Abolition of Spetsstroy - bmpd. Black hole foremen

Why was Spetsstroy abolished?

New Year's greetings Director of Spetsstroy of Russia Alexander Volosov, which appeared on the website of the Federal Agency for Special Construction on December 30, was prepared in advance - he spoke about “hard work”, solved “most important tasks”, completed and completed construction projects and wished the enterprises “stability and development”.

And on December 29, Vladimir Putin signed a decree abolishing Spetsstroy and transferring its functions to the Ministry of Defense under the leadership of Sergei Shoigu. Spetsstroy must be liquidated before July 1, 2017.

On the one hand, Sergei Shoigu’s administrative resources increased after this decision. He took control of the financial flows of Spetsstroy enterprises - 150 billion rubles. per year - and a portfolio of construction orders worth 1 trillion rubles. On the other hand, during his four years as minister, Sergei Shoigu failed to stop the endless series of corruption scandals that accompanied almost every construction project of the liquidated agency. “Spetsstroy is a very specific organization, a funnel into which gigantic sums can fall,” notes Alexander Konovalov, president of the Institute for Strategic Assessments and Analysis. According to him, more than one federal agency has already proven its ineffectiveness and has been liquidated. “In addition, everything in Spetsstroy is classified, opaque, no one from the outside can come with an inspection,” adds Pavel Salin, director of the Center for Political Science Research at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

Secret builder

The Special Construction Agency under the Ministry of Defense has existed under various names since 1951, when the decision was made to build an air defense system around Moscow. “It was created specifically for the construction of strategic secret facilities, was engaged in the construction of shelters for the leadership of the USSR, built command posts for strategic nuclear forces and other objects of important national importance - primarily for the sustainable control of armed forces in the event of a nuclear attack,” explains the president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences problems, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov. Throughout its existence, Spetsstroy's activities only expanded: in 1955, it began to build facilities for the aerospace industry, and since the 1960s, it began building radio communication systems in the Far East and a road network at oil fields in the Tyumen region. Spetsstroy was responsible for social and cultural facilities for the military throughout the country and a number of sports and domestic facilities for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. A separate service formed outside the Ministry of Defense in 1997 (Rosspetsstroy, then Spetsstroy) fulfilled most of the state order for the restoration of infrastructure in Chechnya. Having many structural divisions, Spetsstroy is engaged in the construction of housing for the military. He also works on civilian orders. Thus, at the end of 2010, it was this structure that found itself at the center of a scandal surrounding one of the contracts in Gelendzhik. Then businessman Sergei Kolesnikov announced that the complex, which had been under construction since 2006 in the village of Praskoveevka on the Black Sea coast, was allegedly the future private residence of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. According to him, the palace on the site of the Tuapse holiday home was built by Spetsstroy.

At that time, the military construction department was headed by Army General Nikolai Abroskin. But the Ministry of Defense was headed at that time by Anatoly Serdyukov. “He promoted the idea of ​​outsourcing, as he called, non-core functions for military personnel,” recalls corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences Konstantin Sivkov. - This was a veiled form of embezzlement of the state budget. At that time, many people who had nothing to do with military service, “effective managers,” financiers, lawyers and other people who tried to warm their hands on this, ended up in Spetsstroy.”

Spetsstroy was headed in 2011 by entrepreneur and former senator from the Leningrad region Grigory Naginsky. In the early 1990s, Naginsky created the Titan-2 construction company (now owned by his daughter Elena), and it began to receive large orders from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, whose contractor was also Spetsstroy.

With the arrival of Naginsky, transformations began in Spetsstroy. In fact, the agency has ceased to be a military agency. It was subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, but all personnel became civilians. The agency began to enter the civil construction market. According to Grigory Naginsky, the result of the reform was the consolidation of federal state unitary enterprises. 14 legal entities were created instead of the previous 140. At that time, there was talk of subsequent corporatization, preparations for which were planned to be completed in the summer of 2014. But Naginsky failed to do this. The case of Oboronservis and Evgenia Vasilyeva interfered.

The investigation materials featured a suspicious transaction, as a result of which shares of OJSC “31 State Design Institute for Special Construction” (31st GPISS) were sold at a reduced price. One of the purchasing companies at the time of the transaction was under the control of the former head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Evgenia Vasilyeva, and the co-owners of the second were the wife and daughter of Grigory Naginsky. The Nagin shares were returned, but the new Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu made it clear that he would not tolerate in his department those involved in corruption scandals - not only suspects, but also witnesses.

