The capital repair fund suddenly "reduced" its debts threefold.

      Let us recall: not long ago the head of the Accounts Chamber, Yuri Laptev, said that the Kirov Fund for Major Repairs owed its contractors a total of 3.5 billion rubles. You can read about it here.

      However, today a completely different account emerged at a meeting of the regional assembly committee. It all began with a speech during "Any Other Business" by deputy Albert Bikalyuk. He said he had requested documents from the Fund on its financial condition. No one gave him the documents; instead they sent a letter stating that the FKR’s debt amounted to only one billion rubles and that the organization had taken out a loan for a similar amount. "But at the last meeting we spoke about 3.5 billion rubles!" the deputy said. "I know contractors have already begun going to court." He suggested that the Fund be made to report on its debts at the next committee meeting, because the figures differ drastically and it is unclear why.

      Chairman of the government Mikhail Sandalov defended the FKR. He said that it is currently a busy time in the housing and utilities sector, so the Fund should not be distracted from its work, since preparing a presentation could take a lot of time. Sandalov added that the work is being carried out according to schedule and there is no reason for concern.

      Bikalyuk countered that the Fund’s "busy season" is already over, so that excuse is not acceptable. He also noted that, in his opinion, the FKR has lately begun to operate non-transparently; in particular, activists from the People's Front complain that they cannot track the organization’s procurements. People simply want to know what is happening — namely, how much debt the Fund has, whether it will continue to repair the houses it promised, or whether everything is now going toward plugging financial holes that arose from facade repairs in Kirov. "Why are you afraid to tell people this?" the deputy added.

      Sandalov replied that people will certainly be told when their houses will be repaired — and which ones — after inspections are carried out on the houses that were recently allocated funds.

      It was also stated at the meeting that the Fund’s overdue debt currently amounts to 800 million rubles, with another 400 million in current debt. These words provoked strong protests from the deputies, who still did not understand how 3.5 billion rubles had been reduced threefold and did not receive a clear answer to that question. Sandalov merely said that this is the nature of business activity, that debts are constantly changing and that this is normal. The deputies demanded that the Fund nevertheless report to them on all financial indicators at the next meeting.