Illegal Activities of Cartel Organizations in the Field of Public Procurement as a New Object of Statistical Study

The sphere of public procurement and the disbursement of budget funds in all countries is an environment that attracts not only respectable entrepreneurs who want to make guaranteed money, but also various “criminal white-collar elements.” According to various estimates, the volume of financing for public procurement in the Russian Federation occupies up to one third of the total GDP. A large number of labor and financial resources are involved in this area, while regularly changing legislation in this area, as well as the complexity of procurement procedures for different categories of goods, works, and services create favorable conditions and allow unscrupulous bidders, as well as corrupt customer representatives, to obtain unjustified profits and illegal remuneration. In the current situation, the introduction of new control measures becomes vital to ensure fair competition and efficient use of budget funds. That is why additional research and measures aimed at eliminating these problems and the preconditions for their occurrence are an integral part of ensuring the effectiveness of the public procurement system and protecting public interests. Purpose of the research is to study the genesis of cartel agreements in public procurement and their impact on the implementation of national projects in the Russian Federation, as well as the impact of cartel agreements on the presence of healthy competition and the efficiency of spending budget funds. As part of the paper, the state of crime in this area was examined; the signs of cartel agreements, methods for identifying cartels, as well as signs of collusion between the customer and the participant in public procurement were identified. Methods and materials. The author in his paper applies a comprehensive methodological approach, including analysis of statistical data, methods of the general theory of statistics, as well as methods of synthesis and analysis. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the current legal regulation in the field of public procurement. Graphical and tabular methods were used to visualize statistical data. The study is based on data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court. Results of the study. The paper made a quantitative assessment of the scope of public procurement in recent years, and assessed the work carried out by law enforcement officials and the antimonopoly service. Typical violations of antimonopoly legislation during public procurement are given and methods for identifying them are proposed. The illegal schemes used by cartel participants in electronic trading are analyzed, as well as problematic issues and ways to resolve them that arise in practice. The paper proposes various approaches to increasing the efficiency of law enforcement and control agencies. An analysis of law enforcement practice revealed problems associated with proving crimes in this area, and noted an insufficient level of interaction between law enforcement agencies and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation. Conclusion. In the study, the author analyzed the main features of cartels, proposed methods for identifying them, as well as ways to improve the verification activities carried out. The presented measures do not exhaust the topic of the study, and to effectively combat cartels, a systematic approach is recommended, including not only improving the quality of work of law enforcement and control agencies, but also improving the software and hardware used in carrying out inspections. Cartels in public procurement are a relatively new phenomenon for Russia; statistical data obtained from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation indicate that law enforcement and control authorities are just beginning their work to counter the criminal behavior of participants in cartel agreements. Only the fruitful joint work of law enforcement and control agencies will ensure the economic security of the state and protect the national interests of the Russian Federation.