FAS took part in the events of the ICN Cartel Working Group
The antimonopoly body presented a report on the efforts of Subgroup-2 of Cartel Working Group and the plans for the next two years
On 4 - 6 October 2017, Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Mukhamed Khamukov took part in the meetings of the Cartel Working Group of the International Competition Network in Ottawa (Canada).
Delegations from 45 leading antimonopoly bodies of the world attended the events. The primary focus of the Working Group was on preventing and suppressing bid-rigging collusions.
Mukhamed Khamukov was a speaker at a mini-plenary session on “Public procurement screening in order to expose cartels”, jointly with representatives of Austria, Brazil and OECD. He outlined Russian practices on combating bid-rigging. Foreign authorities showed a special interest to the tools of cartel exposure with use of e-technologies that FAS employs in its practice.
Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department also took part in a Section on “Use of traditional police methods in anti-cartel investigations” jointly with representatives of Australia and Israel. He described Russian practice of obtaining and presentation of evidence using administrative powers. Unscheduled inspections (the so-called “dawn raids”) are one of the most important tools.
At the plenary session FAS also presented a report on the efforts of Subgroup-2 of Cartel Working Group in the past period and the plans for the next two years[1]. In particular, Mukhamed Khamukov reported on the progress in devising a new ICN manual on the “leniency programmes” and updating the earlier adopted manuals “on information exchange between competition authorities” and “collecting and analyzing electronic evidence”.
At the final session of the Working Group Mukhamed Khamukov thanked the organizers and participants on behalf of co-chairs of 2 Subgroup-2 on Cartels and emphasized: “The results of this event inspire us for more efforts to counter bid-rigging. Since on average, around 1/3 of GDP in OECD states is reallocated through public procurement, we can imagine the scope of resources that can be saved for consumers and tax payers by preventing and suppressing bid-rigging. This position is supported by the national authorities all over the world, including the Russian Federation”.
The next meeting of the Working group will be in autumn 2018.
[1] At the 16th ICN Conference in Portugal 2017 FAS co-chairmanship of Subgroup-2 of Cartel Working Group. The Netherlands competition authority was elected FAS co-chair till 2018 instead of Australia antimonopoly body.