Every crook’s favorite line is to shout that no one but them can handle the "practical business of running things." We’ve been sitting here running housing maintenance offices for 15 years, so we know everything about pipes; but if the "opposition" comes to power, all the pipes will burst. Because they have no "real management experience." Their faces just aren’t red enough. They haven’t gotten drunk 125,000 times at every "project handover," celebrating with the fat envelopes they got from contractors. A textbook example of this is Oleg Shakhov, the United Russia candidate for mayor of Khimki.
For the past 10 years, this man has been feeding off government and quasi-government posts:
http://olegshakhov.ru/biography/ which he and his fellow United Russia supporters consider highly honorable: HE HAS GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE. Amazing, really. Look out the window of your home or car at the roads, and then look at the biography of this mighty manager. From 2004 to 2009, he was in charge of those very roads at the Ministry of Transport and at "Roads of Russia." There was plenty of bribery and kickbacks, but no roads ever materialized. It’s especially funny that Shakhov likes to boast about his tremendous work building road infrastructure in Primorye. That’s the place where the world’s most expensive roads are now falling apart three months after opening. But never mind the roads. I want to talk about the much more recent spectacular performance of this "tough, practical manager" Oleg Shakhov in the field of housing and коммунальные services (housing and public utilities). This activity is the subject of our investigation as part of a new Anti-Corruption Foundation project (we’ll share more details soon). So. Oleg Shakhov. A great expert in housing and utilities. He wants to become mayor of Khimki so he can apply the vast experience he gained in his last job—in Tula Region, where he oversaw housing and utilities as first deputy governor. In October 2011, Shakhov gets his appointment and starts looking for a place to impose his "firm managerial hand". What’s the sweetest and most profitable part of the housing-and-utilities sector in any region? That’s right: managing the residential housing stock in the regional capital, where bill collection rates are high and the buildings haven’t completely fallen apart yet. In March of this year, Tula’s main management company, ZAO “UK of the City of Tula,” which managed 95% of the city’s apartment housing stock, was split into 5 management companies: ZAO “Gradservice,” ZAO “Good Home,” ZAO “Citicom,” ZAO “Partner,” and ZAO “Domouprav” Sounds good—competition is developing. But for some reason Shakhov and his friends didn’t like that arrangement (after all, those were other people’s companies, not their own), so the Tula city administration registered seven management companies (as LLCs) with charter capital of 10,000 rubles each (http://www.tula.ru/press-center/news/housing/3798/). At this point, some of them have already been sold to private companies. And the tough manager Shakhov starts going after competing management companies with his official complaints. And then comes the real extravaganza—the very subject of our investigation: 26** July 2012. In the official newspaper of the Tula administration (print run: 3,700 copies), a notice is published about a residents’ meeting: · On August 6, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the territorial office of the Tula city administration for Proletarsky District was supposed to host a simultaneous meeting of residents from 986 apartment buildings · On August 6, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the territorial office of the Tula city administration for Zarechensky District was supposed to host a simultaneous meeting of residents from 426 apartment buildings · On August 6, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the territorial office of the Tula city administration for Tsentralny District was supposed to host a simultaneous meeting of residents from 571 apartment buildings · On August 6, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the territorial office of the Tula city administration for Privokzalny District was supposed to host a simultaneous meeting of residents from 408 apartment buildings · On August 6, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the territorial office of the Tula city administration for Sovetsky District was supposed to host a simultaneous meeting of residents from 371 apartment buildings Total: 2,762 buildings. The agenda was the same everywhere: Election of the chair of the general meeting, with the right to sign the minutes of the general meeting. Election of the secretary of the general meeting, with the right to sign the minutes of the general meeting. Approval of the number of members of the apartment building council. Election of members of the apartment building council. Election of the chair of the apartment building council from among the elected council members. Determination of the term of office of the apartment building council and its chair. Delegation to the chair of the apartment building council of the authority to conclude service contracts. Approval of the Regulations on the apartment building council. Selection (change) of the method of management of the apartment building in accordance with Clause 3, Article 161 of the Russian Housing Code. Approval of the procedure for notifying owners of premises in the apartment building about the general meeting and its decisions. Approval of the place where the minutes of general meetings of owners of premises in the apartment building will be stored. In other words, imagine the plan: on one day, at one time, more than half the residents of 2,763 buildings were supposed to march in orderly rows to hold residents’ meetings. Obviously, that didn’t happen. The meetings were declared invalid due to lack of a quorum. 9 August 2012. In ** violation of the Housing Code, the same newspaper publishes a notice announcing a general meeting of apartment owners in the form of absentee voting. The addresses and building lists remain the same. The start date for collecting owners’ decisions (ballots) was 10:00 a.m. on August 20, 2012. The deadline for collecting owners’ decisions (ballots) was 10:00 a.m. on August 24, 2012. So in total: 4 days were allotted for voting. 28 August 2012. In the official newspaper of the Tula administration (print run: 2,000 copies), a notice is published stating that absentee meetings were successfully held for all 2,762 buildings and that a quorum was reached (50% of residents voted)**
To reach a quorum, about 200,000 people had to take part in the vote—essentially every second resident of the city (population: 500,000). They were supposed to show up at the municipal offices and vote within 4 days. Once again, in case you didn’t catch it or can’t believe the sheer brazenness of the scheme: The Tula mayor’s office and the tough manager Oleg Shakhov are seriously asking us to believe that half the population of Tula came over the course of four days to a few designated little rooms and signed documents appointing THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MUNICIPAL ENTITY OF THE CITY OF TULA, BY PROXY, as the council of their apartment building and the chair of that council. I think the people laughing loudest are those who have ever taken part in a building-wide meeting—or even just a stairwell meeting. They can just picture all of Tula rising up and heading off to vote, dreaming of handing over all authority for managing their building to city administration officials. Fact: The Tula administration, in full view of the police, the FSB (Russia’s security service), the prosecutor’s office, and the entire honest public, falsified the signatures and minutes of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TULA RESIDENTS. Do you believe a stunt like that could have happened without the knowledge—and direct involvement—of the deputy governor in charge of housing and utilities, the tough manager Oleg Shakhov? I don’t. Especially since this time Shakhov didn’t write any letters to the prosecutor’s office and quite openly accepted the forged minutes as valid. The next step, as you’ve probably guessed, was an attempt to transfer all 2,762 buildings to the management of the brand-new management companies. So much for competition. This is exactly what "government management experience" and "tough practical management" really mean. From here in Moscow, I personally can’t tell which management companies are right and which are wrong. “Gradservice” or “Domouprav”—it’s all the same to me. Let Tula residents sort that out themselves. We are interested in one thing only: an organized criminal group of officials that carried out the mass forgery of Tula residents’ signatures. And to me it is perfectly obvious that Shakhov, the United Russia candidate for mayor of Khimki, should clearly be investigated for involvement in that criminal group.
The moral of the story and the conclusions. For Tula: Every Tula resident can look for their building on the list and file a lawsuit in court. For Khimki: Khimki is a rich city. Much richer than Tula. This "tough manager" from the Party of Crooks and Thieves will carve a lot out of Khimki’s housing-and-utilities sector. As the campaign leaflets say, he certainly has the experience. It’s up to the residents of Khimki to decide whom to elect. But if they’re being sold "management experience" that is really just "experience in mass fraud," they should be warned. Please share this post—especially in Khimki.