Conflict of interest in public procurement: identification and resolution

Relevance . Conflict of interest is a heterogeneous and complex problem, covering a wide range of social relations, in particular, in the field of public procurement. It is important to note that the procurement space is traditionally considered as the most susceptible to various offenses, including those affecting the corruption element. This fact determines the need to form a comprehensive system of legal regulation of conflict of interest, aimed at its identification and settlement at any stage of the procurement procedure. The purpose of the article is to disclose the approaches to the legal regulation of conflict of interest in public procurement that have developed in Russia and to determine universal legal means aimed at its identification and settlement. The objectives of the article are to analyze and compare current legislative approaches to regulating conflicts of interest in the context of the dual system of domestic procurement, as well as to substantiate the practical effectiveness of applying the principle of actual control through the prism of describing specific situations. The methodology of the article consists of the dialectical method, a system of general scientific methods (such as analysis, analogy, synthesis and modeling), as well as the formal-legal method. The results of the study are characterized by theoretical and applied content aimed at forming a scientific understanding of the system of legal regulation of conflicts of interest in public procurement and the means of its control, including through the application of the principle of actual control reflected in judicial practice. Conclusion . The author of the study comes to the conclusion about the need to identify and resolve conflicts of interest in public procurement by applying a substantive approach reflected in such an instrument of external control over conflicts of interest as the principle of actual control.