OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2013. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that Smolensk City Council and Smolensk Authority violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The case was initiated upon information on granting subsidies in 2013 to Smolensk self-government bodies in order to compensate the costs of works for landscape gardening and provision of urban amenities, road maintenance and repair, arranging and maintaining burial sites.

Smolensk Authority approved the selection criteria not provided for by the law of the Russian Federation and limiting the scope of persons that have the rights for subsidies. Under these criteria, only budget-supported enterprises received subsidies from the city.

The FAS Commission established that apart from budget –supported companies in Smolensk other economic entities also can carry out the required works. Such persons should be provided equal access to application of budgetary funds in relevant fields.

“Financial works for the municipal needs, in breach of the proceduresв specified in No. 94-FZ Federal Law, created preconditions for violating competitive relations between economic entities on the markets in question. The antimonopoly bodies will continue suppressing such actions by the authorities”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS, Alexander Kinev.

Reference:

The law of the Russian Federation specifies that all local problems resolving which required spending funds from the local budget must be resolved by the local self-government bodies under the Federal Law “On State (“Municipal”) Procurement” (No. 94-FZ Federal Law) by placing municipal orders.

Under Article 15 of the Law “On Protection of Competition” local self-government bodies are prohibited to exercise actions that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition.