The head of the region was so convincing that on March 3, at a meeting in the regional energy ministry, which was held with the participation of representatives of the prosecutor’s office, the owners of the Yuza Invest company “wished” to donate their property in the name of social additional gasification. It is clear that such “gestures” are not made by businessmen just like that, and “a kind word and the prosecutor’s office” can achieve more than just a “kind word”.

But all this, according to the Omsk governor, is done solely for the benefit of the inhabitants of the region, who, according to him, “should not suffer from the sluggishness of companies.” That is, in everything, as it turns out, the Yuza Invest company was to blame, which for some reason maliciously disrupted the regasification of the Omsk region. At least, this is how the local authorities assure: “To date, Omsk residents have sent 6381 applications for regasification of households where the Yuza networks are laid, including 4042 applications in Omsk. In fact, over the years, work has been completed on only 26 concluded contracts … ”- write the media controlled by the Omsk authorities.

Gentlemen “decorators”

The numbers, of course, are impressive, but they look a little strange. No businessman in his right mind would so recklessly skimp on his obligations, destroying his reputation and running into a criminal article.

After the Yuzu company was removed from the social supplementary gasification program, everything, according to Alexander Leonidovich, should go like clockwork, and the business of providing gas supply to the residents of Omsk and the regions of the region will be completed without red tape and delay:

“Now the unregistered gas pipeline networks will be handed over to local authorities for further acceptance of the objects into ownership. This decision is the result of a large interdepartmental work of the government of the Omsk region, the prosecutor’s office of the Omsk region, the investigative committee of the region, the governor reports.

There is no doubt that “a lot of work” has been done to seize the nets from Yuza, and the last speech of the Omsk governor explains a lot. The key phrase in it is “unregistered gas pipeline networks”. That is, after the transfer to the balance of the authorities, the networks will be “registered” and through them, the long-awaited “blue fuel” will finally flow to the homes of Omsk residents and residents of the region? And what or who prevented the “registration” of the gas pipeline networks of the Yuza Invest company? Is it the local authorities?

The history of gasification of the Omsk region is associated with a number of scandals and “showdowns”. So, last year, representatives of Omskgazstroyekspluatatsiya JSC complained about bureaucratic red tape. The Ministry of Energy and the housing and communal services of the Omsk region dragged out the process of making changes to the regional gasification program for 2021-2025, approved by the governor, so much that the gas workers were forced to turn to the antimonopoly committee.

At the same time, the Omsk OFAS Russia came to the conclusion that the inaction of the relevant ministry not only unreasonably impedes the activities of additional gasification of the population, but also creates a threat of violating the rights of citizens-applicants.

That is, it turns out that officials are also “good”? Consumers blame officials for not having gas, officials nod at contractors who, in their opinion, miss deadlines and do not fulfill obligations, and contractors, in turn, are outraged by the actions of officials who create unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that interfere with their normal work.

Sometimes the actions of the authorities do not lend themselves to logic at all. Thus, the regional government allocated 6 million for the construction of a municipal gas pipeline in the village of Serebryakovka, while the Yuza Invest company had already laid gas networks in this village. Of course, the management of a private company did not like this approach to solving the problem. Here is what Dmitry Panchenko, General Director of Yuza Invest, said about this:

– Allocating subsidies for the construction of a gas pipeline in a village where it already exists is just some kind of madness. I would like to note that we are building gas pipelines where budget funds are not allocated for this, where citizens do not want to wait for many years for assistance from the budget (gasification of the region by 30% is delayed by about 30 years). Federal and regional legislation provides for subsidizing the expenses of residents for gasification. Subsidizing can take different forms: there are options to subsidize the construction of the gas pipeline itself or to provide targeted subsidies to citizens. The regional law on this topic appeared on February 22, 2020 – belatedly, but still. For these purposes, regional budgetary funds in the amount of 40.9 million rubles were allocated.

Now, according to the same Panchenko, Omskgazstroyekspluatatsiya, headed by Sergei Zhirikov, uses municipal and regional gas pipelines free of charge. They were transferred to him for free use without bidding (not counting depreciation deductions in the amount of about 100 million rubles a year and direct budget subsidies). This, in turn, does not allow the authorities to allocate targeted subsidies to people for connection. As a result, Omsk residents cannot gasify their housing, because they do not have money to get access to the network.

At the same time, the leaders of the Yuza Invest company assure that, with similar use, they are ready to provide free connection to 3,000 households a year.

Targeted subsidizing of citizens for gasification also eliminates corruption risks, making the process of “additional gasification” transparent, since in this case, competitive procedures are required for the right to use municipal and state property, including gas pipelines.

According to Dmitry Panchenko, Yuza Invest maintains one kilometer of the gas pipeline for approximately 30 thousand rubles a year, JSC Omskoblgaz – for 100 thousand, Omskgazstroyekspluatatsiya – for 110 thousand rubles.

And if this is so, then the expropriation under pressure from the governor of the Yuza gas networks in favor of the municipal and regional authorities does not look like such a noble concern for the local population, but rather smacks of a banal hostile takeover and monopolization of the regional gas market.