FAS WELCOMES IMPLEMENTATIONS OF ANTIMONOPOLY COMPLIANCE

FAS representatives shared with their foreign colleagues experience in exposing and preventing bid-rigging collusion, particularly, involving the authorities

On 7 June 2018, there was a regular FAS-OECD workshop in St Petersburg, with support from “Deloitte” and “Siemens”, about the “Role of the in-house control system in strengthening corporate ethics”.

The main purpose of the workshop was to support development of corporate ethics and compliance through effective corporate management measures. Personnel of Russian and foreign companies, representatives of the state sector and OECD experts discussed issues of corporate ethics and management and exchanged international and national experiences in this field. Participants analyzed the best practices of private companies with regard to the mechanisms of disclosing confidential information about unlawful activities and efficient and objective internal and external audit.

Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Mukhamed Khamukov discussed the mechanisms of exposing bid-rigging and failures to observe the antimonopoly law. “Annually FAS exposes around 600 collusions, 80-85% of which are associated with bid-rigging that can also involve the authorities. We see that the present system of public procurement and competition advocacy help decrease bid-rigging involving the government bodies. The most widespread cases concern bid-rigging on the markets of construction and repair works and medical services”.

Mukhamed Khamukov pointed out that collusion prevention should comprise: moral principles of top-executives and economic entities, severe and inevitable punishment for economic entities. He said that it is possible to promptly inform FAS via a hot line - FAS web-site has a special “Report a cartel” function.

Concerning antimonopoly risk prevention, Mukhamed Khamukov commented that “FAS welcomes implementation of “antimonopoly compliance” that reduces risks and can mitigate liability for violating the law. At the same time, effective compliance means more than just documents – it includes measures to implement them and bona fide cooperation with the regulator”.