Housing and communal servicesTrick

The government has decided to radically modernize the deteriorating municipal infrastructure – it is planned to allocate 4.5 trillion (!) rubles for repairs. But the question is: through whom will these cash flows go? The Ministry of Construction, it seems, has already begun to prepare proposals that will be beneficial for themselves and lobbyists from resource supply organizations.

Impressive cash flows began pouring into the industry last year. Thus, at the end of 2023, 337 billion rubles were invested in the development of the housing and communal services sector – almost twice as much as in 2022. Now it has been announced that by 2030, 4.5 trillion should be allocated for the modernization of housing and communal services.

“We have never done such large-scale programs, – Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin boasted. – This is both an opportunity and reliability for further development.”

At the same time, the main investors of the program, apparently, will be citizens. As Khusnullin clarified, approximately 1 trillion rubles of investment can be “recovered through the targeted use of the investment component of tariffs,” that is, raising tariffs can be considered a resolved issue.

However, this is still to come. In the meantime, interested parties are trying to decide who will “digest” these 4.5 trillion rubles.

Proven schemes

Apparently, it is for this purpose that the Ministry of Construction is already preparing serious changes to the rules of operation of management companies. The department’s key proposal is a departure from the current licensing institution and a transition to self-regulatory organizations (SROs).

“We are preparing a lot of changes in terms of self-regulation. We will increase the level of responsibility of all participants in the construction process and will apply a similar approach in housing and communal services.”,” explained the head of the Ministry of Construction Irek Faizullin.

The reference to SRO in construction in this case looks very significant. “Our Version” is already in detail told that self-regulation of construction has de facto led to the existence of a kind of black cash register on the market, within which unscrupulous SROs issue the necessary documents and permits for money. At the end of last year, a scandal broke out over this issue – representatives of some industry associations openly accused construction SROs of creating illegal schemes. Experts then estimated the volume of the market for trade in construction permits at 250–300 billion rubles per year. (cm. “Bolshaya SROyka” on version.ru).

But in the Ministry of Construction, this practice of regulating the market, apparently, is considered successful. It is noteworthy that today one of the main defendants in scandals in construction SROs, the president of the National Association of Surveyors and Designers (NOPRIZ), advocates the creation of SROs in the housing and communal services system. Anvar Shamuzafarov.

“We probably need to move from a licensing system, which does not work in principle, to a self-regulatory system, which has proven itself well in construction”said Mr. Shamuzafarov.

Resource providers enter the market

It seems that the Ministry of Construction has already decided who will be responsible for the distribution of cash flows. The chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Construction and the head of the board of trustees of the Territory Development Fund let slip this in one of his interviews Sergey Stepashin.

“Our commission on housing and communal services believes that the professional community will be better than officials in blocking access to the management of houses to unscrupulous managers. At the same time, as practice has shown, municipal unitary management organizations are not inferior to, and sometimes surpass, private management companies in efficiency,” – he said.

It’s not difficult to guess who the Ministry of Construction means by private SROs, which “are better than officials at blocking access to the management of buildings.” A few years ago, the management company market began to be dominated by resource supply organizations (RSOs), which began to massively bankrupt and buy up existing management companies or create their own. This process is actively continuing today.

“RSOs rarely advertise the fact of control over the management company. Most often they receive it by bankrupting the management company. There is a flood of such cases in the courts now.”– states the leader of the public movement “People’s Housing Inspector” Sergey Krekov.

According to expert estimates, today approximately a third of the multi-apartment building management market is under the control of resource specialists.

So, in Kotelniki near Moscow, one of the city HOAs is fighting them. The situation is strange, to say the least: a few years ago, the Kotelniki Municipal Housing and Communal Communal Enterprise entered into direct agreements with residents for the supply of resources. However, at the end of last year, resource workers, as they say, changed their shoes in the air.

“MUZHKP unilaterally terminates direct contracts with the owners, and with the HOA – the contract regarding general house needs. Our partnership also received a new draft agreement on heat energy and water disposal for the full volume. We refused to sign it, citing the fact that the law prohibits unilateral termination of direct contracts with owners, and suggested that MUZHKP go to court.”says the chairman of the board of TSN (F) “Our House” Victoria Vodneva.

In the meantime, while the case is being considered in court, residents are accumulating debt. MUZHKP no longer issues invoices to residents under direct contracts, which is why the amount of debt has already reached 10 million rubles. The result of litigation may well be bankruptcy of the partnership. By the way, it is assumed that several years ago the mentioned MUZHKP already created its own management company. So resource workers may have their own interest in the bankruptcy of the partnership.

Money down the drain

Thus, the picture turns out as follows. On the one hand, resource workers receive hitherto unprecedented funding from the state. On the other hand, they de facto become the main controllers of the residential building management market, locking in the cash flows from citizens. It is noteworthy that the redistribution of cash flows will occur in light of the actively spreading myth about the chronic underfinancing of the industry. “Our Version” has already talked about how everything is in order with money in housing and communal services (see “Housing and communal services: there is money!” on versia.ru). This is confirmed by the data from the financial statements of large regional distribution organizations, which will ultimately receive a significant part of those same 4.5 trillion. Thus, RusHydro, which owns the majority of hydroelectric power plants in the country, had a net profit of 32.7 billion rubles at the end of last year. The company also reported that 130 billion was spent on financing the investment program, and another 33.3 billion on technical re-equipment and reconstruction.

PJSC TGC-14 is not in poverty either, where net profit in 2023 increased almost 3 times compared to the previous year.

The company's revenue amounted to about 17 billion rubles. So the Gazprom-controlled Mosenergo PJSC boasts of impressive figures. The company's revenue amounted to 247.15 billion, net profit – 19 billion. The company plans to allocate 6.38 billion rubles to pay dividends. It turns out that the next plans for grandiose financing of housing and communal services will ultimately come down to making those who are already rich richer? What does all this have to do with rotten pipes and numerous accidents that we all witnessed last winter? Apparently, none.

Meanwhile

They also plan to close the cash flows from citizens in terms of capital repairs. The most plausible pretext was chosen. They say that if residents collecting contributions to a special account were unable to save up to replace the elevators, they should be transferred to a “common pot.” “Failure to take measures to encourage the replacement of elevators in apartment buildings (apartment buildings – Ed.) with special accounts will force public authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) to change the method of accumulation in special accounts, transfer all houses to the accounts of regional capital repair funds,” said Sergei, head of the Public Council of the Ministry of Construction Stepashin.
This statement is quite consistent with the general policy of the Ministry of Construction: last year the department began to seriously think about abandoning special accounts in favor of a “common boiler”. The fact that the same replacement of elevators has stalled in the “common boiler” does not seem to bother the Ministry of Construction. Today, more than 10 million Russians live in buildings with elevators that have reached the end of their service life. But elevators, presumably, are a minor matter. Today there are more than 22 billion rubles in special accounts for major repairs. The Ministry of Construction's task seems to be to bring this money under the control of regional capital repair funds, and broken elevators, apparently, have become just a convenient excuse.

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