On September 1, the decision of the arbitration court comes into force, according to which the administration of Chelyabinsk must pay the Grot enterprise 2.5 million rubles. This amount was owed in 2010 to the supplier of sausage products by the municipal autonomous institution “Food and Social Nutrition Plant”. Today, UIA is undergoing a liquidation procedure, which means that the responsibility for repaying debts falls on the owner of the enterprise’s property – the city of Chelyabinsk. In addition, as Znak.com learned, other companies in the regional capital may soon bring similar claims against the municipality, the plant’s total debt to which is 19 million rubles.

MAU "Food and Social Nutrition Plant" was created on December 30, 2009. It was assumed that it would supply educational institutions with food. However, as our correspondent was told by the consulting company Legal Expert, the plant’s managers apparently did not plan to pay their suppliers. Having concluded many contracts, the institution simply cheated its partners for a total of 19 million rubles.

“In 2010, we entered into an agreement with the MAU Food and Social Nutrition Plant, according to which we had to ship sausages for schools and kindergartens,” Yuri Smirnov, director of the Grot company, told Znak.com. “However, at the end of the month we were not paid. We thought that it was a budgetary institution, anything could happen, so we continued to ship the goods for another 3 months, but we never received a penny. After this they suspended their activities. By that time, we had managed to ship products worth around 2.5 million rubles. When I tried to communicate with the director of this UIA, I was told that nothing depended on him, he had no money. A year later, we filed a claim with the arbitration court and then found out that the company was going bankrupt.”

The process of liquidation of the enterprise began on May 13, 2011 and is still ongoing.

Having studied all the circumstances, the servants of Themis satisfied the plaintiff’s demands and decided to collect the debt from the defendant. Around the same time, a criminal case was opened for fraud, and an accounting examination was ordered to identify the elements of the crime. It was assumed that one of the officials would be held accountable. However, the perpetrators were never identified. As it turned out, the municipal enterprise changed directors several times (this data is confirmed by the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In 2010, MAUih had three: on April 1, the institution was headed by Vladimir Chaplygin, on June 1, by Elena Marchenko, on November 10, by Oleg Bondar, and investigators were unable to find out whose fault the suppliers did not receive money. Therefore, the case is currently suspended. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Chelyabinsk refused to comment on this matter.

Meanwhile, when the first court decision was made, it turned out that the food and social catering plant had nothing. As reported by the Legal Expert company, today only a 2003 GAZ car with a residual value of 39 thousand rubles is listed as a particularly valuable property in the assets of this autonomous institution. Therefore, the suppliers had no choice but to re-apply to arbitration, but this time to file a claim against the city authorities.

“The court again ruled in favor of our clients - to recover 2.5 million rubles from the budget of the city of Chelyabinsk,” said Vladimir Mosin, leading legal adviser at Legal Expert. – The decision comes into force on September 1. But this was a court of first instance; the city administration has the opportunity to challenge the decision.”

According to Vladimir Mosin, the defendant in the trial was the city department of education. His lawyers referred to the rule of law according to which the owners of an autonomous institution are not liable for their debts. However, the plaintiffs managed to prove that if an institution announced a liquidation procedure and it does not have enough money to pay, then the owner of the organization’s property pays. In this case, this is the city of Chelyabinsk.

Neither the victims nor their lawyers could answer our question about why the municipal structure did not pay its partners. “I can still understand when one businessman cheated another,” Yuri Smirnov threw up his hands. “But when budget money doesn’t reach suppliers, it’s strange. I don't understand why they didn't pay us. Who to trust after this? Vladimir Mosin suggested that the organization was initially created to implement a criminal scheme. According to him, about 10 more companies suffered from its activities. One of them, the Ladya trading house, also recently filed a claim with the arbitration court to seek compensation from the budget. Previously, this company also won the case against the plant.

The food and social catering plant was originally established by the city department of trade and services. Then the founder changed, it became the city department of education, which subsequently dealt with liquidation issues. We tried to find out from the founders what happened to the municipal structure. The head of the department for trade and services, Sergei Berezuev, said that the events we described took place when the plant was already under the jurisdiction of the department for education. “This UIA was under our jurisdiction for only six months after its creation, then it did not conduct any activities,” explained Sergei Berezuev. “And then an addition to the law came out, according to which our structure was deprived of the opportunity to have such institutions, and the plant was transferred to the Department of Education.”

We were unable to get a comment from the Education Department. And the press service of the city administration to Znak.com only confirmed that UIA is undergoing a liquidation procedure. “All claims of creditors will be satisfied in full, in the order of priority established by law. UIA has enough funds to pay creditors,” the mayor’s office assured. The question of whose sins will have to be paid from the city treasury remains open.

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