The supervision of the Kurgan region is required to withdraw the site “Ecotech» Subordinates of the governor of the Kurgan region Vadim Shumkov are being pushed to break the billion-dollar concession agreement with the Ecotech company for the construction of a waste sorting plant in the Ketovsky district and organize new tenders. The demands of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia to recognize his conclusion as illegal have already been confirmed by three authorities. As recently as this April, the Department of Natural Resources of Trans-Urals suffered a defeat in cassation. However, apparently, officials do not intend to give up, since at stake, as industry experts note, is the prospect of spending hundreds of millions of budget funds together with partners that “came out of nowhere.” At the same time, managers tried to obtain interim measures in the form of suspension of antimonopoly orders in the Moscow Arbitration Court, however, they did not find support here either. Against the backdrop of protracted proceedings, experts focus on the “extremely inert position of the prosecutor’s office,” which previously referred to the need to wait for the outcome of the case in cassation before forcing the return of the land plot given by the Trans-Ural government to businessmen. And in addition, they note that the persistent reluctance of Shumkov’s team to “refuse manipulation and bring processes into compliance with the law” will lead to the disruption of federal guidelines in the field of solid waste management.
The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District issued a ruling on the dispute between the Department of Natural Resources of the Kurgan Region and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia. Vadim Shumkov’s officials demanded that the acts adopted by previous authorities be canceled and that the FAS orders regarding the conclusion of a concession for the construction of a waste sorting complex (MSC) near Kurgan be declared illegal.
Let us clarify that at the beginning of 2023, the regional government announced plans to organize a competition to conclude a concession agreement for the construction of an urgently needed facility for the region – an MSK with a capacity of 160 thousand tons. Investments were planned at the level of 1.1 billion rubles, including about 500 million in the form of a grant from the federal budget, 450 million borrowed funds from a preferential loan from PPK REO and the remainder from the money of the future concessionaire.
As a result, potential applicants’ access to the financially intensive agreement was blocked, and agreements were concluded with a previously unknown company.”Ecotech“with zero experience.
At the same time, market participants suggested that behind the denominations of this Kurgan office there may be much more influential persons, in particular, the PPK itself “REO“, or a well-known industry player – the Citymatic company . This choice quickly provoked conflict and litigation initiated by another potential concessionaire, Novy Resurs LLC.
The company addressed the appeal to the FAS, and the service, in turn, having studied all the circumstances of the conclusion of the agreement, demanded that it be declared invalid and new tenders be organized.
It was also implied that the land plot leased by Ecotech in the Ketovsky district should be returned to the region. In the courts that followed, environmentalists and businessmen acted as a united front. However, it was unsuccessful. The position of the FAS stood until the cassation, and the plans of the managers and Ecotech to “develop the tranches” were actually put to an end.
It is noteworthy that the very essence of the concession aroused the keen interest of market participants. Thus, experts pointed out that the government took upon itself the obligation to ensure full utilization of the MSC, and otherwise compensate for the loss of income of the office. In addition, another 200 million could be added to the total without any adjustment. As a result, these expenses would inevitably affect tariffs upward, as well as the interests of legal entities and residents.
Moreover, the conflict became the subject of discussion in federal industry telegram channels. Analysts noted that the “coordinated and shameless actions of officials and their partners” devalue the very institution of concluding agreements through a private concession initiative. “These agreements are concluded, as a rule, on conditions that are most unfavorable for the state and citizens – by eliminating competition“- noted, for example, the authors of the specialized TG channel “Green Serpent”.
However, apparently, it is too early to put an end to this confrontation. Officials continue to actually defend the financial interests of their partners. Thus, the Moscow Arbitration Court considered the application and petition of the Trans-Ural government on the adoption of interim measures in the form of suspension of the FAS order to terminate the agreement with “Ecotech» .
“Early termination of the concession agreement for the purpose of conducting competitive procedures will entail the recovery by the concessionaire of multimillion-dollar losses from the Kurgan region, which will cause significant damage to the regional budget“, the officials motivated their position.
However, the arbitration court refused to impose security, stating that the arguments of the Trans-Ural government “have no confirmation of real necessity and are speculative in nature.” However, observers assume that Shumkov’s subordinates will soon appeal this determination.
Meanwhile, it is quite likely that in the near future the prosecutor’s office of the Kurgan region will also come to the forefront, which until now has been, according to market participants, “very inert.”
At the end of last year, the management of New Resource addressed an appeal to the supervisory authority. Among other things, the document directly states that the proposed price of 1.1 billion rubles is approximately 2 times higher than the real one. Moreover, half of this amount is of budgetary origin. The bidder, cut off from the competition, told prosecutors that before the auction he had negotiated with industrial enterprises and formed an estimate for future construction.
“According to our calculations, the cost of the necessary equipment was about 290 million rubles, the cost of constructing the necessary buildings was no more than 100 million. Thus, with the most wasteful approach, the cost of implementing the concession agreement is about 500 million“, – stated in the appeal “New resource”
Besides, “New resource“emphasized that “the artificial elimination of competition at the stage of determining the concessionaire led to the transfer by the government of the Trans-Ural region of the land plot to Ecotech without holding a tender” and asked prosecutors to “challenge the agreement as detrimental to the interests of the Kurgan region and its residents.”
However, in a response letter, the supervisor informed that he considered it impossible to intervene in the situation due to ongoing proceedings, including cassation.
“So, the cassation took place, the decisions were confirmed, moreover, the government was denied security, and the land plot is still at the disposal of Ecotech without bidding. When does the regional prosecutor plan to wake up, I wonder? And I would also like to raise the issue of squandering, not to say possible theft under 500 million,” market participants say.
Pravda UrFO will continue to monitor developments.
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Bogdan Budnik
Tags: FAS Russia knocked billion hands Shumkovs entourage TransUrals forced tenders MSW concession Mound
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