ANDREY TSYGANOV: COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT ALLOWS US TO ACHIEVE HIGH PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

On November 24, during the meeting of the Club of French Regulators representatives of government agencies discussed and compared mechanisms for assessing their effectiveness in different sectors of the economy

Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia, discussed the existing system for assessing the activities of the competition authority. He informed on legal acts related to the activities of the FAS Russia, including legislation on competition, tariff regulation and public procurement.

“All draft legal acts, prior to their approval and adoption, are discussed by all interested parties - government agencies, non-profit organizations, academia, including as part of the mandatory regulatory impact assessment procedure, which has been in force in the Russian Federation since 2010. The same mechanisms have been implemented within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union” — stated Andrey Tsyganov.

“Internal and external performance assessment is applied with regard to activities of the FAS Russia. Accounts Chamber of Russia and Ministry of Finance of Russia annually perform budget enforcement and observe financial discipline of the FAS Russia. The assessment of our work is carried out by the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation annually, including within the framework of the "government hour", during which the Head of the FAS Russia presents the report on agency's performance. The FAS Russia also annually submits a Report on the state of competition in the Russian Federation to the Russian Government and publishes it on the official website. The preparation of the report is a mandatory procedure in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Protection of Competition. The given report is considered at a meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation” — informed Deputy Head of the FAS Russia.

Andrey Tsyganov also noted that activities of the FAS Russia are assessed by the Public Council of the FAS Russia, as well as by Russian non-governmental organizations such as the All-Russian Non-governmental Organization of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses OPORA RUSSIA, the Association of Antimonopoly Experts, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

“The FAS Russia annually evaluates activity of its 84 regional offices according to the system of key performance indicators and makes a rating of their performance,” added Andrey Tsyganov.

Deputy Head of the FAS Russia pointed out that a unique feature of the Russian antimonopoly legislation is the ability of the FAS Russia to assess the activities of other government bodies concerning anticompetitive practices. In order to reduce the number of violations performed by authorities, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 618 dated December 21, 2017 introduced an antimonopoly compliance procedure at the federal, regional and local levels.

In 2019, the FAS Russia and its regional offices considered around 700 cases on violation of antimonopoly legislation by government bodies and their officials in accordance with the Articles 15 and 16 of the Law on Protection of Competition and issued remedies aimed at supporting and restoring competition. For such violations, liability is provided in the form of a fine or disqualification.

“The FAS Russia, as a multifunctional regulator, faces a difficult task - to prove the theory of harm and conduct a dynamic analysis of competition. The FAS Russia sees this not only as a challenge, but also as an opportunity for a detailed comparison of alternative ways and kinds of government intervention within its competence. For example, we can fine-tune public procurement system, adjust tariff regulation in specific industries, and this can affect not only the industries themselves, but also consumers of goods and services. We are actively engaged in antimonopoly enforcement and give priority to it in certain socially significant areas. As an experiment, we plan to launch an ex post system for analyzing our previous decisions in the most important cases and transactions that really change the situation in some sectors of the Russian economy” — concluded Deputy Head of the FAS Russia.

Representatives of government agencies from Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, France, Switzerland and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also shared their practices during the meeting.

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The annual conference of the Club of French Regulators, organized jointly with the OECD Network of Economic Regulators twice a year, is an independent forum for discussing current regulatory issues, as well as exchanging experience in solving institutional and organizational issues, as well as infrastructure management issues that are common for regulators in different sectors of the economy from more than 70 countries of the world.