office equipment products such as air conditioners, computers, and electronic copiers. In particular, the PPS plans to expand the number of focused management product names from the existing 60 to 65 (including additional products in the health and medical fields) and conduct inspections up to three times a year.
Additionally, similar models with equivalent or superior performance and specifications to MAS contract goods will also be continuously checked for violations through microscopic inspections.
If a violation of the obligation to maintain preferential prices is confirmed (decided) during the inspection, the PPS will secure the fairness and reliability of procurement prices through measures such as price reductions, suspension of transactions in the comprehensive shopping mall, and recovery of unfair profits.
Meanwhile, last year, the PPS achieved a budget saving effect of approximately 650 million KRW by reducing unit prices for 20 specifications of seven product names, including hand dryers, which were found to be priced lower than the procurement contract prices.
Also, one company that violated the obligation to maintain preferential prices by selling at prices lower than the procurement prices in market shopping malls was suspended from transactions in the KONEPS comprehensive shopping mall for one month.
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