The delay in the construction of a naval base in Novorossiysk (its budget in 2010 prices is 92 billion rubles) also played against Naginsky. The construction of the facility was supposed to be completed by 2010, but this did not happen.

Naginsky was fired from Spetsstroy in July 2013. The department was headed by an ally of Sergei Shoigu, who had worked in the structures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations since 1995, Alexander Volosov. “Just as Serdyukov appointed Naginsky to control financial flows, Shoigu brought his man from the Ministry of Emergency Situations to this place,” notes political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky.

Hard landing

Volosov could not cope with the problems. The number of corruption scandals, resignations and criminal cases only increased every year.

In the fall of 2015, the then head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, harshly criticized the work of the Federal Agency for disrupting the reconstruction of the airport in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. He called the delay in delivery of the project complete carelessness, irresponsibility and a complete disgrace. The work was carried out within the framework of the federal target program “Economic and social development of the East and the Baikal region for the period until 2018”, the total amount of funding from the federal budget exceeded 12 billion rubles. The airport was supposed to be commissioned back in 2014. Ivanov said that representatives of the agency gave “standard arguments”: “They chose a subcontractor - it was the same at Vostochny - he went broke: money bye-bye, head bo-bo. They filed a lawsuit. Well, they served it, what's the point? Where is the money, Zin? Spetsstroy promised to complete all work by May 2016. But the airport was commissioned only at the end of last year.

The construction of a strategic facility at Cape Schmidt in the fall of 2015 was also almost in jeopardy. The military base on the northern coast of Chukotka has existed since 1954, and new construction there was launched at the end of 2014. Spetsstroy took Rusalians Stroy LLC as a subcontractor and transferred more than 3.2 billion rubles to it. But the work was not completed, and the money disappeared. The situation led to a conflict: Rusalians Stroy publicly accused the management of the FSUE GUIR No. 2 under Spetsstroy of Russia of embezzlement of budget funds. Military builders responded with mutual accusations. According to the Kartoteka.ru service database, the founders of Rusalians Stroy are Dmitry Bushmanov and Alexey Eckert. Last spring they were arrested and accused by the Russian Investigative Committee of organizing thefts in special large size. In the database of arbitration courts you can find several dozen claims filed against Rusalyans Stroy. Basically, the claims come from GUIR No. 2: it expects to recover from businessmen 2 billion rubles that were spent on purposes not provided for in the contract, to return 332 million rubles spent on improper fulfillment of obligations to lease the icebreaker "Admiral Makarov", to sue for an advance payment in in the amount of 232 million rubles. To the charges of fraud, another article of the Criminal Code was added, related to non-payment of wages to employees.

Back in October 2015, GUIR No. 2 terminated the subcontract agreement with Rusalians Stroy. Then it cost the head of GUIR No. 2 Oleg Sirazetdinov his position.

In March 2016, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg opened four criminal cases against employees of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise GUSST No. 3 under Spetsstroy of Russia. GUSST No. 3 is a contractor for the construction of facilities in 11 regions of Russia by order of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Roscosmos, Rosatom, as well as regional authorities of the Northwestern Federal District.

In August last year, Deputy Director of Spetsstroy Alexander Buryakov was detained, accused of embezzling 450 million rubles. during the construction and reconstruction of nine facilities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. We are talking, in particular, about facilities on the islands of Iturup and Kunashir, where Spetsstroy built military positions, training grounds, and storage areas for ammunition and equipment. In November 2016, he was arrested in connection with the same case. former first Deputy Director of Spetsstroy Alexander Zagorulko. He was the right hand of Alexander Volosov - since 1995 they worked together at the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Zagorulko came to Spetsstroy in August 2013 at the invitation of the same Volosov and first became acting. deputy director, then was promoted to acting. first deputy director, and in August 2014, by presidential decree, he was confirmed in this position. Being a military builder by training, Zagorulko oversaw a wide range of issues and actually replaced Alexander Volosov at many meetings.

Cosmic scale

The largest construction project in recent years for Spetsstroy has been the Vostochny cosmodrome. Naturally, he had the most problems. Over the past three years, the main contractor of Vostochny, FSUE Dalspetsstroy, a structural division of Spetsstroy, has already had its third manager. The previous two left due to claims from the Russian Investigative Committee and criminal cases related to theft during the construction of the cosmodrome. The total damage from fraud during the construction of a strategic facility is estimated at at least 8 billion rubles. Based on the inspection materials, over 20 criminal cases have been initiated, and at least 10 more cases are in progress. According to an audit conducted by the Accounts Chamber in 2014, Roscosmos committed financial violations amounting to 92.9 billion rubles during the construction of the cosmodrome, and the estimated cost of construction was inflated by 20%.

