Chief Command at Beglov’s

It’s no secret that the relevant officials of the St. Petersburg departments can pocket the funds allocated for the overhaul of houses in the city.

As of the end of August 2022, the short-term plan for the overhaul of apartment buildings in St. Petersburg was completed by 12.3%.

At the same time, Mr. Anatoly Anatolyevich Povely (responsible vice-governor) reports on his Telegram channel that the program is half completed and now the main thing is not to slow down. Why the official chose this method of conveying information is a question that I would like to answer, that because of its frank deceit.

What is actually happening in St. Petersburg with a major overhaul, what funds are allocated and where does this money go? The Sankt-Petersburg Post.

From Petersburgers on a string

Meanwhile, as our readers write, the temperature in the Northern Capital is approaching 5 degrees above zero, but work has not yet been completed and accepted, including: overhaul of 245 roofs (out of 302 planned); for 889 engineering systems (out of 1104 planned), including 253 heat supply systems (out of 263 planned); on 163 facades (out of 164 planned

By the way, Mark Berkhman, previously convicted of fraud and taking bribes, is responsible for the execution of work and construction control in the Capital Repair Fund. In 2017, being the director of the state enterprise “Kirov Road Repair Construction Administration”, he promised to assist one of the carriers in the tender for the conclusion of a sublease agreement for a site with a subsequent right of redemption for 210 thousand rubles. After receiving the money, he was taken red-handed. In the same year, he was tried under Article 199.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (concealment of the company’s funds, from which taxes should be collected).

It’s funny, after being fired from the post of head of a road repair enterprise in the Kirovsky district of the Leningrad region, Berkhman was going to retire, which he told reporters about. However, apparently one of “their own” put in a word for the unlucky road builder and “voila” – he ended up in the chair of an official who has access to huge budgetary flows.

But back to our “mess”. In order to present the picture more clearly, let us explain – the whole city is “thrown off” for the overhaul of houses in St. Petersburg. This line was included in the pay stub several years ago. And even if your house has just been built and will be repaired, thank you, if in 30 years, you are still required by law to pay a “penny” to the “common fund”. Plus, every year some kind of subsidy comes from the city.

But in fact, this “common fund” for some reason does not maintain in a normal state even those houses that scream that they will fall apart if they are not repaired. Complaints about the lack of overhaul and the constant postponement of its deadlines occupy almost the first line in terms of the number of those that are published on the Our St. Petersburg portal (a citywide website where you can write a complaint about the inaction of municipal and city structures).

The situation in the house at Chernyakhovsky 11 is indicative – there are cracks in the building, and they keep promising overhaul. Residents in the central region in particular face such problems almost everywhere. Despite the pleas and noise, it is almost impossible to bring the repair time closer. It is much more likely that at the next revision of the plan, the house will be excluded from the program, shifting the deadlines “due to lack of funding.”

At the same time, the Capital Repair Fund, due to the failure to reconcile with JSC “VTsKP” and the imminent liquidation (acquisition of JSC “PES” of this organization), twice this year issued repeated bills to conscientious payers of capital repairs, citizens are forced to independently understand the intricacies relations between the Fund, JSC “VTsKP” and JSC “PES” in order to avoid the collection of imaginary debts from them.

“Effective” leaders

The Acting Director of the Fund is a no less significant person – the former top manager of Rosseti Dmitry Shutov, who was appointed to this position at the end of last year. Then there was the so-called redistribution, the old management, which messed up when preparing the city for the winter, was removed from their posts, new people were appointed to the positions of heads of the housing and communal block.

Shutov ended up on this list, and although it was found that the highest score at the traditionally held before being appointed to the position of head of the fund was scored by Mr. Jesters.

As the head of Pskovenergosbyt and Pskovenergoagent, Shutov did not show himself particularly. Rather, he was a cog in the system that Rosseti has been implementing for many years under the leadership of first Pavel Livinsky, and then Andrey Ryumin. The Moscow Post has repeatedly written about the numerous scandals of the corporation.

As in the mass of other structures of Rosseti, Pskovenergosbyt potentially inflated tariffs, charging exorbitant prices from consumers. Various forums are full of messages about this, the media write about it.

