Penza, 27 February 2016. PenzaNews. The key problems of the Penza communal services field are the non-transparent billing system for used resources, “doubled” and “tripled” bills from communal management companies, and low quality of provided service, said Georgy Kamnev, eputy of the Penza region Legislative Aseembly, first secretary of the regional CPRF committee, during the city-wide communal affairs forum held at the city culture and leisure center on Saturday, February 27.

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During his report, he stressed that the organizers of the forum do not seek to find answers to all acute questions simultaneously.

“There are too many problems to have them solved at once. […] Today, we will attempt to form the proposals that will help us move forward with solutions to the problems,” explained the leader of Penza Communists.

Moreover, Georgy Kamnev also gave a mention to the regional communal services forum recently held in the Lermontov regional library with support from the governor Ivan Belozertsev.

“Generally, the speakers of that forum reported their successes and focused on the work of certain low-performing officials,” he said, adding that the Communists see the main problem of the communal services field in the wrong structure of the system, rather than standalone violations and abuses of power by responsible officials.

Moreover, the regional parliament deputy mentioned certain figures of statistics in his report. As he pointed out, over the past 3 years and a half, the number of communal management companies in Russia has nearly tripled, with as many as 275 only in the Penza region – at an average of one company per 1,500 flats – yet with no significant improvement in provided housing management services.

According to Georgy Kamnev, the wear factor of the Penza region housing fund, calculated from key parameters, can go as high as 60%.

“The wear factor is growing at an average of 1-3% each year,” clarified the leader of Penza Communists.

The citizens’ inability to control the spending of the money they pay also causes particular concern, he added.

The first secretary of the CPRF regional committee proposed that the current situation has been caused by the existence of a lengthy chain of intermediaries for providing resources and services to end users.

“Hot water practically changes hands four times before it goes to your tap,” Georgy Kamnev explained.

As the deputy added, the authorities are making various proposals to improve the communal services field in the current conditions, yet none of them solve the acute problems.

“Licensing seems to be a good thing and ought to sort off dishonest communal management companies. Yet only about 10% communal companies failed the licensing process. Does it mean we only have problems in the 10%? So that was a good thing, but also made halfheartedly and to no avail,” he stated.

According to him, in the current situation, municipal communal management companies are doomed to fail.

“They are again saying we need many more private communal companies. […] Private communal companies will take on only very profitable apartment buildings, the municipal communal companies will be burdened with houses left without management. That means the municipal communal companies will be losing money,” Georgy Kamnev explained, adding that heavily worn houses will be abandoned as a result.

“There will be no investments in the communal services sector, as they [the communal management companies] regularly go bankrupt. […] The current legislation makes it impossible to invest in the communal services field. […] They have been speaking about it for many years, but we are only seeing a rather different kind of investments: when investments come from the communal services field and into somebody else’s pocket,” added the leader of Penza Communists.