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On June 9, 2015, the VEGAS LEX law firm and RSPP Committee on Competition held an expanded meeting chaired by member of the RSPP Board Bureau Sergei Generalov and attended by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The conference, The Practice of Applying the 44-FZ and 223-FZ Laws in 2015: Problems, Solutions and Legislative Initiatives, convened major industry players, energy companies and international pharmaceutical giants.

“The 44-FZ, which contains regulations for the entire procurement cycle, allows the potential bidders for state contracts to plan ahead and take part in more tenders,” Mr. Generalov said. “It has also made the rules of the game between the government and the suppliers of goods, works and services clearer. Still, there are unresolved issues out there, which can be addressed through legislative efforts. The new amendments to the 223-FZ law, drafted earlier this year, include imperative provisions for the entities regulated by 223-FZ, and are aimed at harmonizing the requirements of government and corporate procurement, something that arouses concerns among RSPP members.”

State Secretary and FAS Deputy Head Andrei Tsarikovsky reported the results of the FAS oversight of the 44-FZ and 223-FZ application, giving some statistics of these laws for 2013 and 2014. He also listed some problems of applying the 223-FZ and 44-FZ laws and FAS’s proposals for changing the situation.

Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Department for Control over State Procurement Artyom Lobov also cited relevant statistics, discussed some system-wide problems and prospects of applying the 44-FZ, and mentioned online bidding.* “Construction contracts account for half of the state orders market, which is around RUB 3.5-4 trln. And still, state procurement follows the outdated procedure with applications being filed on paper,” he said before speaking about fraud incidents that range from physically affecting the application process to manipulating the bids after they have been submitted.**

VEGAS LEX Managing Partner Alexander Sitnikov also outlined his position and expressed the business community’s concerns over the key problems of state and corporate procurement before discussing those with the FAS officials.

Head of VEGAS LEX Commercial Group spoke about the development trends in the 44-FZ and 223-FZ enforcement practice, pointing out the issues on which the courts and the antimonopoly regulator have conflicting positions.

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*The Russian Government has supported the FAS’s initiative to start using digital bidding procedures to ensure the bidders’ anonymity and reduce the collusion and conspiracy risk, to rule out any possibility of affecting the bids’ contents or the bidding procedure, and to reduce bias in evaluating the bids.

**Source: FAS of Russia