The Russians were offered to exchange the New Year for bulletproof vests: experts appreciated the initiative

Ideas to abandon the celebration of the New Year and instead of Christmas trees with garlands to buy, for example, body armor for mobilized soldiers continue to soar in the regions. The cancellation of New Year’s festivities was announced in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga. “MK” decided to find out if there is a real ground under the loud statements of the mayors about the refusal of festive events.

The anti-New Year initiative of the regions has already been criticized in the Ministry of Defense. The presidential administration also did not stand aside, calling the idea “undeveloped.” We studied the public procurement portal and understood why the Presidential Administration focused on the lame elaboration of the anti-New Year project.

At the tender sites for orders on the theme of the New Year, a dime a dozen. Some competitions are still going on, some have already passed.

For example, a tender in Sochi for the purchase of fir trees and New Year’s decorations for decorating public areas. The starting price is 11 million 924 thousand rubles. Applications are accepted until October 24th. And Krasnodar, by October 21, expects to find a contractor for the provision of services for the installation, installation, design, maintenance and dismantling of Christmas trees. The city is ready to pay 3 million 713 thousand rubles.

The auctions that took place are even more interesting.

For example, a tender for the installation of decorative structures and architectural lighting for New Year’s events in Chelyabinsk for 27 million rubles. Deadline for applications is September 21st. Bidding has passed, the contractor has been identified.

Or here’s another competition for “the provision of services for the centralized decoration of St. Petersburg with New Year’s artificial fir trees 14 m high, fir trees 8 m and 6 m high for the New Year 2023 and Christmas holidays” for 26 million 420 thousand rubles. Bidding took place … in July. On the public procurement portal there are two more tenders with similar terms in St. Petersburg – the prices of the contracts are comparable, only the dimensions of the Christmas trees differ.

Why the New Year’s tenders were played six months before the new year – there are no questions here. Firstly, no one canceled the rule about preparing sleds in the summer. And secondly, the public procurement procedure is by no means a quick matter. This is not a star for a home Christmas tree in a hypermarket to buy.

In this case, the main question is what to do with these already concluded state contracts? Is it even possible to roll everything back and take the money from the contractor in order to transfer it to the needs of the front?

As the chairman of the organizing committee of the National Procurement Transparency Rating Viktor Symonenko said, there are no uniform rules here. Each state contract will have to be considered literally under a magnifying glass.

– Draft contracts for different entities may vary, the conditions for termination are protected within the contract itself, – the expert explains, – Recently, a proposal was made to recognize the entire current situation as force majeure. In any classical construction of the contract, such a circumstance is the basis for termination.

But, as always, there is a nuance – money. If the state customer and the contractor have just shook hands and signed the papers, there are no problems: we cancel, terminate, refuse Christmas trees and buy drones.

But if an advance payment has already left the budget for the contractor, everything is much more complicated. And since we are talking about public procurement, in general, “everything is complicated.”

– State contracts for the organization and holding of festive, and any other events, are most often divided into parts. First, inventory is purchased, then gifts, then the site is prepared. With a high degree of probability, the regions find contractors and suppliers for such projects several months before the holiday itself. In this case, it will be possible to cancel only that which has not yet been drawn or has been drawn, but not secured by advance payments. Work is already in full swing on all other contracts, – Viktor Simonenko says.

For those who are categorically in favor of the abolition of holidays, let us recall the well-known historical fact about the New Year trees of besieged Leningrad and the feat of the driver Maxim Tverdokhleb, who, under heavy Nazi fire, drove tangerines for children along the Road of Life by the new year 1942.

But, as the protagonist of Christopher Nolan’s film “Inception” said, the idea is the most tenacious and contagious parasite.

So there is no guarantee that not today or tomorrow the next governor will not decide to play the role of the Grinch who stole Christmas. However, at the moment, experts on public procurement and tender procedures doubt the feasibility of the idea of ​​abandoning the holidays and hint that the initiative of the regions often smacks of slyness.