Press Release, 20.09.2018

The Centre for Anti-Corruption Policy of the Yabloko party appealed to the Tatarstan Public Prosecutor’s Office demanding that officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan be inspected for corruption. Officials are suspected of exceeding their official authority in organising tenders. Information about the illegal actions of officials became known during the trial on the cartel case.

On 28 March, 2018, the Tatarstan Department of the Anti-Monopoly Service recognised that the actions of OAO “Kazanskaya Yarmoraka” (“Kazan Fair”), OOO “TKS-Contact”, OOO “Parnas” represented a cartel agreement. The investigation was held on the request of the Yabloko party. On 12 September, 2018, the Arbitration Court of Tatarstan canceled the decision of the court due to the fact that the Tatarstan Department of the Anti-Monopoly Service had not taken into account the actions of the customer – the Ministry of Industry of Tatarstan.

According to the lawyer of the “Kazan Fair”, the Ministry of Industry of Tatarstan urged the participants of the auction to invite other companies for the sake of quantity, so that the tenders would be recognised as valid: “The customer needed this so that there were no indicator of failed trades. The Republic needs the indicator in order to prove that there is active competition in the Republic, and two or three companies participate in the bidding.”

“Officials of the Ministry of Industry of Tatarstan exceeded their authority. For the sake of statistics, they directly violated the law,” Alexei Chumakov, lawyer of Yabloko’s Centre for Anti-Corruption Policy, says.

The lawyers of Yabloko’s Centre for Anti-Corruption Policy sent a statement to the Public Prosecutor’s Office with information about the signs of crime under Article 286 of the Criminal Code (abuse of office).