Press Release, 26.10.2017

The Federal Antimonopoly Service filed a case against the participants in the procurement of the Directorate of the Road Safety Improvement Programme (the Directorate). Earlier, Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre headed by Sergei Mitrokhin, member of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, revealed signs of collusion in the purchases of the Directorate for the amount of 38.5 million roubles. The head of the department is an official who was fired in 2008 from the road department of St. Petersburg for financial fraud.

The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre found out that the federal state institution “The Directorate for the Management of the Federal Special-Purpose Programme “Improving Road Safety in 2006-2012” purchased services for three children’s road safety festivals. Two companies with one phone number took part in these purchases.

The lawyers of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre presume that the two companies exchanged information and agreed their actions in the tender. The company which failed in the tender did not try to compete but acted as a spoiler for other participants. Consequently high prices were maintained at the tender.

According to the Internet newspaper Fontanka, Andrei Pogrebnyak, head of the Directorate, was earlier dismissed from the post of the Directorate for Traffic Management of St. Petersburg for fraud with budgetary funds.

If the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service proves that a single infrastructure was used by the two companies when applying for the tender (for example, applications were sent from some IP addresses, and the participants agreed their actions), then the two companies will face heavy fines in accordance with Part 1 of Article 14.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service notes that the companies violated Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. An administrative fine of 10 to 50 per cent of the initial minimum bid price is envisaged for this violation.