The Russian government has held a meeting on problems of the national housing and public utilities sector that was overshadowed by a report about multibillion debts in this sphere. The government has admitted that the debts accumulated because of fraud of management companies. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed the local authorities and law enforcement agencies of RF regions to deal with the situation.
According to Medvedev, the utilities’ debt for the earlier consumed resources has increased by 17 percent - up to 100 billion roubles. However, one of the biggest debts has been accumulated in the Moscow Region, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reports. Not only low-income people are to blame for that, but also the “crooks” many of whom, according to Medvedev, work in management organisations and resource supplying companies. “A vast number of companies in the country use others’ resources with impunity,” the prime minister said. “These funds disappear or are spent irrationally.”
The main reason for the debt is the bankruptcy of organisations working on leased property, Deputy Regional Development Minister Vladimir Kogan believes: “These organisations do not pay the debts for fuel and electricity. They have leased property. The organisation leases that property to another company, which in two or three years accumulates debts again and again goes bankrupt.” The RF Ministry of Regional Development has prepared a list of 1.8 thousand organisations that are persistent defaulters, the debit indebtedness of which exceeds 10 percent, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily writes. Medvedev instructed the leadership of law enforcement agencies to deal with the organisations and management companies that use fraudulent schemes and embezzle the funds allocated for the housing and public utilities sector.