If you want to help yourselves, help us, and enjoy a walk in the great weather at the same time, there’s a good reason to do it: the RosPil/RosYama “tile raid” RosPil/RosYama.
Moscow has spent billions of rubles in taxpayer money on “Sobyanin’s paving tiles” (a reference to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin). And it is still spending hundreds of millions more. Paving sidewalks with tile is, in itself, a good idea. But one thing matters here: we are paying a lot for these tiles—certainly no less than in European capitals. And for that kind of money, the paving should look like this:
This is in Moscow, but paid for with private money. The paving is five years old.
Yet somehow, when public money is involved (a LOT of public money), we get paving that looks like this after just six months:
RosPil carefully reviewed all the “tile contracts” and found that all of the paving is under warranty. In theory, that means the incompetent contractors should have to redo it and bring it into perfect condition, because they were paid for durable paving in perfect condition.
For some reason, Moscow City Hall is in no hurry to file claims against the contractors.
We have an explanation: RosPil found that crooks in Moscow City Hall are very skillfully squeezing other firms out of central-city contracts by demanding “FSO approval” (from Russia’s Federal Protective Service), a process that is not regulated in any way.
You have to admit: laying paving stones does require skilled workers, but it is obviously nowhere near as complicated as building a base on Mars. This is a highly competitive market. Hundreds of companies could compete for this work. All City Hall has to do is properly organize inspection and acceptance of the finished work. If the FSO is worried that someone might hide a bomb under the paving (a reasonable concern), then it should install cameras or assign its own staff to monitor the work.
In practice, the paving is laid everywhere by migrant laborers from Uzbek villages who had only ever seen paving stones on television before this. No FSO officers are watching them: you could dig a whole tunnel under the paving to smuggle sheep through it. But some hypothetical Gagik Aslanyan, having made a 300% profit by muscling out competitors and cutting corners on quality, carries a fat briefcase to 13 Tverskaya (Moscow City Hall’s address).
It appears that in some places—though we are not yet 100% certain, but will know for sure soon—there is no paving where the acceptance documents say there is (SURPRISE!). Moscow City Hall is doing everything it can to muddy the waters and conceal the exact data and boundaries of the work already completed. But we’ll get to the bottom of it.
The idea is simple: take a camera, go for a walk, and put together a report. Then Fyodor fezeev from RosYama, together with the RosPil team, will turn it into specific legal demands to Moscow City Hall: make its favorite contractors redo the work wherever it needs to be redone. If necessary, we will sue City Hall for inaction.
And if we do find sections where the paving exists only on paper, we will demand criminal cases be opened.
Reports can look like this: http://apylaev.livejournal.com/15726.html http://lumath.livejournal.com/33725.html
Here are detailed instructions on what to do and exactly where to walk.
Volunteer coordination is here.
Join in. You paid for this paving—you have the right to inspect it and ask questions.