Seminar of regional offices of FAS Russia in Omsk

At the workshop of regional offices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) for Siberia and Urals Federal Districts, which took place in Omsk, Deputy Head of FAS Russia Pavel Subbotin and the Heads and staff members of FAS regional offices (OFAS Russia) discussed pressing issues of the antimonopoly law and enforcement.

The welcoming address on behalf of the Government of the Omsk region was given by the Minister of Economics of the Omsk region, Mr. Igor Mouraev, and the Federal Inspector for the Omsk region, Mr. Sergey Sorokoumov. Workshop attendees also included judges of the Omsk Regional Arbitration Court and the 8th Arbitration Appeal Court, representatives of the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of Finances of the Omsk region.

The focus of the discussions was on the state procurement reform – transition to electronic auctions and compliance with the antimonopoly law in the housing and public utilities sector.

Presentations were given by the Head of the FAS Russia’s Legal Section of the Department for Control over State Procurement, Mr. Artyom Lobov, and the Head of a Section of the FAS Russia’s Department for Control over Housing and Public Utilities, Construction and Natural Resources, Ms. Yekaterina Teloushkina.

The workshop discussed judicial practice of antimonopoly case. “Analyzing cases considered by Omsk courts, I can tell that 54.5% of the rulings are in favour of OFAS”, said Oksana Soustavova, a judge of the Omsk Regional Arbitration Court.

The Head of the OFAS Russia for the Altai Republic, Ms. Natalia Yelbaeva, shared positive experience of cooperation between the Altai OFAS and regional courts with the colleagues from other regional offices. “Judges are always abreast of what is going on with antimonopoly legislation. Our positive experience can be useful for other regional offices”, said Ms. Yelbaeva.

As part of the workshop, on 11th August 2010 Deputy Head of FAS Russia Pavel Subbotin and the Head of the Omsk OFAS Russia Sergey Soumenkov gave a press-conference. Journalists were mostly in the problems related to housing and public utilities, growing prices for grain and food products, as well as transition to electronic auctions, and changes to the antimonopoly law. Answering the question about the position of the Omsk Office in the FAS Russia’s rating, Pavel Subbotin said: “In the first six months of 2010 the Omsk office became the leader by the number of collected fines”. He also pointed out that the Antimonopoly Service levies heavy fines in all regions of Russia. However, according to a more comprehensive score, the Omsk OFAS is in the middle.

Visiting Omsk, Pavel Subbotin had a meeting with the Acting Governor of the Omsk region, Mr. Andrey Beschtanko. The parties discussed development of competition as a major factor for establishing market economy and food security in the region and talked over the forthcoming changes to the antimonopoly law.

According to the Deputy FAS Russia, the prospective regional programme for developing competitive environment in the Omsk region will incorporate the objectives set for the regional government by the Antimonopoly Service. He also said that FAS was working on the next package of amendments to the antimonopoly law. In particular, it introduces considerably more severe sanctions for participation in cartel agreements and all actions that lead to market division and entry barriers for other economic entities, including small and medium business.

The second day of the workshop focused on the methodology for analyzing goods markets. In course of the discussions, representatives of regional offices of FAS Russia highlighted several problems related to analysis and assessment of the level of competitive environment on the markets as well as specific judicial practice.

According to the speakers, one of the main problems in this area is inconsistency between the existing law and the procedures for analysis and assessment of competitive environment. Deputy Head of FAS Russia Pavel Subbotin suggested that participants should formulate the controversial issues in order to describe them in the Workshop Protocol.