Rachik Petrosyan: administrative appeals in the construction industry gain momentum

Expanding the list of fast-track appeal procedures to FAS in the field of construction

In January 2016 amendments to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and some legislative acts of the Russian Federation (No.250-FZ) came into effect, changing FAS procedures for considering complaints in the field of construction. Today complaints about the government authorities, municipalities and engineering-and-technical organizations responsible for construction are considered within 7 - 14 working day.

For instance, based on the results of 2016 and QI 2017 the antimonopoly bodies applied the fast-track administrative appeal procedure to 46 complaints about violations in construction.

In 2016, only complaints about procedures in housing construction, included in the exhaustive list under No. 403 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 30 April 2014, were subject to consideration.

In 2017 new lists come into force* that considerably expand the range of procedures, decisions on which can be appealed.

Particularly, on 16 May and 29 June 2017 came into effect Decrees of the Government of Russia on construction of water supply and drainage facilities, grid facilities with the voltage level below 35 kV, accordingly. In autumn 2017, procedures on building up non-residential capital construction facilities and heat supply networks will be added to the lists.

According to Deputy Head of FAS, Rachik Petrosyan, reducing administrative barriers to develop competitive construction industry is one of the priorities for the antimonopoly body. He emphasized: “The lists, adopted, came and coming into effect, are exhaustive for the construction industry. They will make the decision-making procedure by the authorities more transparent, since now businessmen can appeal full range of procedures in the construction industry to FAS. We expect that it can enhance the quality of the work of the authorities, municipalities and municipalities and engineering”.

One of the most typical violations committed by the authorities in the past 18 months was delaying approval submission period. “There are grounds to believe that businessmen also face other barriers in construction. For example, excessive requirements to document contents. Without due amendments to the Law, however, we cannot intervene and resolve the established negative practice of the authorities”, pointed out Rachik Petrosyan.

Under the Plan for legislative drafting activity of the Government of the Russian Federation for 2017 , amendments will be made to Article 18.1 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, to enable appeals of the authorities’ actions not only in the part of procedure period and the requirements to perform procedures beyond the exhaustive lists, but also such violations as unlawful refusals to accept documents, applications as well as unlawful requirements to the persons that filed complaints, documentation and information.

*  No. 1138 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 7 November 2016;

No.1504 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 27 December 2016;

No. 346 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 28 March 2017;

No. 452 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 17 April 2017.