Yesterday there was a hearing at the antimonopoly service (the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service)), where our dispute with the Higher School of Economics over whether they were placing a government contract properly continued in absentia. They reviewed our complaint about HSE's purchase of online advertising banners for 2.14 million rubles. The amount is not large, but the issue is one of principle.
The auction results were finalized even before the hearing: as we said they would be, the winner was a company called "Informika." Its victory had quite obviously been built into the technical specifications. At the FAS hearing, RosPil was represented by Lyubov Fedenyova. Apparently she did a good enough job, because following the hearing the auction results were canceled. Informika will not be getting the 2.14 million rubles (sinister laughter). At least not for now. Luba writes about it all in detail here. I think HSE and Yaroslav Kuzminov personally should not be upset with us over the cancellation of the auction. We have given them another chance to conduct this procurement in full compliance with the procedure they themselves advocate: not simply hand someone 2.14 million rubles for placing seven banners, but actually apply the principles of the contract system. Define what they want from online advertising Identify the target audience for the advertising Determine which websites that target audience uses Conduct price monitoring Announce an auction for advertising agencies ready to buy ad placements where they want them Track and publish data on the effectiveness of this spending And so on. Advertising professionals know this better than I do, and HSE has an entire department devoted to advertising and PR. I should also note separately that the cancellation of the auction was the result of a collective effort, not just RosPil's work. This procurement was spotted by zakupki_news, and many people helped us with advice, expert input, and spreading the word. This brings the total value of canceled questionable tenders to 290 million rubles. A reminder that RosPil is raising funds. And a reminder that RosPil is looking for lawyers. Besides Luba, we have found one more person so far; I will write about him this week.