In addition to the degramming of kutya and pancakes, strange forecasts make their way into the documents.
In early February, it became known that the administration of the Uvelsky municipal district of the Chelyabinsk region was looking for a contractor to organize memorial dinners after the funeral of persons “who died in the line of military duty during a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Donetsk People’s Republic.” For the first time, a request for quotations was made on January 31, setting a starting price of almost a million rubles. Three hours later, the purchase was refused, and the next day the whole composition was repeated again, without changing a single figure. But the terms of reference from these two failed calls to the contract remained in the system, and it was it that caused a lot of questions.
The customer estimated the cost of lunch for one person at about 370 rubles and carefully wrote down how much kutya, pancakes with honey, buns, noodles, goulash, buckwheat, Druzhba milk porridge, compote and jelly should be for each. This in itself is not a subject of interest – officials constantly have to translate human tragedies into boring bookkeeping. But the scheme of interaction with the contractor is another matter. They wanted to conclude a contract a year in advance: if it becomes necessary to hold another memorial meal, the municipalities send an application, if not, then no.
It seems strange to predict the number of sad reasons, and with the current manner of law enforcement, this may even seem like a reason for accusation of “discrediting”. However, the TOR states: “The approximate number of people served for the period from the date of the conclusion of the contract is 2,702 people.” To make it clear, the population of the district is about 31,000, that is, almost one in ten must attend a commemoration in a year – such maximum figures were laid down by the administration. And she changed her mind.
The case was brought to an end – although with the same result – in the Tisulsky municipal district of the Kemerovo region. There, officials held an auction for “a memorial dinner for members of the SVO in Ukraine who died in the line of military duty.” The cost is half a million rubles, the deadline is the same 2023. Here, the administration did not begin to paint in black and white their ideas about the number of guests they are waiting for at the commemoration. However, something still needs to be included in the calculation of the maximum price, and 750 meals were included at 666 rubles each (the population of the district is 23,000 people). In the composition – all the same kutya, borscht, cutlet, pollock in batter, buckwheat, rice porridge, pancakes, sausage, cheese, bread, fruits, vegetables, compote, jelly, bun. The results were summed up just on February 17 – no one showed up for the auction.
But scheduled contracts for memorial dinners are not the only way. In the same Kemerovo region, MUP “Ritual” from the city of Mezhdurechensk conducts urgent purchases from a single supplier; they are striking, because the full names of the deceased are included in the titles. A cursory search through official reports leaves no doubt as to where they volunteered and where they died. In the Ritual group, under posts about the dead, the company is thanked for organizing the funeral.
Apparently, such an individual approach really guarantees a more worthy farewell. The last memorial dinner (the protocol was published on February 14) for the two dead cost 200,000 rubles. Prior to this, a native of Mezhdurechensk, who, according to official reports, died on January 7, was commemorated for 330 thousand, another (died in October) – for 233 thousand. The cost of such contracts MUP “Ritual” starts from 116 thousand, in the public procurement system they are few.
There are similar contracts in other regions, they are not so clearly distinguished on the portal, but it is not difficult to find them. The administration of the Khanka municipal district in the Primorsky Territory ordered a memorial dinner for a countryman who died on October 3 for 88,000 rubles. And the terms of reference show that the scale of mourning events can fluctuate: in this case, we are talking about 90 guests, and these are not forecasts for the year ahead, but the number of people at one particular dinner. Another commemoration – for 80 servings – cost 56 thousand there, for 100 guests – 70 thousand.
This allows us to return to the unclearly formed forecast of Chelyabinsk officials about 2,702 guests per year. The number has not so many divisors without a remainder, only 8. If we discard the clearly implausible values, then we can assume that the authorities were counting either on 7 commemorations of 386 people, or on 14 – 193 each. But it is unlikely that anyone takes exclusively average values . Rather, there is some kind of gradation in terms of the scope of events or bureaucratic binding to standards and demographic indicators. At first, the district administration itself asked why it was necessary to raise this topic now, if the auction was canceled anyway, and then refused to disclose the calculation formula without an official request. He is directed.