ANDREY TSYGANOV ON RESPONSIBILITY OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES, VIOLATIONS PREVENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF STUFFING CAPACITY

Andrey Tsyganov discussed FAS interaction with the business community in the context of the control-and-supervision reform. He was a speaker at the Forum on “Control, supervision and permitting activities: the interests of business and the state”.

Deputy Head of FAS drew attention to the main provisions of the Order of the President of the Russian Federation “On the main areas of the state policy towards developing competition”¹, which specifies that competition support is a priority in the work of all public authorities and local self-government bodies as well as senior government officials.

Andrey Tsyganov pointed out: “One of fundamental principles of the state competition policyis responsibility of public bodies and local self-government bodiesfor implementing it. Clause4 of the Order directly prohibits executive bodies to introduce or maintain discriminatory conditions for economic activity, production and turnover of particular types of goods, and bans unreasonable intervention in free market performance, acts and decisions that can lead to preventing or eliminating competition”.

The Order approved the National Plan for Developing Competition in the Russian Federation till 2020. The Plan sets the key indicators for competition development, particularly, decreasing the number of violations by the authorities and local self-government bodies.

The Order provides for devising action plans towards development of competition in all sectors of the economy that must be approved by 1 July 2018 by a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.

By 1 February 2019, federal executive bodies should devise measures based on the relevant sectoral reports to reduce administrative barriers preventing competition advancement.

“It is essential that FAS will evaluate to what extent the plans and programmes are achieved together with the business-community”, emphasized Andrey Tsyganov. “No doubt, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs will be actively involved”.

He added: “I do not exclude that pursuing the Presidential order will require certain amendments to the control-and-supervision programmes that we are actively discussing here”.

Deputy Head of FAS sad that the Antimonopoly Service participates in the priority programme for improving control-and-supervision activity.  In May 2017 the project passport was approved for FAS, providing for five directions of the risk-oriented approach, including antimonopoly law, public defence procurement, public procurement, advertising and tariff regulation.

According to expert assessments, FAS is on the third position among all public bodies engaged in the programme, particularly, in terms of the quality index of administering control-and-supervision activity.

“At the same time, evaluating administrative burden upon business, FAS is the second-from-the-bottom”, stressed Andrey Tsyganov.

Deputy Head of FAS also talked about enterprise breakdown by the risk areas.

“FAS does not have control over economic entities in the high-risk category. Our preliminary estimates show that 392 entities fall in the mid-risk category and 313 – in the moderate risk category. Inspections of such economic entities should take place no frequently than once in three or five years accordingly”.

FAS pays considerable attention to preventing violations of the antimonopoly law, which is one of the areas for improving control and supervision activities. In the past five years the number of antimonopoly cases reduced more than twofold; and according to early results, approximately 400 cases are opened and investigated against the authorities in 2017 and 1500 injunctions were issued.

Andrey Tsyganov stated: “FAS began to apply the norm on issuing injunctions to the authorities and their officials in January 2017 and its efficiency is already proven because it enable to promptly eliminate potential violations of the antimonopoly law and their adverse consequences”.

Deputy Head of FAS said that developing a professional training system is an important area for preventing violations.

“Currently 52 university Departments train specialists in competition law and economy. We are pleased that these are not only educational institutions in Moscow and St Petersburg but also Departments in regional universities. Therefore, we are establishing a sound professional stuffing capacity for the Federal Antimonopoly Service as well as the authorities and economic entities”, concluded Andrey Tsyganov.

¹  No. 618 Order of the President of the Russian Federation “On the main areas of the state policy towards developing competition” 21.12.2017 (jointly with the “National Plan for Developing Competition in the Russian Federation  in 2018 - 2020")

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“Control, supervision and permitting activities: the interests of business and the state” Forum took place on 6 February during the Russian Business Week – an annual event organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

The main item on the Forum agenda – how the state and the business community interact in the reform context.