Poor cleaning affects the rating of politicians. Back in 2010, according to a report by the Megapolis Center, the then mayor of the city, Valentina Matvienko, doubled the number of her opponents in four months – among the reasons for this was “a failed fight against snow”, informed “Kommersant”.
Some officials are fired because of the poor organization of cleaning (but rather indicative). So, in 2019, when to clear the snow attracted even budget employees fired chapters Frunzensky, Vasileostrovsky, Central and Krasnoselsky districts. By data “Fontanka”, officials were offered to remain in the posts of deputy chairmen of various committees. Almost all of them returned to work in the city administration.
Due to poor snow and ice removal, at least two criminal cases were also initiated in St. Petersburg. One of them is still being considered, and consideration of the second ended in favor of officials and public utilities.
First thing. In January 2022, complaints from St. Petersburg residents about poor cleaning interested prosecutor’s office. In early February, prosecutors excited a criminal case on embezzlement of funds by organizations involved in the cleaning. Searches were carried out at more than 60 addresses, among them – housing and communal services, road companies and their contractors.
27 April the case of embezzlement registered in the Krasnogvardeisky court. The suspects are Gennady Fomin, the former director of the St. Petersburg State Directorate of Public Administration “Center”, Valentin Tiunov, the owner of Ekoneva LLC, and Yury Chernokozinsky, the general director of Ekoneva. The case is still pending. Fomin and Chernokozinsky received a ban on certain actions, Tiunov is under house arrest.
Second thing. In January 2019, the St. Petersburg Antimonopoly Service (UFAS) discovered signs of a cartel in 13 city cleaning contracts for more than 8 billion rubles and excited a business. In October OFAS took out decision on violations of the law on protection of competition in the actions of utility companies.
According to the agency, all competitions in December 2018 were held without a fight for the contract: they included two participants who simultaneously reduced the starting price to amounts that were identical down to kopecks. As a result, the initial price of contracts decreased by an average of 0.5%.
Potential conspirators called six organizations, five of which are controlled by the Committee for the Improvement of St. Petersburg. The sixth – JSC Avtopark No. 7 Spetstrans – until the fall of 2017 belonged to the company of the son of Senator Valentina Matvienko Sergey, wrote “Fontanka”. Most of the contracts – almost 4 billion rubles – went to the State Department of Enterprise “Center”.
In 2020, contractors and officials filed a lawsuit with the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court to challenge the decision of the OFAS. As a result, the court acknowledged decision of the antimonopoly service illegal. The court did not find evidence that other players could not participate in the contested auction, as well as complaints about the actions of the komblag. At the same time, several volumes with the materials of the case were lost, wrote “Business Petersburg”.
