MOSCOW, August 1 (RAPSI) – The Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika signed an order approving the plan aimed to fight kickbacks and graft in state procurement at the end of July, Vedomosti newspaper reports on Monday.

A representative of Ministry for Economic Development has confirmed the agency receiving the order. The document concerns not only the government, but also state-owned companies and natural monopolies. The measures stated by the order should be implemented by the Prosecutor’s General Office, the Ministry for Economic Development, which is responsible for the functioning of the contract system, Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) controlling procurement, Federal Security Service (FSB), Investigative Committee of Russia, and Interior Ministry in the second half of 2016 and 2017, Vedomosti has reported.

According to Vedomosti, the second part of the plan contains proposals aimed at changing the respective legislation: the General Prosecutor’s Office envisages making violations of state procurement regulations a crime, introducing mandatory affiliation checks, and disclosing subcontractors in large-scale procurement deals. Practical implementation steps should include inter-agency inspections and investigations of procurement transactions in defense and law enforcement, as well as those carried out to satisfy “other state and municipal needs.”

Alongside the above measures the General Prosecutor’s Office proposes to introduce the term “conflict of interests” into regulations governing procurement by state-run companies and expand the list of offices obliged to report such conflicts when participating in procurement for the state, Vedomosti has reported.

The conflict of interests point has been included in the plan by insistence on the part of the Ministry for Economic Development, its representative insists. According to him, the requirement to prevent and exclude such conflicts concerns not only employees and officials directly involved in procurement, but also their superiors, who are able to influence procurement process.