Vedomosti reported today that federal budget spending will be cut at the expense of building and repairing federal highways. Except, of course, for the sacred Kerch Bridge named after Rotenberg (a sarcastic reference to Arkady Rotenberg, the businessman linked to the project).
The phrase “optimization of repair cost standards” sounds amusing, and apparently means: we’ll change the GOST standards (state technical standards) and allow lower-quality materials to be used. It’s pretty clear what kind of “repairs” that will lead to.
What’s more interesting is that the government does not, in principle, consider increasing market competition as a way to save money. Road construction and repair are hardly rocket science. This should be done by thousands of companies in a highly competitive market. Instead, over the past few years, everything has once again been herded into the “wigwams” of federal and regional road-building holdings. The chain is simple: state customer — general contractor (some GlavDRSU-type entity) — a couple of favored subcontractors.
No competition, no real fight for contracts—just a convenient scheme for skimming off a 15–20% kickback from the construction budget estimate.
A reminder of RBC’s recent investigation into Moscow’s road construction sector:
It seems to me there is far more potential for savings here, without lowering quality standards.
And here is a recent video from the Kemerovo–Barnaul highway. Apparently, this is what “cost-saving repairs” look like.
