Sibmost demanded 2.063 billion rubles in penalties under the contract for the construction of the Bugrinsky Bridge in Novosibirsk with the MBU Road Construction Department, a court representative clarified, speaking about the rejection of the claim filed by the company in June.

The Bugrinsky Bridge is the third bridge across the Ob in Novosibirsk, connecting the Kirovsky and Oktyabrsky districts of the city. The parties signed a construction contract worth 14.8 billion rubles in December 2009. The contract was completed by April 2012, but the bridge was put into operation on October 8, 2014.

Sibmost blames the customer for the failure to meet deadlines. By signing the contract, Sibmost assumed commercial risks at 2009-2012 prices. Now, when the deadlines have been shifted and expenses have been incurred due to the breach of contract, we are obliged to seek compensation for them, explains Olga Kochetova, head of the Sibmost press service.

"The reason for the lawsuit was the untimely fulfillment by the customer of its obligations to provide the contractor with a scope of work. This required a significant increase in the contract terms, due to which the cost of construction of the facility increased, and the contractor suffered losses," explained a source close to the company. The deadlines were delayed due to the untimely resettlement of owners of land plots and houses located in the construction zone of the bridge and transport interchanges, continues the interlocutor of Vedomosti. According to him, in 2009, the mayor's office ordered the seizure of plots for municipal needs, in 2010 - the houses located on them, but this was not done in a timely manner. "The situation was complicated by the fact that three dozen owners of houses did not agree with the terms of the buyout," the source said. The permits for construction on these sites are dated 2012-2014, which is later than the deadline for the completion of the facility under the municipal contract; in 2011, the parties extended the contract until December 31, 2014, he added.

Since the lawsuit was filed, the authorities have been perplexed. "The bidding took place, the price was determined. An increase? Well, I don't understand... We don't see any reason to increase the price. Especially 2 billion rubles in a very difficult financial situation for the city. It's hard for me to explain to myself and I don't understand at all how to explain to the city council members, the residents of Novosibirsk, at whose expense these 2 billion will arise," Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot told journalists at a press conference in July.

"We have repeatedly expressed our position. We still do not agree with the increase in the cost of the contract," Tatyana Klyukina, head of the department for interaction with the media of the Novosibirsk mayor's office, told Vedomosti yesterday. The mayor's office will give more detailed comments after receiving the reasoning, she added.

Sibmost does not require an increase in the contract price, but the customer's material breach of the contract terms has led to a significant increase in the terms and cost of the work, Kochetova objects. According to her, Sibmost will continue to insist on compensation: whether it will be a higher court, a new lawsuit or something else will become clear after the publication of the reasoning part of the Novosibirsk arbitration court's decision. At the same time, the company is open to proposals for an out-of-court solution to the issue, Kochetova emphasized.

Government contracts are not ideal and there are often cases when the customer does not have time to prepare the construction site, says Yuri Nikolaev, Chairman of the Moscow Bar Association "Nikolaev and Partners". In his opinion, 2 billion rubles is an "insane penalty"; the municipality has nowhere to get that kind of money. "Perhaps the court was scared by the size of the penalty," the lawyer suggested. In addition, Nikolaev continues, the court understands that in the event of a positive decision, the consequences will be serious: checks must be carried out within the framework of the federal law on operational-search activities in relation to the head of the enterprise that allowed losses to the budget. "This may end in a criminal case, among other things," he adds.

Sibmost will not leave the court