Banquet after tariff hike: utilities spend millions on New Year's celebrations

At least 25 government orders for holding 34 holidays in honor of the Power Engineer's Day and the New Year were placed on the official public procurement portal.

Anna Snezhnaya

Almost half of the 45 million rubles will be spent on banquets for employees of companies with state participation, such as, for example, MosObleIRTS (Moscow Region), City Electric Networks (Khanty-Mansiysk), as well as Gazprom's subsidiaries - RusHydro , Rosneftegaz» . This means that dear Russians will pay for the power companies' corporate parties. If the energy company is profitable, it is reasonable to assume that the funds for the celebrations are taken from the profits, which are formed directly from utility bills collected from the population, from receipts. If the enterprise is unprofitable, money for corporate parties is withdrawn from working capital, which in companies with state participation are formed, among other things, thanks to subsidies from the budget and other types of state support.

From December 1, the Russian government unscheduled increased the cost of utilities in Russia by 9%. Together with the July increase, tariffs for the year will increase by more than 13%, and this is an annual record over the past decade. Such a New Year's gift, of course, pleased not the residents more, but the public utilities, especially power engineers. We do not know whether it happened on purpose or not at all, but just in time for their professional holiday - Power Engineer's Day (December 22), the first bills with increased tariffs will begin to arrive in mailboxes.

Energy companies all over Russia could not fail to celebrate such an event and ordered luxurious corporate parties. Feasts with delicacies, dancing, alcohol. Santas and Snow Maidens will even come to some adult corporate parties.

Descriptions of what kind of corporate event is required are detailed by the companies themselves in the terms of reference raffled off at auctions.

Tiger prawns, salmon steaks, grilled trout, Armenian dolma, taiga-style pork, salmon with shrimp, forty-kilogram cakes on the menu. Everything is washed down with French wine, Russian vodka. And at this time on the stage - presenters, artists, musicians, DJs. The photographer will take memorable pictures. This is how Uralenergosbyt is preparing to celebrate the Day of the Power Engineer and the New Year in Chelyabinsk . For 7 banquets for management and branches, they are ready to pay 5.5 million rubles. The number of guests is 1160 people. But Uralenergosbyt is not even a resource-supplying organization, but just an intermediary that resells electricity from the producer to the public, the main activity of the company is issuing receipts. But the company cannot refuse to celebrate a professional holiday.

Another example is turkey boiled pork, salmon rolls and pancakes, fish plateau, cheese plateau, tobacco chicken, dolma, etc. Italian wine, French cognac and Lux class vodka are poured. Well, what's a party without entertainment. Guests are met by animators and photographers, presenters, dancers, artists, musicians and a DJ entertain until midnight, decorations and security are required. This is how the Fortum holding and its subsidiaries are preparing to celebrate the Day of the Power Engineer. 460 guests are expected at corporate parties. Almost 10 million rubles are going to be spent on three banquets with feasts for Fortum. At the same time, a requirement is put forward for the contractor under the contract - to maintain confidentiality...

On December 23 , Fortum holding is also going to celebrate the New Year in Tyumen. 300 guests are waiting for a six-hour entertainment program. The concept of the celebration should be in the style of "Bondiana. Environmental Security Agents. Energy workers will be fed with salmon rolls, rabbit pate, Russian salad with salmon, caviar and quail eggs, for hot dishes - pike perch with mashed potatoes, a rabbit leg and a bag of puff pastry with cold cuts and mushroom sauce. They want to drink in the western branch of Italian and Spanish wines, vodka "Royal Gold" and five-year-old cognac.

Holding "Fortum" serves Western Siberia and the Urals. It was created as a result of the reform of RAO "UES of Russia" - in the past TGC-10 - is currently owned by the Finnish state energy company Fortum. In May, the Finns announced they were leaving Russia and banning the new owner from using their Fortum brand, but so far the intentions have remained intentions.

TGC No. 1 (Gazprom), Far Eastern Generation Company (RusHydro), Inter Rao-Electrogeneratsiya (among the ultimate owners - Rosneftegaz) did not stand aside among state-owned subsidiaries. These companies also ordered expensive corporate parties.

Order New Year's Eve banquets and energy state corporations. The largest celebrations are expected in the subsidiaries of Rosatom. Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions and Atomtechenergo, which serve thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, will hold at least 10 New Year's corporate parties for their divisions with a total cost of 12.5 million rubles. Corporate parties with delicacies, strong drinks and entertainment programs will be arranged for employees.

In addition to the feast, Atomtechenergo decided to rally the workforce in the Klyazma recreation complex near Moscow. The departure of 90 people was ordered for 1.6 million rubles. There, an intellectual game is organized for the company - an analogue of “What? Where? When? ”, Only it is called differently -“ Crystal Owl ”. But all the attributes are as close as possible to the club of connoisseurs - eight tables with spinning tops, a black box, 56 butterflies for participants, a live owl or an eagle owl for photo shoots (!), seven statuettes of crystal owls and a connoisseur from the real club “What? Where? When?" (!!). After such a sin not to drink. For guests, drinks are ordered at the rate of 0.75 liters per person. A gala dinner with an entertainment program for 4.5 hours and an average check per person of 5,000 rubles is planned in the same recreation complex.

The most expensive corporate party at Atomtechenergo will be held by employees from the management apparatus - it will be held in the Bolshoy Petrovsky hall in the Moscow President Hotel. 470 guests will be served canapés with Cheddar cheese, tiger prawns and roast beef, as well as sparkling wine. Other dishes include salads and appetizers with mussels and salmon, rolls with eel and suckling pig. For a hot appetizer, they will bring a beef tenderloin roll with ham and cheese, vegetable julienne and wine sauce. There are two main dishes - duck fillet with flambé of dried fruits, fresh berries and fruit balsamic sauce, as well as fried sea bass fillet with ginger potatoes and teriyaki sauce. Wine will be poured.