On October 30, 2014, the Investigative Committee filed charges under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Theft of someone else’s property entrusted to the perpetrator, committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale”) to the ex-head of Dalspetsstroy, Yuri Khrizman. And on November 30, as part of the same case, the Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of the former accountant of Dalspetsstroy, Vladimir Ashikhmin. The main reason for initiating a criminal case was precisely the results of audits by the Accounts Chamber. According to the investigation, the general contractor used part of the advance funds for 11 government contracts during the construction of cosmodrome facilities for other purposes. Thus, the Vostochny construction budget was shorted by 5.2 billion rubles. The arrest period of Khrizman and Ashikhmin was extended until April 12, 2017.

In April 2016, the former head of the FSUE Spetsstroytekhnologii under Spetsstroy of Russia, Vladimir Shamailov, and businessman Renat Syamiullin were taken into custody. They are suspected of commercial bribery.

At the end of last year, the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow began considering another criminal case of theft in Vostochny. In the dock are former general director of the Volga-Vyatka Construction Company (VVSK) Evgenia Degtyareva, her father Sergei Degtyarev, whom the investigation considers the actual owner of the company, as well as former managers of the company Alexander Bazankov and Murat Matuev. They are accused of fraud, as well as money laundering.

In August 2013, the construction company "VIP-Stroyengineering" became the winner of two competitions and received contracts from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Spetsstroytekhnologii" and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "GUSST No. 1 under Spetsstroy of Russia" for the construction of roads to the Vostochny cosmodrome, residential buildings, schools and children's institutions in the city Uglegorsk, Amur Region (now Tsiolkovsky). For the next two years, the customer transferred budget funds in installments to the accounts of VIP-Stroyengineering for a total amount of about 2.5 billion rubles.

Investigators believe that the owners and managers of VSVK and its subsidiaries used the money received from the budget not for the construction of cosmodrome facilities, but to pay off the company’s debts. In particular, VVSK transferred over 700 million rubles. to the accounts of the capital construction department of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, for which VIP-Stroyengineering was supposed to build housing in Moscow and Sochi. The advance was received, but the facilities have not yet been completed. In addition, the arbitration court ordered VIP-Stroyengineering to pay the Ministry of Emergency Situations more than 300 million rubles. for another unfinished project - a branch of the All-Russian Center for Emergency and Radiation Medicine named after. A.M. Nikiforov in Krasnoyarsk. According to investigators, Degtyarev not only paid off his debts with budgetary funds, but also provided loans to affiliated companies. For example, Atmosphere LLC and Elitstroy LLC received 11.5 million rubles from VIP-Stroyengineering under the guise of an interest-bearing loan. for conducting commercial activities. Another structure, LLC Land Yug, was transferred 14.5 million rubles on the basis of a loan agreement. According to Kartoteka.ru, until February 2016, the co-owner of this company was the son of Sergei Degtyarev, Gleb. Another co-owner of Land Yuga is entrepreneur Pyotr Seleznev, who, through several companies, such as Softbank Group, SB Engineering and Hephaestus Technology Group, is associated with the Hephaestus construction corporation of Dmitry Sergeev. It builds and invests in infrastructure projects and real estate in Russia and abroad. In particular, it is building a nuclear power plant in Kursk and a greenhouse complex on 30 hectares in the Belgorod region, as well as housing in Reutov, near Moscow, is expanding the Panama Canal and even intends to take part in the construction of the Central Ring Road. The consolidated revenue of Hephaestus in 2014, according to its own data, exceeded 52 billion rubles.

"VIP-Stroyengineering" is a subsidiary of VSVK. “VVSK’s customers are key departmental structures, such as the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border of the Russian Federation (Rosgranitsa, liquidated in November 2016), Spetsstroy of Russia, as well as state-owned companies such as IDGC and Transneft,” says the company’s website . In 2011, VSVK's turnover amounted to about 4 billion rubles. But the investigation came to the conclusion that Degtyarev and his accomplices fraudulently stole 1.363 billion rubles allocated to VIP-Stroyengineering. They are also charged with legalizing these funds. On November 23, the Simonovsky court extended the arrest of the Degtyarevs until May 10, 2017.

At the end of 2016, the Prosecutor General's Office sent materials to the military court against the former head of the FSUE Spetsstroyservis under Spetsstroy of Russia, Andrei Yartsev, accused of embezzling almost 1.2 billion rubles. during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.

