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Conflict Resolution Practice in Public Procurement: Results of Empirical Research in Russia and Kazakhstan
This paper, based on a large-scale online survey of suppliers conducted in 2020 in Russia and Kazakhstan, investigates various conflict resolution strategies in public procurement. The specific feature of this sphere is the presence of the state as the dominant party in the contractual relationship, and the resulting differences in assessing the chances of protecting one’s interests in court, as well as the effectiveness of judicial conflict resolution mechanisms. The survey results showed that the majority of suppliers in Russia and Kazakhstan prefer to resolve conflicts in public procurement using an out-of-court negotiation with procurers, while only 22% of respondents resort to judicial proceedings. At the same time, Russian suppliers who trust procurers are less likely to complain about them at the supplier selection stage and less often use negotiations and appeals to the court as ways of conflict resolution practices at the stage of contract execution. In Kazakhstan suppliers who trust their procurers only go to courts less often. The paper will provide a possible explanation for the revealed patterns in the behavior of suppliers.