Anastasia Samusenko has commented for Piter.tv on the procurement by the St Petersburg metro of masks and gloves

Following the recommendation of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Welfare, from May 12, St Petersburg introduced an obligation to use personal protective equipment in public places. Masks and gloves can now be purchased at metro stations. The metro administration is providing sites for around 200 vending machines, and has also procured 370,000 disposable three-layer masks. At the request of Piter.tv internet television, Maxima Legal’s Associate, Anastasia Samusenko, commented on the procedure for acquiring personal protective equipment, noting that these purchases may not be “transformed” into “competitive” purchases from one supplier:

“These procurements were carried out on the basis of a federal law on the procurement of goods by certain types of legal entities (including to state enterprises). According to the provisions of this law, legal entities are entitled to establish cases of procurement from a single supplier in their procurement regulations. The provision on procurement by the St Petersburg Metro located on their official website does not explicitly indicate the possibility of purchasing from a single supplier during its implementation due to an accident, emergency, so on, but indicates the possibility of such a purchase in cases where there is the need to quickly meet customer needs for certain products, provided that there is objectively no time to conduct competitive procedures, and the purchase amount does not exceed 5 million roubles. Accordingly we can conclude that the purchase from a single supplier is lawful”, Anastasia explained.

To read the article in full (in Russian), please see the Piter.tv website >>>