"Mail". Bankruptcy

How it happened that a monopolist who had gigantic opportunities for prosperity for the benefit of citizens was a step away from ruin

"Russian Post" was a step away from bankruptcy. The monopolist once lost his activity to successful private companies, everywhere closes his branches and cannot pay a decent salary to his employees, and many jokes go about the quality of services. A person who has been working in the “Russian Post for a long time does not talk about how it happened.

- “Post” since Soviet times has been in the ears in losses, and the postmen received meager salaries. The “post” entered into the market with extremely heavy luggage: the mechanization of the rudimentary, the logistics are difficult, the debt is huge, the working conditions are scattering, especially on sorting. Every year, the situation was only worse - the Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) “Post of Russia”, subordinate to the Rossvyaz agency, which was part of the Ministry of Communications, reached all who is not lazy.

In this case, no one canceled paper media, official correspondence is mainly delivered by mail; 60% of letters - official notifications, receipts and so on. But the tariffs for postal vehicles and departures are set not by mail, but by the federal commission for tariffs, which changes them very rarely and very reluctantly. And each letter delivered brought only a loss, because postal tariffs did not cover the cost of services and costs. Only custom-made letters give some income, the usual mail is usually all at a loss, if you do not regularly revise tariffs.

The staff turnover at the “mail” is 75%, during the year three quarters of the staff is changing.

The “post” is deprived of almost all the possibilities of income, and it was not bankrupt only because it remained a state -owned enterprise, while the negative balance remained huge from year to year, and the authorized capital is driven many times.

In muddy water, everyone who could catch fish. After the collapse of the USSR, the centralized management of the postal industry was lost, a conglomerate of regional (regional) administrations that were under the jurisdiction of local authorities arose. The postal "fragmentation" had specific financial consequences. An inscription “Russia” appeared on the postage stamps instead of “Post of the USSR”, that is, in Soviet times, “mail” was an issuer of postal signs and had some income from this. With the outbreak of market transformations, smart people were fed and created the Mark Publishing and trade center-a separate enterprise (until 2016-FSUE, at present-AO), which has become a commercial intermediary: the “post” should now not print the brands on its own, but to order postal products from the “brand”, which became the recipient of emission income.

Brands - mail signs of payment. There are collection brands that are sorry to glue on envelopes and small circulations. But the income was not received by the “mail”, but by the ITC “Mark”. This is a state -like enterprise, but how income was distributed there, one can only guess. Moreover, until 2010, even the circulation of postage stamps were not installed. That is, "mail" orders brands, say, 200 thousand pieces. How many are they printed? Maybe ten times more. Where did the implementation go? They should be sold only through the "mail". There was no control, the circulations were non -fixed. It is the same as if the Bank of Russia allowed Goznak to print banknotes without restrictions.

For some reason, postal envelopes were also not printed by mail, about 40% of the envelopes were produced in China and was imported by smuggling. Also a colossal source of income. And it is unlikely that someone did not share such a smuggling.

Even the "post" had side income, but they did not go to her either. It was done very simply. For example, a good goal was set to hold the Internet to post offices. The budget was allocated. And then - supposedly a competition. They entrust the task of putting 30 thousand computers, 30 thousand tables under them, a single supplier for the entire network. And - multiple overstating the price.

A private company, which is a contractor, participates in a tender, all by law, wins the tender, receives budget money, in the post office they set deesspecure tables for very decent money, and the budget pays all this. And the fact that the Internet in the rural branch works at such a speed that it reads one page for five hours does not bother anyone.

Therefore, any idea - such as the Internet or standardization of the appearance of post offices - is scale to incredible sizes. Already in a state of bankruptcy by “mail” they decided to introduce uniform. And this should be sheathed for almost half a million people!

And tenders for sealing, wrapping paper? Everything is like Gogol: “The rope! And the rope will come in handy. "

When subscribing to periodicals, the same situation: there was no single catalog of “mail”, instead different catalogs issued some AO that did not understand who belonged to whom, and they collected money for the subscription, and only the honorary right to deliver all signature publications left the “mail”.

“Post” has become a real income house for many interested parties, not to mention what they did with her real estate. The inventory of assets showed that 15 percent of the property remained on the balance sheet, and the rest is rental, and you also have to pay for the rental. But once, the "mail" even had its own planes, a park of mail cars-a huge economy!

And most importantly: wholesale transportation; “Mail” was used as a network, through the network you could sell anything: forty -two thousand departments. So it is not surprising that, according to unverified information, for example, in the 90s, postal vehicles were actively used even for drug transportation. The post -deposit branch network, even in the current deplorable state, can act as a profitable contractor for any firms engaged in network trading throughout Russia - this is just a gold bottom! So

“Mail” is a clondike, many interested in it are enriched. Who is in the sale of real estate, some on network transportation, including illegal materials, some on envelopes, some on brands. The "mail" was torn simply to the skeleton.

Therefore, the authorities have always been interested in one thing: to maintain the status quo. Well, probably, they wanted the numbers to be more parrying, but everything remained as it is, "as with a grandmother." And in this restructuring, optimization and effectiveness, no one is interested in.

The declared bankruptcy of the "post" is unlikely to change anything. Even if the ultimate goal is its privatization in someone’s interests. Not everything depends on the form of ownership - the sad experience of the English Royal Mail confirms this.

Irina Semina