First Deputy Minister of Construction Oleg Shvets said that in 2022 the construction industry worked with a net profit of 56.5 million rubles ($22 million). And contractors in the construction industry in 2022 were able to receive 660 million rubles of net profit (261.5 million dollars). But problems appeared if you look deeper.
Losses were shown by republican construction state organizations. And for private traders, “profitability of sales decreased, the number of unprofitable organizations and the amount of their net loss increased.” Growth was also shown by construction enterprises of a communal form of ownership. “Against their background, even private traders do not look so successful,” — told officials.
“The explanation for the fact that the financial condition of organizations of a communal form of ownership is better than organizations of republican and private forms of ownership is the action of Decree No. 366 “On procurement during the construction of facilities included in the investment programs of regions and the city of Minsk”, adopted back in September 2021 , the press service of the ministry said. And they promised not to renew it in 2023 after the expiration date “in order to create a competitive environment, as well as save budget funds,” the ministry said.
They explained that the decree was introduced in order to “shorten the time and reduce the cost of designing and building facilities included in regional investment programs, as well as limit the participation of unscrupulous suppliers and contractors in procurement procedures.”
Decree No. 366 allowed the Minsk City Council of Deputies and regional councils to determine general design and contracting, engineering organizations (from among the state ones) for the construction of facilities included in regional investment programs. During the construction of such facilities, these organizations could and still can purchase goods, works, services at the expense of budgetary and equivalent funds using the procurement procedure from a single source.
It seems that local deputies gave preference to local enterprises, taking advantage of the powers received as a result of the adoption of the law. As a result, the decree hit not only “unscrupulous participants, but also republican and private organizations, losing an important source of income.
