The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) found a conspiracy between the participants of the state tender for the supply of medical equipment - and assigned them a symbolic punishment.
It is about LLC "Obriy-Meditolika" from Lutsk and FOP Mykola Kominko, who jointly participated in the purchase in the amount of UAH 1.47 million, but acted not as competitors, but as concerted players.
The IP address issued a scheme
The essence of the conspiracy was obvious: both participants submitted tender proposals from the same IP address. In addition, from this IP address they were in online banking, which further confirmed their connection.
The AMCU found that such behavior artificially created the visibility of competition, although in fact proposals were not independent. This is a violation of the legislation on protection of economic competition.
Violation - is there and responsibility?
Despite the evidence, the Antimonopoly Committee was limited to a fine of only 68 thousand hryvnias - that is, less than 5% of the tender amount that tried to play.
Such a soft punishment causes indignation in the public and the expert environment, because it has no restraining effect. In such cases, violators usually continue to participate in government procurement under other names.
System problem
This case is only one of many when formal fines do not meet the scale of abuse. And although the discovery of conspiracies is an important step, the lack of serious responsibility negates the very idea of combating cartels in public procurement.