It is difficult to estimate how much financial claims against Spetsstroy and its contractors will increase. In October last year, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found that Spetsstroyinzhiniring missed deadlines for completing work under government contracts totaling more than 150 billion rubles. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated criminal cases regarding non-payment of wages to construction workers at Vostochny, the management of Roscosmos complained about the unsatisfactory quality of work, and the Ministry of Construction complained about the low financial discipline of the general contractor. The General Staff of the Armed Forces was also dissatisfied with the work, where they claimed that the work schedule was behind schedule at 72 out of 83 military installations. “Until recently, Spetsstroy was considered a reliable contractor when performing the most unique work,” says Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine. “The reason for today’s problems lies in the fact that the organization’s leaders were unable to ensure compliance with those high requirements and lowered them in relation to themselves and contractors.” According to him, the scale of corruption during the construction of Vostochny was enormous. “Spetsstroy began to behave like a state within a state. It degraded and had to be eliminated,” the expert states. Based on the results of an audit initiated by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in 2015, it turned out that the agency performs work at only 15-40% of the cost of the contracts. Thus, more than 250 companies were involved in the construction of Vostochny, many of which did not have the necessary competencies or equipment. Then the Ministry of Defense began the reform of Spetsstroy, which involved the liquidation of approximately half of the 18 federal state unitary enterprises. But the situation only worsened - and at a November meeting with Vladimir Putin, a decision was made to liquidate the agency.

Accession

Instead of Spetsstroy, eight federal state unitary enterprises will be created, which will be part of the armed forces and will be engaged in the construction of military facilities. Thus, all functions for the construction of facilities that ensure the country’s defense capability will be assigned directly to the Ministry of Defense, which will receive the agency’s assets. Deputy Minister of Defense for Finance Tatyana Shevtsova and Deputy Minister for Logistics Dmitry Bulgakov will have to organize the transfer of budget allocations and material and technical resources from Spetsstroy to the Ministry of Defense by March 1, 2017. Deputy Minister of Defense for Cantonment Timur Ivanov will ensure preparations for liquidation and transfer of the functions of Spetsstroy to the Ministry of Defense.

He came to the Ministry of Defense in April 2016 to replace Alexei Dyumin, who had become governor of the Tula region. Ivanov is Shoigu's youngest deputy. He was born in 1975 in Moscow, graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1997-1999 held senior positions in commercial organizations. In 1999, he became an adviser to the head of the department for the construction of nuclear facilities of the Ministry of Atomic Energy, then he was an adviser to the first deputy head of Rosenergoatom, and later took the position of first vice president of Atomstroyexport, from where he left for the post of deputy chairman of the board of Inter RAO UES. In 2009-2012 was the General Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Russian Energy Agency" of the Ministry of Energy of Russia. He was a member of the working group of the government commission on energy efficiency of the fuel and energy complex.

Timur Ivanov became close to Sergei Shoigu during his work as Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region in 2012, when the region was headed by Shoigu. Ivanov was appointed general director of Oboronstroy (a subsidiary of JSC Garrison, owned by the Ministry of Defense) when Shoigu became Minister of Defense. Having completed several important assignments, he earned the minister's trust. For example, under Ivanov, Oboronstroy resolved a difficult situation with the construction company SU-155, which had missed the deadline for the delivery of residential buildings for military personnel, in 2014 it built the Sevastopol Presidential Cadet School in three months, quickly completed the construction of the Patriot park, at the opening which was attended by Vladimir Putin. This was in 2015. A little later, Putin awarded him the title “Honored Builder of the Russian Federation.” Now it is Timur Ivanov who will have to oversee the work of the units that the Ministry of Defense will receive from Spetsstroy. In the near future, the ministry will assess whether it needs all 18 federal state unitary enterprises and seven headquarters of Spetsstroy. It is possible that certain assets will be transferred to other federal bodies, for example the Ministry of Construction. “As Minister of Defense, Shoigu began to take control of huge subordinate structures, but it is obvious that it is impossible to cope with such a monster as Spetsstroy without replacing the entire leadership of the organization,” notes Nikolai Petrov, a professor at the Higher School of Economics. “Now the reorganization will be carried out under the full control of the minister, and this is positive for Shoigu.”

The special construction has already been cut off from oxygen. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome in the government, instructed Roscosmos to directly, without Spetsstroy, conclude contracts with contractors. The Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure” (TSENKI) has already been appointed as the general contractor, which will complete the construction of the launch and technical complexes, as well as water intake structures to support launches in 2017. “The admission of employees of the previous general contractor has been terminated,” said the deputy general director for technological development of ground-based space infrastructure TsENKI Andrey Okhlopkov. This enterprise specializes in creating ground-based space infrastructure and manages Russian cosmodromes.

