OREANDA-NEWS. April 24, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) heard a case against the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for violating the Federal Law "On State and Municipal Procurement of Goods, Works and Services" and found the complaint of "Pravo I Konsultatsii" Ltd. ungrounded, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

"Pravo I Konsultatsii" Ltd. petitioned to FAS Russia stating that the tender documentation drawn up and approved by the Ordering Party for the open tender for selecting the provider of legal services for the Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights had not complied with the Law "On State Procurement…".

The Petitioner put forward the following arguments to support its claim:

1. The tender documentation scored the "bidder's qualification" criterion at 45%, which contravened Part 6 Article 28 of the Law "On State Procurement…".

2. Clause 27.1 Part 27 Chapter 4 of the tender documentation as well as a mandatory form No.5 "Offer on qualitative characteristics of the provided services" of the tender documentation specified such qualifying requirements to the bidders as work experience and the number of staff lawyers/attorneys, which contravened Part 6 Article 28 of the Law "On State Procurement…".

3. In the tender documentation, the Ordering Party defined the initial (maximum) price of the governmental contract, and the tender documentation did not set the price per unit (hour). Clause 27.1 of the tender documentation stated that under the "price" criterion the bids would be evaluated for the price per hour of legal services provided. Thus, the provisions of the tender documentation contravened Clause 4.1 Part 4 Article 22, and Part 4 Article 28 of the Law "On State Procurement…".

Investigating the case, FAS Russia established:

1. As providing legal services is the subject matter of the tender, scoring the importance of " the "bidder's qualification" criterion at 45% complies with Part 6 Article 28 of the Law "On State Procurement…"; establishing the sub-criteria "work experience on the market of legal services (years)" and "the number of staff lawyers/attorneys" of the "bidder's qualification" criterion for evaluating the bids complies with Part 4.1 Article 28 of the Law "On State Procurement…".

2. Under Clause 4.1 Part 4 Article 22 of the Law "On State Procurement…", if it is impossible to determine the scope of services in a tender for providing legal services, the Ordering Party can specify the initial (maximum) contract price (lot price) in the tender documentation. Thus, the Ordering Party gave the initial (maximum) price of the governmental contract (lo prices) in the tender documentation in compliance with Clause 4.1 Part 4 Article 22 of the Law "On State Procurement…".

Having investigated the case, the FAS Russia's Commission found the company's complain ungrounded.

Reference:
94-FZ Federal Law "On State and Municipal Procurement of Goods, Works and Services" came into force in January 2006.

The Law is aimed at increasing transparency of state and municipal procurement, and preventing corruption and abuse to determine the best conditions for execution of governmental contracts. The main objective of the Law is to save state budgetary funds.

In 2008 enforcement of the Federal Law "On State Procurement…" saved the state budget around 260 billion Rubles, in 2007 -168 billion Rubles, and in 2006 -106 billion Rubles.