A meeting of the Joint Collegium of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Control Committee on unjustified mediation took place

A meeting of Joint Collegium of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Control Committee. The topic of the event is compliance by organizations with legislation in the field of procurement of goods (works, services) and measures to eliminate unjustified mediation. 

The panel was attended by Acting Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Aleksei Stuk, Chairman of the State Control Committee of the Republic of Belarus Leonid Anfimov, his deputies, deputies of the Prosecutor General, prosecutors of regions and Minsk city, heads of regional departments of SCC. 

Among the invited are ministers of industry, agriculture and food, antimonopoly regulation and trade, transport and communications, architecture and construction, housing and communal services, forestry, health care, education, deputy chairmen of regional and Minsk city executive committees. 

In his speech, Aleksei Stuk noted that initially the complete exclusion of intermediaries from the procurement system is impossible, and in some cases their participation in commercial relations is even caused by objective necessity. 

“The problem is the negative impact of intermediaries on the economy due to speculative appreciation of the supplied products, the supply of low-quality goods“, backstage collusion with customers, which undermine the credibility of the competitive principles on which the choice of supplier should be based. There are facts of overdue receivables, including external ones, due to non-fulfillment of obligations by suppliers of this kind” he added. 

Speaking on legal mechanisms to exclude economically unjustified mediation in procurement, Aleksei Stuk stated: “National legislation complies with internationally accepted approaches and provisions of international agreements, but the necessary competitive environment has not been established. Annually, more than 60% of the competitive procedures during public procurement do not entail the conclusion of business contracts.” 

An analysis of control, supervisory and investigative and judicial practice revealed that the cause of many procurement violations is the corruption of customer officials and intermediary structures. Often, crimes were legalized through formally executed procedural actions and pretending of a competitive choice. 

“The connivance of the proprietary oversight bodies that are responsible for state property interests protection has become the ground for a number of violations,” the head of the supervisory authority advised. “The low commercial activity of domestic manufacturers and their official sales organizations was also a factor stimulating the participation in the procurement activities of unscrupulous intermediaries.” 

At the end of his speech, Aleksei Stuk pointed out the importance of having an optimal decision-making and control system at the corporate level, the need to increase the personal responsibility of managers for the results of the enterprise’s economic activity. 

“At the same time, in the conditions of economic liberalization, additional regulatory measures to eliminate unfair mediation should be constructive, based on a balance of state and business interests. Obviously, there is no ready-made, universal and proven way to suppress unjustified mediation, which is parasitic in the economy. The purpose of today's meeting is to develop clear and effective measures to counter this phenomenon and ensure their consistent implementation without prejudice to the activities of bona fide market participants,” the head of the supervisory authority said. 

The panelists were also addressed by the head of the Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office for Supervision over Law Compliance and Legality of Legal Acts Andrei Maltsev, who analyzed the situation in this area bringing actual examples.

The collaboration of supervisory and control authorities will continue. 

Photo: BelTA 

Press division 
of the Prosecutor General’s Office