Photo: https://www.9111.ru

It is likely that Mr. Shutov was promoted to overhaul by his high-ranking colleagues – in order to trade approximately the same as before. At least in comparison with what happened under Pogrebnyak, there are no noticeable improvements in the housing sector. Although, after coming to power, Mr. Shutov personally told how he would say goodbye to leaks, unfinished work and fires, Fontanka reported.

Now Shutov blames the fact that the townspeople cannot wait for the work – themselves. Allegedly, people owe the Fund money. Although, in fact, the Fund itself owes more than 100 billion rubles worth of work to the townspeople – Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote about this.

There is reason to believe that these days are systematically deposited in the pockets of the changing leaders of the Fund, which reports on the successes of the Housing Committee and relevant officials.

Moreover, according to information from a reader, it was after the arrival of Shutov that about a third of the employees left the organization (more than 130 out of 414 people).

“Groomed” to Beglov?

As for the profile vice-governor, who is currently listed as the already mentioned Mr. Poveliy, he previously served as the first deputy and head of the district administrations of the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg. For seven years, he led the Kolpinsky district, where, despite numerous scandals, he always got away with it.

He clashed with the deputies, allegedly trying to shove his man into the administration, local gardeners accused the head of the district of wanting to take their land and give it to the bank for residential development. A supportive position for gardeners was then taken by the head of the Metallostroy settlement, Natalya Gorelova, and paid with a mandate.

In 2018, the prosecutor’s office drew attention to Poveliy’s personality – she made a presentation to the head of the district due to violations in the accounting part. Looks like numbers were ruled somewhere to hide the theft?

In 2020, the Chamber of Control and Accounts has already identified more than 200 violations in the activities of the administration of the Kolpinsky district and its subordinate institutions.

During the work of Poveliy in the administration, searches were also carried out – the FSB came to officials according to rumors in order to reveal a cartel conspiracy in the organization.

In August 2020, Poveliy’s deputy, Mr. Aleksey Zhukov, was detained. He was charged with receiving a bribe of 28 million, Regnum wrote.

As The Moscow Post wrote, Poveliy may even have a shady business with the agro-industrialist Arkady Fosman.

Apparently, due to a pile of accumulated scandals and fears that Poveliy could become the next after Zhukov, he was transferred to the post of adviser to the governor Alexander Beglov. Moreover, the latter personally submitted his candidacy for approval to the Legislative Assembly. It is hard to believe that the governor did not know the ins and outs of the official. In this regard, the appointment is seen as the protection of a person close to Beglov.

The question remains – why did the governor prefer, as the common people say, “to warm a snake on his chest” than to send the official to court? Perhaps Beglov himself has his own profits from the activities of Poveliy?

What does permissiveness lead to?

After the latter took his post, revisions began in the city – searches and criminal cases began to rain down on housing agencies and road enterprises. As Poveliy himself reported, management companies, Mostotrest, housing and communal services and municipal authorities are responsible for the snow collapse in the winter of 2021-2022.

And recently, the responsibility for poor cleaning of the territories began to be shifted from private owners to district administrations, which are now very conveniently held in the fist by Mr. Poveliy, who yesterday himself was one of the cogs in this system.

For these purposes, the Housing Committee requested 5 billion rubles for the purchase of more than a thousand pieces of equipment, the recruitment of thousands of manual labor specialists, methodological instructions, regulations should be developed in a short time, premises for the placement of equipment and workers should be identified, equipped and brought into proper condition, and all this It was necessary to be in time by January 1, 2023.

As our informant writes, as of September 1, 2022, out of the entire plan, the Housing Committee ensured only an inventory of premises and a few auctions for the purchase of equipment, market participants say that in the current economic conditions, the delivery time for such a quantity of equipment and attachments it can be delayed until mid-spring, and it is necessary to clean the intra-quarter territories from January 1.

Who and how will clean up the intra-quarter territory if snow falls in November, as is usually the case in St. Petersburg, is not clear.

Returning to our overhaul, we note that this year, during the discussion of subsidies from the government, Zhilkom managed to get money for overhaul much easier than it was in recent years.

Apparently, the official enjoys the support of Beglov, and as long as this is the case, he can afford to “twist” subordinate institutions as he pleases. It is possible that Poveliy receives pleasant bonuses for not directing “his anger” towards the Overhaul Fund floating in scandals. Some of them can go into the pocket of the head of the city.