What it is?
The Regional Fund for the Capital Repair of Apartment Buildings is a non-profit association, which is usually established by the Government of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation or its subordinate structures to regulate issues of capital repairs of residential buildings.
Its basis is confirmed by a special act , which details the legal basis, functions, and powers of the Foundation.
For example, such a founder in Moscow is the Department of Major Repairs, which is also a division of the Moscow Government. In other regions, everything happens similarly, which confirms the direct connection between the state and the organization.
The jurisdiction of this structure is limited to one region , since within its competence the Fund cannot go beyond the boundaries of the city, region, region, etc. This is primarily a legal entity that deals exclusively with repair issues; therefore, at the core of its activities, the Fund is guided by the following documents:
- constituent act;
- statutory documents;
- Constitution of the Russian Federation;
- federal housing legislation (the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, orders of the State Construction Committee, etc.);
- regional acts.
Each Foundation has its own official website , where all the necessary information is published, including details, command staff, planned maintenance activities, etc. For example, all information about the Moscow Foundation is posted on the website https://dkr.mos.ru.
Many residents are interested in the question, what does the regional operator of the fund for capital repairs of apartment buildings do and what are its functions? If we consider the problem in more detail, then his scope of activity includes solving the following housing situations:
- organization and financing of major repairs in residential buildings in a specific region;
- redistribution and accumulation of paid contributions for major repairs;
- compiling a list of houses that need planned major repairs, according to the regional capital repair plan (what does the repair plan for the residential address include?);
- approval of the regional program for capital repairs of apartment buildings and the timing of repairs;
- opening special accounts of a regional capital repair operator and performing banking transactions with them;
- implementation of a regional capital repair program for apartment buildings and technical orders aimed at carrying out repair work (what is a major repair program and what does it include?);
- interaction and cooperation with government agencies, municipalities, management companies in the housing sector.
Reference: the functions of the regional operator are officially listed in Art. 180 Housing Code of the Russian Federation. The list is not exhaustive, since regional law may establish additional obligations and functions of the Fund.
How the Moscow capital repair fund uses the budget
Specialists from the YABLOKO Anti-Corruption Center conducted an analysis of the transparency of the Fund for the Capital Repair of Moscow Apartment Buildings (the Fund), found out how budget funds are spent, and found out how open the Fund is from the point of view of civil control.
Preliminary conclusions
Much data is hidden
Funds from fees for major repairs are accumulated in an account in the Moscow Department of Finance; their further use until payment for contract work for major repairs is not disclosed. In particular, the question remains closed whether funds are placed in banks and, if so, under what conditions. The total amount of fees collected has not yet been made public. The exact budget of the Foundation is not disclosed.
The fund is wasteful
The maintenance of the Fund costs taxpayers a year in the amount of about 690 million rubles. The leaders of the Fund (they were also civil servants just yesterday) continue to receive salaries, incentives and bonuses from the Moscow budget. However, they no longer publish income declarations that are mandatory for officials and are considered employees of NPOs. Procurements for the needs of the Foundation and for major repairs have been removed from the public procurement system. Read on for details.
Fees are depreciating
The amount is about 5.3 billion rubles. Today it is stored in the Fund’s account and is depreciated due to inflation. At the current rate of collections and expenses for 2021, the amount of losses due to inflation could amount to 1.2 billion rubles.
The big picture
From July 1, 2015, owners of residential and non-residential premises located in Moscow are required to pay monthly contributions for major repairs to the Fund. The founder and supervising organization of the Fund is the Department of Capital Repairs of the City of Moscow. The created fund was headed by Arthur Keskinov, for this he had to leave his position as head of the Department of Capital Repairs of the city of Moscow. He served as head of the department for 10 years (7 years as head of the Department of Capital Repairs and another 3 years as head of the Department of Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement). He was replaced by Vitaly Mikhailichenko, Keskinov's former deputy.
Financial support for the current activities of the Foundation is carried out through budgetary allocations from the budget of the city of Moscow. However, the published budget of Moscow does not provide accurate information about the funds that the city spends on the activities of the Foundation.
Table 1. Budgetary allocations provided for
Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
As can be seen from Table 1, the Moscow budget indicates the expenses of the Department of Capital Repairs for personnel payments for all government institutions and extra-budgetary funds, as well as the total amount of subsidies of the department for non-profit organizations. There is no exact information about how much money the Foundation receives from the state.
Let us note that the funds directly provided for in the Moscow budget do not reflect all the expected expenses of the Fund.
The lack of transparency in the allocation of public funds for the Fund’s activities raises significant questions from an anti-corruption perspective.