City electric networks of KhMGES of Khanty-Mansiysk distinguished themselves with special expectations in honor of the Day of Power Engineers (100% of the municipal power grids belong to the municipality). Taxpayers from Khanty-Mansiysk, one might say, directly pay for the corporate party of this company, and it will cost 2.2 million rubles. There is no detailed technical task on the public procurement website for this corporate party. At the same time, the townspeople themselves remain without a holiday. The mayor's office of Khanty-Mansiysk canceled New Year's fireworks, festivities, several festive events, a concert on the central square, and an extreme sports festival due to mobilization .

Moscow Regional Unified Information and Settlement Center LLC, which forms and delivers a single payment document to residents, will spend almost 6.4 million rubles on the celebration of the Power Engineer's Day and New Year's events. The enterprise is 25% owned by the government of the Moscow region. A banquet with a buffet table, a dance floor with light and sound, and a photo booth have been ordered for Power Engineer's Day. Also, there must be artists and reporters who will film or write about what a fun event it was. To welcome the new year, events with a similar scenario are planned, they will take place over several days. Contests with prizes and gifts are organized for both adults and children.

Formally, many power supply companies in Russia became private after their mass transfer to concessionaires. However, in almost all cases, the state retained a stake in established joint-stock companies; in some regions and cities, this share is 100%. It cannot be otherwise, since strategically important facilities, critical civil infrastructure must be controlled by the state. Companies themselves like to talk about how they operate on private capital and how, therefore, their internal affairs do not concern everyone else. Like, they themselves have earned - so we walk. This position is Jesuitically far-fetched.

The income of energy suppliers (and various management companies that parasitize on them) in Russia is mainly our payments. Concessionaires-shareholders came for everything ready - the infrastructure was built in Soviet times at the expense of the state. The company fulfills its obligations for repair and emergency maintenance again at the expense of the municipalities. That is why banquet orders for these companies are mandatory on the Public Procurement portal.

After it became known that Russian energy companies were going to spend 45 million rubles to celebrate Power Engineer's Day and the New Year, a number of participating companies canceled their purchases. The press service of the Fortum holding canceled 10 corporate parties for 15 million rubles and said: “All New Year celebrations in the company have been canceled, purchases have been canceled, contracts are being terminated.” A similar statement came from the press service of the holding's subsidiary in Chelyabinsk, Uralenergosbyt.

The decisive desire of other companies to take a walk at the New Year's corporate party has not been broken so far, no statements have been received from them.

- After 20 years ago, resource-supplying organizations wanted a monopoly on the management of housing and communal services and their desire was legalized, tariffs immediately rose several times and continue to grow annually. At that time, the government convinced that half of the increased fees would be used to repair networks, but few saw capital investments in infrastructure over two decades. Now, tariffs are raised every year, explaining that it is necessary to make the Russian housing and communal services system attractive to foreign investors, but no one particularly sees foreign investors here, because no one was going to let them into their super-profitable garden. All the excess profits of this business, which is still sitting on state yeast, are payments from residents. In the country, we have an extremely high collection rate - 96%, God forbid, as they say, comments Alexander Tolmachev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Union of Lawyers.

At the same time, with their own ideal discipline, the population does not require ideal services and reports. In European countries, a 12% profitability from housing and communal services is considered the ultimate dream, and everything works like clockwork. In Russia, it is special to become, with a yield of 50% - rusty pipes, constant breakthroughs and emergency situations, and private money, as it has not been observed, is still not observed, the expert adds.

- The state, municipalities, as holders of shares in energy companies, also act as full-fledged distributors of the budgets of these legal entities. All expenses and transactions of companies with state participation must be coordinated with the state. For this reason, all their procurement activities are regulated by N 223-FZ "On the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities." Moreover, customers participating in tenders (competitions, auctions) on the basis of the Unified Information System in the field of procurement of the Russian Federation must adhere to the principles of openness, targeted and cost-effective spending of their funds. Procurement activities of companies owned by half or more of the state, as well as their subsidiaries and affiliates, monopolies, organizations from regulated areas of activity, other budgetary organizations, in addition, are subject to control by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Accounts Chamber, and other financial control bodies, - says Chairman of the Association of Lawyers "For Human Rights" Maria Arkhipova.

When in doubt, auditors answer questions about the redistribution of budgets, about how much funds from state support and income from the company's commercial activities interpenetrate each other before they are spent on certain festive events.

In fact, it is precisely in such ways that they “launder money” in companies with state participation and state corporations - goods and services that are not at all related to the work of a legal entity. In the case of a corporate party, it is most likely not about money laundering (although this is also possible if desired), but about an impudent desire to go to a banquet at someone else's expense. If this were not the case, giant companies would have ordered New Year's parties on behalf of their other legal entities that are not associated with the state with either authorized capital or other obligations, the lawyer emphasizes.

Ordinary unprivileged Russian companies began to refuse to hold New Year's corporate parties after the presidential decree on partial mobilization.

About 70% of enterprises decided to cancel the festivities due to "untimeliness," said Andrey Zinkovetsky, general director of the Aeroclub Tour corporate organization company.

In ordinary years, government orders for holding New Year's corporate parties are launched by the beginning of October, just like the venues for New Year's events are handed over by this time. This year, only 40% of previous years were booked in October.