Who was abolished

Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy)

Federal Service for Drug Control

The Federal Migration Service

Federal Service for Financial and Budgetary Supervision (Rosfinnadzor)

Abolished on February 2, 2016. The service was merged with the Federal Treasury, functions
currency control was transferred to the Federal Tax Service and the Federal Customs Service.

Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border of the Russian Federation (Rosgranitsa)

Federal Space Agency

Federal Tariff Service

Federal Agency for the Supply of Arms (Rosoboronpostavka)

Liquidated on September 8, 2014. Functions transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Defense, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the FSB of the Russian Federation, the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation, the FSO of the Russian Federation and the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation.

Federal Service for Defense Order (Rosoboronzakaz)

Liquidated on September 8, 2014. Functions were transferred by the Government of the Russian Federation to federal departments, whose activities it directs.

Federal Service for Financial Markets
liquidated on September 1, 2013. Powers transferred to the Bank of Russia.

As “DP” predicted, the federal authorities launched a program to reorganize the work of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “”, which carries out construction work for the Ministry of Defense. Instead of the numerous structures of Spetsstroy, five main departments will be created by the end of the year for the construction of special facilities in military districts and in the Northern Fleet. The total number of Spetsstroy enterprises will be reduced by more than 2 times, and the number of personnel - by 2 thousand people. At the same time, Spetsstroy will lose all projects that are not related to military secrets. They, according to experts, make up about 30–50% of the company’s current portfolio of more than 1 trillion rubles.

This reform will make it possible to restore order in the work of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, which in recent years has turned into an intermediary commercial structure “using government money,” experts say.

"DP" has obtained a letter from the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to the President of the Russian Federation, dated January 15. It follows from it that the ministry analyzed the activities of Spetsstroy after the report of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin on the ineffective work of this organization (). “The analysis showed that Spetsstroy itself carried out less than 30% of the contracts received and was an intermediary structure with vague responsibility for the results, quality and timing of work,” reports Sergei Shoigu.

To rectify the situation, according to the minister, it was decided to optimize the structure of Spetsstroy. Moreover, the reorganization should take place in the first half of 2016. As a result, only nine out of 18 federal state unitary enterprises will remain from Spetsstroy (see diagram). 24 branches of the enterprise will be reduced. And the total number of personnel will be reduced by 2.1 thousand people - to 44.3 thousand employees. “This will improve the efficiency of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise,” Sergei Shoigu is confident.

It is proposed that Spetsstroy retain the functions of the sole contractor only in projects related to military secrets. And all other objects (barracks, dormitories, roads, engineering, etc.) should be removed from the subordinate system of the Ministry of Defense and built in accordance with the federal targeted investment program.

According to experts, we are talking about contracts worth about 1 trillion rubles, or 30–50% of the current FSUE portfolio. In the North-West alone, Spetsstroy may lose control over the budget of 3.5 billion rubles.

The entry into the market of a significant package of government contracts could support the construction industry during the crisis.

But, as follows from the materials at the disposal of "DP", the final decision on the corporatization of Spetsstroy enterprises has not yet been made. This issue will once again be discussed at the highest level in April of this year.

The Spetsstroy press service did not respond to DP's request about the upcoming reform yesterday. But DP’s interlocutor in Spetsstroy said that the company’s employees have known for several months “that some kind of decision is brewing.” “Everyone was sure that this time too it would work out, because this was not the first time they were dissatisfied with the work of the agency. But since we were talking about large cuts, it means that it didn’t work out. I think they will cut not only the staff, but also the powers. Maybe at least something— then the Spetsstroy system itself will change for the better,” argues DP’s interlocutor in Spetsstroy.

“The Spetsstroy reform may ultimately turn out to be just a budgetary and government maneuver to reduce the number of officials. I’m afraid that in the end they will simply be transferred to another subordination and the restructuring will actually lead to nothing,” says military expert Andrei Frolov. Military observer Alexander Golts agrees with his colleague. According to him, the situation with Spetsstroy is a special case of solving problems through bureaucratic means. “There was a similar approach with Roscosmos and with the creation of various defense corporations. But there was no result. For it to appear, it is necessary to make the work of Spetsstroy open, and not hide behind state secrets, which is a source of corruption,” says Alexander Golts. He recalled that in the United States the military budget is detailed and accessible to anyone, but in Russia there is no such practice.

