Debts of state-owned enterprises to businesses in 2022 reached a minimum of 4.6 billion rubles

The debts of state and municipal customers to businesses in 2022 reached a record low, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office told Vedomosti. The balance of debt amounted to 4.6 billion rubles, which is almost half the amount available at the end of 2021 – 8.3 billion rubles.

As a result of prosecutorial intervention, debts to businesses in the amount of more than 21.3 billion rubles were repaid. Supervision may intervene with an unscheduled inspection of these issues at the request of citizens or a statement from businesses. If the violator does not improve, then administrative liability is provided for deliberate failure to comply with the requirements of the prosecutor (Article 17.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). In accordance with the general rule, scheduled inspections are carried out by the prosecutor’s office once every three years. “In the context of unprecedented sanctions pressure on the country’s post-pandemic economy, the issues of proper fulfillment by state and municipal customers of their financial obligations to bona fide economic entities have become even more relevant,” said a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Separately, a number of regions are noted in which state customers were “incentivized” to make significant payments to businesses at the initiative of prosecutors: these are Buryatia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Altai Territory, Ivanovo, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Tula regions. Non-payments under government contracts are a headache for business, says Dmitry Gorbunov, partner at the law firm Rustam Kurmaev & Partners. “This discourages participation in public procurement, as it brings more problems than profit,” the lawyer explained. A normal businessman, Gorbunov continued, needs to carry out the circulation of funds and goods, and not sort things out with the customer. If the prosecutor’s office deals with the fulfillment of obligations by the state, this is “a sign of the inefficiency of the public procurement system, red tape of customers or a manifestation of a corruption component, which implies that a kickback is required everywhere.”