Moscow OFAS brought together the antimonopoly bodies of the Central Federal District to discuss unified enforcement practice

On 20 - 21 March 2017, there was a workshop / conference of FAS regional bodies in the Central Federal District. Participants discussed some pressing issues of procurement control and regulation over the electric power industry and the housing and utilities sector. The event was organized by Moscow OFAS.

In the welcoming address, Head of Moscow OFAS Armen Khanyan pointed out that the workshop programme included a wide range of the issues on antimonopoly regulation, including legislative initiatives in procurement and applying the norms of the “forth antimonopoly package” as well as unique local practices of the regulator’s regional bodies.

Armen Khanyan said: “We discussed problems we face on a daily basis in antimonopoly enforcement.  Such events help us work out unified enforcement practice and common approaches in solving specific tasks”.

Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department, Sergey Kryukov discussed the practice of employing the institution of warnings introduced in the “forth antimonopoly package”.  He stated that this mechanism enables to reduce administrative burden upon business, significantly reducing the number of antimonopoly cases.

Tatiana Demidova, Head of FAS Department for Control over Public Procurement focused on the changes to the Law on Contractual System (No.44-FZ) and the Law on Procurement (No.223-FZ). In her opinion, approximating Nos. 44 and 223 Federal Laws would significantly increase procurement efficiency. Tatiana Demidova highlighted some problematic issues of enforcement of Nos. 44 and 223 Federal Laws, pointing out that “many of them can be solved by determining an exhaustive list of procurement procedure”.

Deputy Head of Moscow OFAS Indira Shandieva described administrative and judicial practice of the antimonopoly body and the results of considering complaints about actions of the ordering parties in procurement.

Head of FAS Department for Regulation over the Housing & Utilities Sector, Head of FAS Department for regulation over Housing & Utilities, Alexei Matyukhin, opened a block of report on regulation in the housing & utilities.

In particular, the matter concerned FAS initiative on amendments to the Housing Code and No.75 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for organizing open tenders by local self-government bodies to select managing companies to manage apartment blocks”.

“Replacing open tenders with auctions to choose managing companies will make the procedure most transparent”, summed up Alexei Matyukhin.

Deputy Head of Moscow OFAS Indira Shandieva presented practice of the antimonopoly body on determining winners of tenders for selecting managing companies of apartment blocks. She summarized the experience of Moscow OFAS in administrative and judicial practice based on considering complaints against the government customers.

Deputy Head of the regulator, Ekaterina Osipchuk, highlighted experience of Moscow OFAS in solving matters where developers or commercial organizations avoid competitive procedures on selecting a managing company.

Deputy Head of FAS Department for Regulating the Electric Power Industry, Alexei Voronin, focused on controversial issues of violations in cases on technological connection to electric power networks after the “forth antimonopoly package” coming into effect.

Deputy Head of Moscow OFAS Nikita Poleschuk looked into the issues of proving violations on abusing market dominance.

At the end of the workshop participants expressed their interest in further exchanging practices of observing the antimonopoly law on all items of the agenda.

Head of Moscow OFAS Armen Khanyan summed up: “Such events are valuable because representatives of FAS regional bodies can discuss face-to-face the issues that interest them. All proposals out forward during the 2-day work programme will be included in the protocol for further detailed refinement”.