Select the fragment with the error text and press Ctrl+Enter

• “I’ve been working since 2008, but it hasn’t been as bad as it is now. Being a general contractor, management hires completely wrong companies, only indicating our presence in front of the customer. Accordingly, all the money ends up in the pockets of the “leftists” and our bosses, while the workers sit at home at their own expense or work at minimum wage.”
• “I have been working at Spetsstroy since 1985. I have never seen such disgrace as now. There is a massive reduction of people, and at the same time they are hiring new ones who are pleasing to the management. The department no longer has enough offices and office equipment.”
• “We’ve been waiting for payment for the work for a year now.”
• “We worked in the winter from November to March at the Cape Schmidt site. A complete scam in terms of wages.”
• “First, a massive reduction, now a mass dismissal of people from 6 branches of Dalspetsstroy. “Wages have fallen by half.”
• “The salary was cut almost three times. How to survive further?
• “How beautifully can you steal money? Very simple. Organize your own production, import finished products (lamps, diesel generator sets, etc.) under the guise of components and resell them to yourself. Excellent scheme. As for construction, who needs it?”
• “Today they turned off the power for debts, there is no fuel, the unknown awaits everyone from the new year, and this is a state-owned enterprise.”
• “An organization with branches all over Russia, in which a bunch of thieves and slaves gathered, built a cosmodrome, but the dough was not enough, since it was necessary to build dachas and shops on the territory of Khabarovsk. If there was some change left over, then people were paid. If she didn’t stay, they didn’t pay, explaining to the workers that the company was experiencing financial difficulties.”

Spetsstroy employees do not skimp on reviews about the company. Voronezh, Mulino (Nizhny Novgorod region), Omsk, Plesetsk, Far East, Murmansk region, Franz Josef Land, Wrangel Island, Cape Schmidt, Novaya Zemlya... From Moscow to the very outskirts, the state office has gained a reputation as a deceiver. People who built strategic facilities were relegated to the position of powerless migrant workers: they sometimes worked without documents, without money, or even without food and the opportunity to return home. Novaya Gazeta has repeatedly talked about scandals at military construction sites. “Spetsstroy,” if there was an embarrassment, blamed the contractors for the incident. They complained that at the instigation of a customer who did not pay their bills, they found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. But in most cases both sides were good.

After the Omsk tragedy of July 12, 2015, when 24 servicemen were killed due to the collapse of a section of the barracks of the Airborne Forces training center, the federal center raised serious questions about the institution. Not to mention the scandalous story with the Vostochny cosmodrome, which has become a symbol of modern government construction projects: expensive, time-consuming and using slave labor.

The whole country learned about the hunger strike of the Vostochny builders: the object was too significant. But this method of extracting money from military construction workers has become traditional over the past few years. And those who are forced simply have nothing to eat. In April, in Kamchatka, in Vilyuchinsk, builders of piers for nuclear submarines (Dalspetsstroy under Spetsstroy of Russia) went on strike. They sat not only without money, but also without electricity: the electricity in their dorm was turned off for non-payment. Previously, the same office managed to miss the deadline for the takeoff of the main airport of Kamchatka. Soon, a criminal case was opened against the former head of Dalspetsstroy, Yuri Khrizman: he is suspected of misappropriation and embezzlement of 5.16 billion rubles.

But the former deputy director of Spetsstroy, Alexander Buryakov, is charged with fraud in concluding nine subcontracts from the Ministry of Defense for 450 million rubles. The criminal case also involves representatives of contracting firms, whose functionality was obviously limited to issuing kickbacks and throwing ashes on their heads when the delivery deadline for another project was missed.

Thus, the deadline for commissioning the runway in Severomorsk-1 in the Murmansk region was postponed twice. Last winter, they stopped bringing in shift workers, and the lights at the construction site were turned off due to debts. Few local workers received a maximum of 10 thousand per month. The contractor, CJSC AMD, cited delays in payments to Spetsstroy as the reason for the collapse. They assured that it was the other way around - AMD did not pay off the advance.

The customer and contractors of the famous Arctic construction projects also nodded at each other: 6 military camps and 13 airfields in high latitudes. Now a significant part of them has been commissioned, but work began only after a scandal in the press. At the end of last year, alarming messages from relatives of workers leaked onto the Internet: what happened to them? For a long time there was no word or breath about the workers themselves. The shifts ended long ago, but they were not taken to the mainland; salaries came in parts and with huge delays.

Moreover, the contractors at different sites were different, but the problems were the same. Helicopters from the Arctic had to wait a month and a half after the end of the watch; supplies were running out. One of the contractors, RusAlliance Stroy, which received a contract for 3.5 billion rubles without a competition, assured that Spetsstroy was preventing the evacuation of personnel. As a result, the counterparties parted, accusing each other of mutual fraud: the military said that RusAlliance did not report on the advance spent, and the latter said that it spent its money on construction. Much time passed amid mutual accusations before the workers were sent to the mainland.