Fund expenses
The Capital Repair Fund began its activities with expenses for repairing premises for the Fund, purchasing furniture and ordering a number of scientific research works.
Renovation of premises in 2015, based on the initial maximum price for lots, cost the Fund more than 86 million rubles.
The purchase of furniture in 2015 cost just over 32.5 million rubles. It is noteworthy that the development of a number of regulatory legal acts for the activities of the Fund was carried out not by lawyers from the Department of Capital Repairs of the City of Moscow, but by a third-party fund, the Institute of Urban Economics. The initial procurement price for the development of regulations was 4.33 million rubles.
The plan for the purchase of goods (works, services) for 2021 assumes expenses in the amount of 90.47 million rubles. Among the purchases for 2021 is the “provision of services for information and analytical processing of requests received by the Fund.” Why the Fund conducts purchases for the development of regulatory documents and processing requests when it has lawyers on staff remains unclear.
It is worth noting that the Fund’s website indicates plans to recruit about 600 specialists: engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc. by the end of the first quarter of 2021. The Fund offers a “stable official income” of 47,500 rubles. + bonuses.
Sources in the mayor's office claim that the total bonuses of Moscow officials (monthly, quarterly and annual) amount to approximately 70-80% of the monthly salary of the average employee. Thus, about 256 million per year could be spent on bonuses for fund employees.
A rough calculation shows that personnel costs for the year will amount to around 598 million rubles.
In total, the maintenance of the Fund should cost approximately 690 million per year. -190499
Information about the salary costs of the Fund's general director and his six deputies remains closed. There is no way to compare changes in the salaries of the Foundation's management after the transition from public service to the NPO sector.
Formation of the Fund's budget
The Fund's budget is formed from monthly contributions in the amount of 15 rubles. per one square meter.
There are two accumulation options:
1) On the account of the Capital Repair Fund - an organization specially created by the Moscow Government to accumulate funds from owners and organize capital repairs.
2) In a special bank account opened for a specific house.
Only 130 multi-apartment residential buildings (MRD) chose the second option. 28,942 Moscow Railways (total area 212.14 million sq. m.) allocate funds to the Fund. The collection rate in Moscow is one of the highest in Russia: 91.4%, so significant amounts accumulate in the Fund’s account.
How much do you plan to collect?
The Capital Improvement Fund plans to post its annual report only by July 1, 2021. While there are no official data, we will carry out preliminary calculations.
Table 2 Formation of the Capital Repair Fund account
How much was spent on repairs
The total price of announced and already completed tenders for major renovations of houses amounted to RUB 9,928,409,072 as of March 21, 2021. Another 11,947,367,797 rubles. for the same period allocated for the repair of elevators. The average percentage reduction in the starting price at the auction was about 5.17%. That is, about 20.78 billion rubles were spent on major repairs. Taking into account the collection rate, by this time the fund should have accumulated about 26.1 billion rubles. from fees from citizens.
Thus, today about 5.3 billion rubles. remains in the account of the Moscow fund and rapidly depreciates.
Fund and inflation
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Kozak in his interview stated: “The total amount of fees for major repairs in Russia in 2015 amounted to 97 billion rubles, of which only 25 billion rubles were sold for repair work.” According to preliminary data for 2015, the Moscow Capital Repair Fund completed only half of the planned work. Planned/completed this year: 2,297/1,087 (as of 12/01/2015).
Based on this information, the question arises about preserving the Fund's funds from inflation. At the end of 2015, inflation in Russia, according to official data, amounted to 12.9 percent. Thus, in 2021, even with a planned inflation of 6.4%, the Fund risks losing more than 1.2 billion rubles.
The funds accumulated by the Fund, in accordance with the provisions of Moscow Government Decree No. 834-PP dated December 29, 2014, are stored in an account with the Moscow Department of Finance. Despite the indication that such funds can only be spent on major repairs of the Moscow Railway, it remains unclear whether they are placed in banks. And if so, under what conditions, whether interest is established, and how it is spent.
Based on Decree of the Moscow Government No. 86-PP dated February 27, 2015, the Fund cannot annually spend more than 90% of the fees for the previous calendar year. It is unknown for what purpose this norm was introduced, since funds in this case inevitably depreciate.
Regional capital improvement program 2015-2044.
The program is designed for 30 years (from 2015 to 2044). It is worth noting that a third of the total housing stock included in the capital repair program is located in the Central Administrative District. Thus, apartment owners from other administrative districts will sponsor the renovation of houses in the center.
The need for a “common boiler” raises questions when it is possible to distribute contributions among the administrative districts of Moscow and carry out repairs in each district separately. Decentralization can reduce corruption risks in identifying contractors and performing work.
conclusions
The analysis showed the need to disclose socially important information about the activities of the Fund.
