President Dmitry Medvedev promised to “bonk some heads” at the Russian Post after a businessman from the Far East questioned the fairness of the way the state-run postal company conducted business with some of its suppliers.
“Now this is serious talk. Give me all the information. Our people from the [presidential] administration are sitting here, and we’ll do some head-bonking ... if this can be caught,” Medvedev told the businessman, Sergei Mishin, during the trip to Birobidzhan on Friday.
Mishin said Russian Post shut his packaging supplies firm DV Upak-Servis out of a bid to supply packaging materials to the state-run postal service.
He told Medvedev that Russian Post is “failing the tender” because it only takes bids from companies affiliated with its top management.
Medvedev ordered Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the Kremlin’s control directorate, to investigate the situation.
Russian Post issued a statement Friday saying it had been doing business with Upak-Servis in three regions and had been planning to expand its cooperation with the company prior to his statement.
“To make these kinds of accusations the claimant must have the facts that confirm them. Russian Post does not have this kind of information,” the statement said.
But this is not the first time Russian Post is being accused of unfair bidding practices. Mishin backed his claims by citing an investigation by Vedomosti, which published in January an extensive article on the peculiarities of the postal service’s bidding system.
In December 2009, four companies, including Moscow-based packaging suppliers Real Plus and Virni M, filed complaints about Russian Post with the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.
Real Plus also filed a lawsuit with Moscow Arbitration Court asking to cancel a packaging materials tender in which the company was not allowed to participate.
“Since [Alexander] Kiselyov became head of Russian Post, only three companies have generally been allowed to participate in electronic auctions for packaging suppliers — MSPC, Prom-Snab and Norden Dom,” Konstantin Natovich, founder and CEO of Real Plus, said in a phone interview Friday.
All three companies are affiliated with Russian Post’s management and sell overpriced products of inferior quality, which amounts to a major money-laundering scheme, representatives of both Virni M and Real Plus told The Moscow Times.
“All we want is to supply our product by means of transparent paperwork. We offer to sell high-quality product at a much lower price, but this obviously is not what Russian Post wants,” said Viktor Shkrunin, Virni M’s head production engineer.
The three companies bid among themselves and allow the end prices to drop by a nominal amount of 0.5 percent to 1 percent, Shkrunin said. Vedomosti compared this figure to the 52 percent drop at some of the auctions conducted from 2007 to early 2009, when Andrei Kazmin, the former Sberbank CEO who came up with the idea of a system of electronic auctions for suppliers, was head of Russian Post.
Natovich said 2008 was the best year for suppliers in terms of transparency.
“It all came to a halt when Kiselyov came to Russian Post,” Natovich said.
“The three companies could be selling at 2 rubles a piece what we were selling for 1,” Natovich added.
Both Natovich and Shkrunin said they hoped that Medvedev’s remark will get things moving with the anti-monopoly service.
An anti-monopoly service commission will look into Real Plus’ complaint July 19 after postponing the hearing twice. “The documents we have provided make me certain that we will succeed,” Natovich said in an interview.
In April, Natovich’s Real Plus won a defamation suit filed by MSPC, which Real Plus accused of being affiliated with Russian Post.
Natovich said he expects that the paper trail will help expose the corrupt activities of Russian Post’s chief, Kiselyov, and his deputy, Dmitry Chuiko.
The anti-monopoly service said Russian Post faces a fine if the suppliers prove their case.
“If they succeed, Russian Post can expect a fine, and the results of the auctions will be canceled. Additionally, someone specific will be held administratively responsible,” said Dmitry Rutenberg, head of the anti-monopoly service’s transportation and communications department.
But Russian Post dismissed Natovich’s enthusiasm.
“On June 8, Russian Post won the lawsuit against Real Plus, as well as a number of other similar lawsuits, thus confirming that the company’s tenders are conducted strictly in accordance with the Russian law,” Russian Post said in a statement.
The company often has to deal with small suppliers trying to lobby their interests by bypassing the existing purchasing system, the statement said.