VIDEO SURVEILLANCE FOR FOUR BILLION RUB WITHOUT TENDERING

On 5 October 2018, Ulyanovsk OFAS found that the Government of the Ulyanovsk region and Ulyanovsk City Authority violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” *

Ulyanovsk OFAS received a collective complaint of “Prof-IT” Ltd., “Astra” Ltd., “SAP Group” Ltd. and “Technology” Ltd. against the authorities and local self-government bodies that granted subsidies for video surveillance services to “Civilization” Autonomous Non-Profit Entity.

The antimonopoly law was violated by reaching and implementing an agreement on establishing “Civilization” to exercise the powers of the authorities and local self-government bodies for procurement of goods, works, services without competitive procedures specified in the law on contractual system. The newly formed entity received subsidies to support the photo- and video-registration system of violations of the Traffic Code and the “video surveillance in the social field” project.

In 2017-2018 several hundred million RUB were pent for the projects, the total amount of subsidies planned by “Civilization” to support a traffic code photo- and video-registration system and the “video surveillance in the social field” project exceeded 4 billion RUB.

Actions of the authorities and local self-government bodies restricted competition. At the same time, representatives of the authorities failed to give an example of a similar scheme used in any regions of Russia.

Ulyanovsk OFAS вissued orders to the Government of the Ulyanovsk region and Ulyanovsk City Authority to abolish acts that grant subsidies and prohibit similar actions in the future.

The case materials are transferred to an authorized officer to open an administrative case under Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations.

* Clause 4 Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”