OREANDA-NEWS. March 09, 2011. The Cartel Working Group of the International Competition Network (ICN) held a telephone conference, the purpose of which was to increase public awareness on the issue of combating cartels, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In course of the conference participants discussed cooperation between the authorities enforcing state procurement law and representatives of the government bodies participating in tenders and auctions in order to prevent bid-rigging and anticompetitive conduct and advocate compliance with the law on state procurement.

It was already the second time that the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) took part in this conference as the key-reporter, along with representatives of OECD and competition authorities of Sweden and Canada.

The Head of the FAS Russia’s Cartel Department, Alexander Kinev, told his foreign colleagues about the methods of combatting bid-rigging collusions, the system of electronic auctions in Russia and about the most important cases on bid-rigging collusions investigated by FAS Russia.

As emphasized by Lesya Davydova, the Head of the FAS Russia’s Department for International Economic Cooperation, “active participation of FAS Russia in the ICN Working Groups reinforces FAS position in this international organisation. FAS Russia’s practice towards increasing transparency of state procurement due to the transition to electronic auctions has proved to be efficient as it considerably reduces administrative barriers, increases competition and improves access of entrepreneurs to state procurement. The global competition community evaluates this practice as a kind of “innovation”.