Press Release, 24.07.2018

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) filed a case on violation of the antimonopoly legislation at the tender for snow cleaning in Moscow. The case was raised on one of the statements of Yabloko in connection with poor cleaning past winter. Six companies inter-connected through their founders are accused of violating Clause 2 Part 1 of Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The total amount of the cartel for the initiated case amounts to 211 million roubles.

In February, Yabloko’s Anticorruption Policy Centre published an investigation into the failure of snow removal in Moscow. Lawyers of the Centre found out that state customers spent 3.9 billion roubles for the utilisation of snow; whereas 1 billion roubles out of this amount was received by several groups of companies with signs of cartel collusion. The materials of Yabloko’s investigation were sent to the Federal Antimonopoly Service on behalf of Sergei Mitrokhin, head of Yabloko’s Anticorruption Policy Centre.

According to the investigation of Yabloko’s lawyers, the prospective cartel of spouses Vitaly and Tatyana Pereslegin received 288.4 million roubles. Vitaly Pereslegin is the general director and owner of the Atlas, Avenue and Comtiv companies. Comtiv has one of the numbers coinciding with the company Teplokonnekt. These companies participated in 14 tenders in turn.

The response of the Antimonopoly Service confirmed the Yabloko’s suspicions of the cartel in Moscow on cleaning of snow for the amount of 196.5 million roubles. It is established that Vitaly and Tatyana Pereslegin are spouses. At the same time they participated in the tenders for 91.9 million roubles as a group of individuals and did not fall under the anti-cartel legislation. Yabloko’s lawyers will send an application to the FAS on these tenders about unfair competition of the participants.

In addition, the signs of cartel of the Pereslegins’ companies were found in four bids for the supply of equipment and road works for the amount of 14.6 million roubles. Thus, the total amount for this episode of the “snow cartel” amounted to 211.2 million roubles. Investigation on other cases goes on.

Yabloko believes that many snow cleaning companies are connected with officials in the Moscow Mayor’s Office and Moscow districts state structures. For example, the Prestige company, which is a frequent participant in bidding in the sphere of housing and communal services, uses the contacts of the state housing and utilities company (“Zhilyshchnik Raiona Tyoply Stan”) and wins in its tenders. Who from the officials of the state housing and utilities company is behind this firm has not been established yet, so Yabloko insists that the Public Prosecutor’s Office conducts an audit on the signs of corruption in the case.