A year later, the same scandal occurred again - ​this time with the participation of a different contractor - ​St. Petersburg LLC AS-Engineering. It received a contract worth 6 billion for construction on Novaya Zemlya and on Golomyanny Island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, as well as for pre-design work in Tiksi.

This fall, after two months without pay, construction workers rebelled. The office accused Spetsstroy of stinginess: they say, the real cost of the work is four times higher than the contractual one (not 2 billion, but 8), and counter-accusations of dishonesty followed: they did not pay off the advance payment. By the way, another trademark of Spetsstroy in relations with contractors is the issuance of large, up to 80%, advances and subsequent filing of claims: they say, the advance was not worked out, we will not pay any more.

The autumn story apparently became one of the last scandals of Spetsstroy. The decision to liquidate was made after an audit of the office carried out by the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Administration. This means, most likely, that they began to steal quite shamelessly. And the budget billions were not enough. Now all the functions of Spetsstroy, as well as the staff of the enterprise and its assets, will come under the direct authority of the Ministry of Defense, bypassing “effective managers.” Of which, by the way, there were a lot: a dozen smaller offices were created at the head office, each of which, in turn, used the budgets.

It is too early to judge what will remain after the reform and what results it will produce, other than saving salaries for managers. The only conclusion that arises is that they could not cure the limb affected by gangrene and decided to amputate it.

It is known that only 11 of the 83 objects currently being built by Spetsstroy are progressing according to schedule; the condition of 61 is assessed as critical.

At the same time, back in November 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the supervisory board of Roscosmos, said that the agency performs work at only 15-40% of the cost of the contracts. Earlier, RBC's interlocutor, close to the leadership of the FSB, said that one of the reasons for the liquidation of the agency was theft of 200 million rubles. during the construction of three buildings for the Vostochny Mission Control Center.

Position of the Ministry of Defense

The Ministry of Defense believes that Spetsstroy was liquidated due to poor organization of work with subcontractors. The director of the department of property relations of the ministry, Dmitry Kurakin, told RBC about this. Vladimir Putin on the liquidation of Spetsstroy, which was responsible for the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome and other strategically important facilities, at the end of December 2016.

According to Kurakin, federal state unitary enterprises subordinate to Spetsstroy “on their own” carried out only 30% of construction work for the ministry, and in other cases other organizations were involved.

“Then there was a chain of subcontractors, sometimes from five or six links to the final one - the one who went to the site and started hammering piles there. Six intermediate links. Each has their own technical supervision, each took their own percentage. That is, the conclusion is a bad organization,” Kurakin explained.

​Another serious problem in the work of the already liquidated Spetsstroy is “recontracting,” that is, when the organization’s capabilities turned out to be insufficient to fulfill contracts to the extent that they were concluded, says Kurakin. The agency wanted to build more facilities than the money allocated for it, he clarified.

The head of the department cites budget cuts as the reason for the “recontracting”. At the same time, advances have already been paid for the contracted objects, and the contractor has already entered the site and attracted bank loans for this.

The military’s point of view does not contradict the position of the Prosecutor General’s Office, noted Ilya Shumanov, deputy general director of the Russian division of Transparency International. When it comes to subcontractors who are involved in the implementation of large projects, one must understand that this is “the same stolen money that prosecutors and investigators identified when they opened criminal cases,” Shumanov noted.

The theft scheme that Spetsstroy resorted to dilutes responsibility - it can be transferred to contractors, and they do this with their subcontractors, Shumanov emphasized.

“Subcontracts are issued because the contractors do not have qualifications, or it is agreed in advance that the subcontractors will be structures affiliated with the management of Spetsstroy. No one discloses information about subcontractors. It is impossible to find someone who actually did the work,” Shumanov said.

Changing the places of terms

In total, before liquidation, Spetsstroy owned 19 enterprises (the parent organization and 18 federal state unitary enterprises), which employed about 37.6 thousand people. Currently, more than 2 thousand special and social facilities are being built for the Ministry of Defense. In June 2016, the Accounts Chamber published a report stating that Spetsstroy's activities in 2015 were unprofitable. The net profit of the agency's enterprises in 2015 was 5.2 times less than in 2014. Moreover, Spetsstroy itself is actively pursuing claims: in 2015, the amount of claims against unscrupulous contractors amounted to about 150 billion rubles.