Receiving all the benefits of government funding, the Fund is actually removed from the control system of government agencies. The head of the Foundation - the former head of the Department of Capital Repairs - now reports on the activities of the Foundation to his former subordinate, who replaced him. The information on the Foundation's website is not published in full. The lack of significant information is mitigated by a large number of complimentary publications about the Fund in the media.
From our point of view, the Moscow Government, represented by the competent authorities, needs to:
- Publish information on budget funds allocated for the current activities of the Capital Repair Fund;
- Oblige the management of the Fund to regularly publish declarations on income, expenses, property and property-related liabilities;
- Publish information about salaries and bonuses received by the management staff of the Capital Repair Fund (according to the Charter of the Fund, this information cannot be a commercial secret);
- Introduce restrictions on engaging in other paid activities for the Fund's managers in accordance with the restrictions and prohibitions for civil servants;
- Disclose information on the procedure for using funds in the Fund’s account in the Moscow Department of Finance;
- Differentiate the size of the monthly contribution depending on the administrative district;
- Carry out a quarterly report on the funds collected and spent for the overhaul of the Moscow Railway;
- Limit the spending of funds within the administrative district in which the collections were made, up to the complete abolition at the federal level of illegal, from the point of view of the YABLOKO party, fees for major repairs.
Member of the Federal Political Committee of the YABLOKO party
Sergey Mitrokhin
Head of the Anti-Corruption Center of the YABLOKO party
Alexey Karnaukhov
Lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Center of the YABLOKO party
Alexey Chumakov
Non-profit organization - Regional Fund for Capital Repairs of MKD
The law states (Article 178 of the RF Housing Code) that the legal nature of this organization is exclusively non-profit .
This actually means that its activities are aimed only at performing specific housing functions, and not at making a profit.
Monthly fees paid by residents for major repairs are used exclusively for capital repairs. repair work. Wasting money for other purposes is not permitted by law, based on the provisions of paragraph 3 of Art. 179 Housing Code of the Russian Federation.
The Regional Capital Repair Assistance Fund does not have the right to use the funds received even to cover administrative and other business expenses. Thus, their misuse is unacceptable , from a legal point of view. The formation of a capital repair fund on the account of a regional operator occurs only through contributions from the founding state body and payments from residents in accordance with Article 179 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. The organization is financed as described above.
This structure meets the requirements of a legal entity and was created in the form of a Foundation, which indicates the non-profit nature of its functioning. This organizational and legal form does not imply engaging in business, since the basis of the Fund’s activities is the achievement of a specific goal.
In this case, the main goal is the organization and financing of major repairs . Organizations of this kind are prohibited from establishing any commercial establishments, representative offices or branches; therefore, issues of major repairs are dealt with exclusively by one organization: a non-profit organization, the Foundation - a regional operator of major repairs.
Information: carrying out routine repairs of residential buildings is not included in the activities of the Fund, since this is the prerogative of management companies.
Special account
The formation of savings occurs in three ways:
- The non-profit organization has a regional capital repair fund in its general fund account.
- On special account with the same organization.
- On a special account of the HOA or housing cooperative.
If the condition of the house is dilapidated, then it will be more profitable to collect funds in a general fund account. Contributions to a special account provide better control of funds by residents. In this case, the amounts can be spent in parts, that is, the roof can be repaired one year, and the entrances in another.
By default, the nonprofit organization's capital improvement fund determines how funds are accumulated, with money collected in a general fund account. Residents have the right to independently determine the method of capital formation. They can change their decision at any time.
Who creates it and how is the account generated?
The fund is usually created by a body, division, department, etc. subordinate to the Government of the subject. They are the founders who bear full responsibility for its activities.
Each region may have a different founder. The founder in Moscow is the Department of Overhaul, which is also a structural division of the Moscow Government, and in St. Petersburg the founder is the City Government, etc.
Typically, all information about the creation of an organization is indicated on the official website, which can be presented in the form of legal documents, ordinary details or contact information.
After the creation of the regional fund, a bank account of the regional capital repair operator is formed, into which all funds are received. The specifics of the formation of such an account are usually indicated in regional acts.
For example, in Moscow this is Government Decree No. 834-PP, which states in detail that a regional operator of capital repairs can open accounts for certain banking operations. As a rule, the Fund has several accounts:
- an account for spending and summing up funds received from owners;
- an account for the receipt of funds from the subject’s budget;
- other accounts opened in agreement with the Government.
Control of all accounts is usually carried out by the Government and the founder. Information about the bank details of the organization is usually indicated on the official website of the Fund, so there is no problem finding out such information.
You can find out useful tips on creating a fund account by watching the video below:
