CCTV operators have lost more than 5% of their government contract amounts from Moscow / A. Gordeev / Vedomosti

Since the beginning of 2013, Moscow has saved 531 million rubles, or 5.2% of the contract amounts with operators installing city video surveillance cameras, Elena Novikova, a representative of the Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT), told Vedomosti. According to her, Moscow spent a total of 3.5 billion rubles on city video surveillance in 2013, and 4.2 billion rubles in 2014. The program has allocated 3.85 billion rubles for 2015, of which 1.91 billion rubles have already been paid.

In 2011, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin proposed switching the city's video surveillance system to a service model. By the end of 2014, operators had installed 127,600 cameras under DIT government contracts, Novikova reported in March 2015. According to a DIT representative, the system's operators are Rostelecom , MGTS (a subsidiary of MTS ), Megafon , and Comcor (a brand of Akado Telecom). Rostelecom has installed more than 56,000 cameras in Moscow, Comcor - 22,000, MGTS - 47,000, Megafon - about 1,000, representatives of these companies told Vedomosti in March 2015.

Instead of building the infrastructure itself, the city purchases video images from operator companies that install and service the cameras: state contracts with operators protect the city from the difficulties associated with purchasing and servicing the cameras. The contract allows the city to save money by fining operators for low image quality, which is checked by a special system, a representative of the DIT explained earlier.

Due to the strict collection policy, even a small amount of defective goods provides significant savings, says Novikova. If a camera does not work for more than a day in a row during a quarter, the city pays only half the amount for the camera's work for that period, explains Novikova. The quarterly work of a camera may not be paid at all if during that period it did not work twice for 24 hours or was idle for a total of 144 hours, she continues. The cameras are used by law enforcement agencies, housing and communal services, and inspection services.

Camera monetization

In 2014, thanks to the video surveillance system, the capital's inspectorates issued fines to violators totaling 1.4 billion rubles, according to the Moscow Department of Information Technology. In the first half of 2015, the Moscow State Traffic Safety Inspectorate issued 4.7 million administrative violation orders based on video recording, of which 3.62 million were for exceeding the speed limit by 20–40 km/h (fine 500 rubles).

The share of unpaid amounts due to fines is decreasing. According to Novikova, if in the first half of 2013 the total amount of fines was almost 8% of the total amount of contracts (from 5.3 to 15.7% depending on the operator), then in the first half of 2015 fines were about 4% of the amount of all contracts (from 1.4 to 7.5%). The share of cameras that are not working or transmitting poor-quality images is now about 0.6%, according to Novikova. These cameras are evenly distributed throughout Moscow; it does not happen that all the non-working cameras are concentrated in one place, she explains.

Representatives of the operators declined to comment on the size of the fines and the profit from the video surveillance project. Rostelecom is participating in the DIT project on attractive terms, Andrei Polyakov, a representative of the state operator, told Vedomosti. Pavel Larin, a representative of the capital's Megafon branch, said that the operator has not received any complaints from DIT about the quality of images, and therefore no fines. MGTS representative Tatyana Martyanova only says that the company is participating in projects with a payback period of up to 7-15 years.

Planning the installation of cameras to control traffic, the Ministry of Public Administration, IT and Communications of the Moscow Region also does not intend to invest in infrastructure. In mid-August, the Ministry announced that it was choosing an investor who would invest in the traffic control infrastructure in exchange for a commission from each fine. According to the regional ministry, the entire project will cost no more than 4.94 billion rubles, but budget money will not participate in it. The invested funds will be returned to the investor from the fines paid, he will receive a fixed amount from each fine, but no more than 233 rubles, the rest of the money will go to the budget of the Moscow Region.

In such a model, the investor's motivation directly depends on the quality of each complex, the regional minister of public administration, IT and communications Maksut Shadayev explained to Vedomosti: the contractor always tries to save on maintenance and formally fulfills the standards of the state contract, and the budget suffers from this. According to the new model, along with the reduction in the recognition percentage, the investor's income also falls, the minister concludes.

Moscow Saves RUB 531 Million by Fining Contract Operators for Non-Working Cameras