The number of complaints to the Commissioner for the Protection of the Entrepreneur's Rights in the Moscow Region is increasing annually. During the past five years (2015-2019) up to 7099 appeals have been received in total.

    More than 1485 appeals were received by the Commissioner's public receptions in Moscow Region municipalities in 2019 year. Additionally, another 398 requests came directly to the Commissioner,  as well as 56 appeals were cascaded from the Office of the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Entrepreneur's Rights. Most of the complaints came from 35 public receptions of 52 Moscow Region municipalities.

The main purpose of reviewing appeals is do not get the case to trial and to give a support to the entrepreneur in short time. Likewise, the businessman's continued operation is much important preserving jobs- noted Vladimir Golovnev. For example, we assisted preserving nearly 300 jobs in 2019 year. Such severe punishment as detention could deal a death blow to already fragile business anyway. According the current legislation, this measure may  be applied  only under certain "economic articles". Nevertheless, this does not always translate into the enforcement practice in reality.

    There is another aspect: simply building on formal reasons, the investigation strictly implements the repressive measures of the criminal procedure law.

Thus, instead of house arrest and restricted residence, a businessman from Pushkino urban district was imprisoned for violating the preventive measure imposed earlier. Legally this breach may tighten the measure indeed. This entrepreneur with three dependent children had no criminal record and was very cooperative with the investigation. In spite of everything, these factors  haven't been taken into account by investigation. After the intervention of the Moscow Region Business Ombudsman Vladimir Golovnev, the restraint was changed for home arrest.

    The business concerns remain unchanged in the past five years, and the largest number (26,8% of total appeals) in 2019 related to law enforcement activities, nearly 19%-   tied to administrative obstacles. That includes gaps and contradictions in the law, either authority's wrongdoing or inaction in licensing, "runaround" and unreasonable demands. 15,9% of complaints were involved with state and municipal procurement irregularities, another 15,7%- with property and land relations, 7,2%- with taxation.

    Meanwhile, the percentage of incoming appeals, related to the administrative barriers, had declined noticeably (20,9%) since 2018, as well as taxation (10,1%).

Apart from the other issues it is worth noting the complaints of small and medium business of non-payment under state and municipal contracts. It was 5% to 12% in previous years, but it's 15% at the beginning of 2019 year until today.

The efficiency of claim's consideration showed nearly 80% in 2019 through interaction with Moscow Region Office of the Auditor General.

    Ultimately, the total amount of debt repaid to entrepreneurs was up to 30,5 million rubles, taking into account court's decisions in favor of business - noted Vladimir Golovnev, the Moscow Region Business Ombudsman.