Vitebsk region utility workers are looking for a private alternative to housing and utility services (ZHEU)

April 5, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Vitebsk, Orsha, Polotsk and Novopolotsk city executive committees, as an experiment, announced competitions for the right to conclude contracts for the technical maintenance of housing stock, the deputy head of the housing and communal services department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Merechko, told a BELTA correspondent. The experiment is being conducted in accordance with the concept of housing and communal services development in Belarus until 2015. According to Nikolai Merechko, the competitions will help attract small and medium-sized businesses to the housing and communal services sector, and form a competitive environment, which will affect the cost and quality of public utilities. Nikolai Merechko called the association of owners of joint property "Yunost", which concluded contracts for the technical maintenance of houses for 5 owners' associations in Orsha, the "first swallow" in the formation of public-private partnerships in the housing and communal services of the Vitebsk region. "Yunost" maintains common areas, public engineering networks, and is involved in cleaning entrances and adjacent territories - everything that housing management companies are usually responsible for. Monthly payments from tenants for technical maintenance are transferred to the association's account. It is too early to talk about the results of the "Yunost" association's activities, but there have been no serious complaints about its work. According to Nikolai Merechko, with a decrease in the share of state subsidies for utility payments, the interest of private structures in working in the housing and communal services sector will increase. Currently, the regional housing and communal services department is collecting proposals on public-private partnerships in the field of bathhouse management, landscaping, sanitary cleaning, separate collection, removal and processing of waste, and the creation of necessary conditions for the experiment with the possibility of transferring fixed assets for management or lease. Vitebsk utility workers have also decided to study the experience of attracting investments from the joint limited liability company "Remondis-Minsk", which is engaged in waste recycling. -0-