OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2010. Due to repeated public statements made by the governor of the Omsk region, Mr. Leonid Polezyaev, with unproven criticism of the work of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Omsk region, FAS Russia would like to point out that such groundless statements are unacceptable. For instance, in the latest statement regarding the outcome of the meeting of the Commission on monitoring prices on the food products market, Mr. Polezhaev effectively accused Omsk OFAS Russia in bribe-taking and failure to act, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

“The governor must give evidence to prove his words”, said the Head of FAS Russia Igor Artemyev.

According to the Head of FAS Russia, currently “there are no grounds for an internal investigation of Omsk OFAS Russia or the Head of the OFAS”.

In September 2010, Omsk OFAS Russia found that suppliers of buckwheat and milk producers violated the antimonopoly law (collusions aimed at fixing monopolistically high prices for buckwheat and milk). In both cases OFAS imposed “turnover” fines upon the violators. Currently OFAS Russia is investigating cases against Omsk producers of flour and grain.

The Head of FAS Russia stated that the Antimonopoly Service and its regional offices are forced to initiate over half of all cases against the authorities, first of all, regional and local ones. It is often related to unlawful restrictions of free movement of goods and services between Russian regions.

Omsk OFAS Russia is not an exception: in July 2010 the antimonopoly body found that the Ministry of the Omsk Region for Property Relations, the Ministry of the Omsk Region for State Legal Development, and the Office of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastral Records and Cartography in the Omsk Region violated the antimonopoly law (violating the procedures for state cadastral appraisal of land in Omsk residential areas). Omsk OFAS Russia issued a mandatory determination to abolish the Decrees of the Government of the Omsk region which approved the cadastral appraisals. To inform the public, Igor Artemyev instructed to publish the relevant decisions and determination issued by Omsk OFAS Russia on the official web-site of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia is also interested in the statements made by governor Polezhaev about “the ban on outflow of grain from the region”. “This is a restriction of competition and it constitutes the grounds for opening a case upon the signs of violating Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, said the Head of FAS Russia.

Igor Artemyev suggested the governor of the Omsk region should establish constructive relations with FAS Russia, particularly, to exercise joint actions to stabilize the prices for socially-important food products.