OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2007. OJSC VolgaTelecom was rated fifth in "National rating of transparency of procurement 2007". The Company was assigned the highest rating – "guaranteed transparency", the company's press service reported.

Within the project "Rating of transparency" government and corporate structures of the Russian Federation are annually rated for the level of transparency and efficiency of procurement procedures. The project is realized by National association of E-commerce participants with the support of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. In 2007, 328 organizations took part in the project. The other leaders in nomination of corporate buyers were OJSC "Gazprom-neft", OJSC "Magnotogorskyi Steel Plant", OJSC "CenterTelecom", OJSC "Comstar-ONC", OJSC "Mobile TeleSystems" and OJSC "ОГК-4".

In its procurement activities OJSC VolgaTelecom is guided by the primary objective – to get the required quality product and in the amount, and at the right time and place at favorable price from a reliable supplier duly liable for its obligations. Since 2004, the Company has been consistently creating and improving the system of procurement and in 2005 it established standing tender committee. For the purpose of further improvement of procurement system, and in regional subsidiaries as well, in 2006 VolgaTelecom approved the package of documents regulating the procedure of procurement, interaction of sub-divisions and selection of a supplier.

Since 2007 beginning, the Company started to hold tenders of selecting the organizations to provide services to VolgaTelecom. In particular, commercial banks, insurance and transport companies providing cash collection services and leasing companies were selected during these tenders. Open tenders allowed for ensuring the transparency of their procedure at all the stages and equal conditions of participation for all the bidders. Owing to tender selection the Company managed to select for itself the optimal conditions of services provision.

"We are directly interested in the enhancement of efficiency and transparency of all VolgaTelecom operations," says Sergey Omelchenko, Company's General Director. "The tenders for the right to conclude contracts allow us to optimize the costs for procurement of one or another equipment, and of course, we will continue to follow tender practice of selecting the suppliers of commodities and services for our Company,” said Mr. Omelchenko.