After the reorganization, the military department agreed to take over eight federal state unitary enterprises, which will be engaged in the construction of military facilities. The military will transfer the remaining enterprises of Spetsstroy to the jurisdiction of other ministries, departments and state corporations, Kommersant wrote.

The ministry will retain those assets that belong directly to Spetsstroy, Kurakin told RBC. We are talking only about our own property and projects: for example, the base in Novorossiysk or the Vostochny cosmodrome. The latter is of interest to the Ministry of Defense “from the point of view of engineering design solutions and implemented construction technologies,” Kurakin noted.

The transfer of the management functions of Spetsstroy to the Ministry of Defense gives the department the right to full financial control over the activities of the federal state unitary enterprises remaining after the reorganization of the agency, noted the editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, reserve colonel Viktor Murakhovsky. “And this means that Spetsstroy will no longer have any autonomy or independence,” he said.

After the abolition of Spetsstroy, problems with the construction of military facilities will still remain, Shumanov believes. The fact that separate federal state unitary enterprises will be created on the basis of Spetsstroy does not actually change anything, he notes. Some people will be transferred to the category of managers of these federal state unitary enterprises, who will perform similar functions, Shumanov explained.

Spetsstroy did not respond to RBC's request.

Subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, Spetsstroy of Russia (official name - Federal Agency for Special Construction) is associated with a lot of corruption scandals. In some cases, people even died due to the poor quality of work performed by Spetsstroy. Reorganization of Spetsstroy of Russia in 2017: what will it be, what are the reasons and what is the time frame for the reform.

Spetsstroy of Russia has become one of the most striking examples of the problems encountered by the government, which relied on corruption as a way of governing the state. On the one hand, this is due to a systemic misunderstanding of how corruption can be eradicated and why its absence is better than its presence. On the other hand, the loyalty of corrupt officials to the supreme power is maximum; in any other political regime, corrupt officials risk losing everything, including freedom, which means they will defend the current government for as long as possible. From this point of view, one can turn a blind eye to the “minor sins” of a corrupt official; fortunately, in the country’s well-fed years there was more money than the economy could digest.

Be that as it may, where people feel impunity, they begin to get carried away, and the scale of the problem worsens. Spetsstroy, which built facilities commissioned by the Ministry of Defense, became one of the most striking examples. Receiving expensive orders, Spetsstroy independently carried out from 15 to 40 percent of all work, the rest was entrusted to third-party companies, obviously connected with the right people.

Everything would go unnoticed if the quality of the work was acceptable. But in the matter of theft of budget funds and saving on the quality of work, one can go very far; as a result, the first major scandal occurred in 2015, when, due to the poor quality of construction work, part of the “training” barracks of the Omsk Airborne Forces collapsed, then 24 people died. In the same year, another incident occurred when, due to the unavailability of the new Vostochny cosmodrome, the first launch of the launch vehicle had to be postponed for several months.

Inspections began and continued throughout 2016. It turned out that in total Spetsstroy missed the deadlines for completing projects worth hundreds of billions of rubles. It even got to the point that workers on the construction of key strategic facilities were not paid wages.

As a result, the patience of the authorities ran out, arrests of the leadership of Spetsstroy began (though at a level no higher than the deputy director), and on November 18, 2016, as a result of a closed meeting of the president of the country and the heads of the defense department, a decision was made to abolish Spetsstroy of Russia in principle. Therefore, when we talk about the reorganization of Spetsstroy of Russia in 2017, we actually mean its liquidation.

In February 2017, the last technical measures to liquidate Spetsstroy were taken. The government has published a decree according to which it is planned to completely abolish Spetsstroy by October 1, 2017. If previously the reorganization of Spetsstroy of Russia in 2017 could be discussed in the form of a serious reform, but with the preservation of the organization itself, now there is no doubt about this, and the Federal Agency for Special Construction will no longer exist, it will be completely liquidated.

Marina Balakireva, deputy head of the construction department of the Russian Ministry of Defense, was appointed to head the liquidation commission. So far, the authorities have no plans to create an equally cumbersome department that would replace Spetsstroy. Eight federal state unitary enterprises will be created that will build special facilities for the Ministry of Defense.

Of course, one of the main problems caused by the liquidation of Spetsstroy of Russia is the fate of the employees. Obviously, due to the fact that someone still needs to carry out work on the construction and reconstruction of facilities for the Ministry of Defense, most of the ordinary Spetsstroy employees will find a place for themselves in the new structures. Taking into account the fact that, at least at first, the necessary order will be observed in the work of the newly created federal state unitary enterprises, for ordinary workers the reform may turn out to be for the better - it will definitely not come to the point of delayed salaries.