OREANDA-NEWS. October 01, 2010. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly service in the republic of Komi (the Komi OFAS Russia) won the first case at Syktyvkar City Court against a government agency that violated the legal norm obligating it to procure from small business, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In course of a scheduled inspection, Komi OFAS Russia established that in 2009 the Regional Office of the Federal State Statistics Service in the Komi Republic (Komistat) purchased less than 10% of the overall annual volume of purchases, specified by a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, from small businesses. It violated the Federal Law “On State Procurement of Goods, Works and Services”. A responsible officer of Komistat was fined 50,000 Rubles (under Part 11 Article 7.30 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations).

Syktyvkar City Court supported the decision of the antimonopoly body.

Under Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, state and municipal customers must procure no less than 10% and no more than 20% of the total volume of goods, works and services from small business in accord with the list approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.

It is necessary in order to protect the interests of small business by guaranteeing access to state and municipal resources.

“It is essential that all state and municipal bodies observe this norm. This is important from the social point of view as well as for the national economy in general. Small business should be supported and developed. In course of our scheduled inspections we will check compliance with this norm. You can see that such violations are punished by considerable fines”, said the head of Komi OFAS Russia Yaroslav Bordyug.