OREANDA-NEWS. July 28, 2008. The Tomsk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) recognized that the Tomsk Regional Authority violated the antimonopoly legislation and the Federal Law "On State and Municipal Procurement of Goods, Works and Services". The Tomsk Regional Authority agreed to eliminate the violations, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Tomsk Regional Authority gave an instruction, recommending municipalities and companies operating on the oil market to sign oil supply contracts with the "Regional Business Centre of the Tomsk Region" OJSC. The Tomsk OFAS Russia established that executing the instruction could reduce the number of economic agents on the market and restrict competition. "Regional Business Centre" OJSC would be able to unilaterally affect oil transactions on the market in the Tomsk region, which might result in increasing oil prices. Therefore, the actions of the Tomsk Regional Authority violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", which forbids the actions that can cause such consequences.

Furthermore, the Tomsk Regional Authority failed to select the supplier for petroleum service organizations, funded from the regional budget, which violated the state procurement legislation.

Having investigated the case, the Tomsk OFAS Russia issued a determination to the Tomsk Regional Authority to eliminate the violations and withdraw the regulative acts that restricted competition. A representative of the Tomsk Regional Authority admitted the violations and expressed the readiness to eliminate them.