OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2011. A delegation of Russian government agencies held several meetings in Washington (USA) with representatives of American competition authorities. These meetings were organised under the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between FAS Russia and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice in the field of antimonopoly cooperation, which had been signed on 10th November 2009, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Russian delegation comprised experts of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, representatives of the Central Office of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation, the Investigation Committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. The delegation was led by the Head of the FAS Russia’s Legal Department, Sergey Puzyrevsky.

On 11th April 2011, members of the Russian delegation had a meeting with Commissioner William E. Kovacic, FTC. The parties discussed certain issues of revealing bid-rigging and collusions within the scope of reference of the US FTC. Russian experts learned about the role and functions of the Federal Trade Commission in the American system of state procurement. In his turn, Mr. Kovacic emphasises special importance the steps being undertaken by Russia at the stage of improving control over state procurement and its integration with the antimonopoly law in Russia.

“The law on state procurement exists in 120 countries but only Russia takes the bravest steps towards integrating two fields – competition law and the law on state procurement”, says William E. Kovacic, “and it is important that other countries began to follow the example of Russia”.

The Russian delegation also took part in a working meeting at the Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, when Russian and American experts discussed the issues related to investigation and prosecution of cartel agreements, bid-rigging at state auctions, criminal cases in state procurement.