OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2014. Arbitration Appeal Court agreed with the arguments put forward by the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in St Petersburg (St Petersburg OFAS Russia) in a case on the procedures for selecting a managing company.

Earlier St Petersburg OFAS Russia investigated a complaint against actions of Vyborg District Authority, St Petersburg, in a tender for concluding a contract for managing apartment blocks. The antimonopoly body established that Vyborg District Authority had unlawfully recognized the tender invalid, and failed to publish the relevant Protocol on the tender web-site. OFAS issued a determination to the violator to eliminate the violations.

The District Authority disagreed with the decision and determination issued by St Petersburg OFAS Russia and filed a lawsuit, but Arbitration Courts of two Instances fully supported the antimonopoly body.

According to Marina Nikitina, the Head of the Department of St Petersburg OFAS Russia for Antimonopoly Control over Economic Entities and Advertising, in this case the antimonopoly authority acted not only as an enforcement body but also explained in detail the rules for organizing tenders to select managing organizations, established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

“Under the Government Decree, the Tender Commissions must verify a bidder’s offer, taking into account the types of works and services, especially their frequency, that are not contrary to the current law, including sanitary-and-epidemiological norms and other rules for providing housing-and-utilities services. It means that the ordering party must decline such types of works, as washing windows and floors in the entrance to an apartment block several times per day or trimming and watering grass lawns in winter. There were incidents when tenders for the right to manage houses were won by those bidders who pushed up the original contract price by increasing frequency of carrying out some mandatory works. Following the algorithm described in the decision, ordering parties can avoid such a situation”, summed up Marina Nikitina.