FUNERAL BUSINESS OF ROSTOV FACED A THREAT OF BANKRUPTCY

Interdistrict Tax Inspectorate 25 filed a bankruptcy claim with the Rostov Arbitration Court in September 2021. The respondent in the claims of the tax authorities turned out to be a municipal enterprise providing funeral services - the company's debt to the treasury, according to the case file, is 5.9 million rubles.  And although the hearings have already been postponed several times, it is highly likely that they will take place on December 20.

The authorities of Rostov told the press that the MUE ‘SCS’ should withdraw its debt obligations by the end of November.  Moreover, the organization allegedly has financial savings, and the enterprise may turn out to be profitable by the end of 2021, which has not happened for a long time.  At the same time, the question of how the funeral business turned out to be unprofitable against the background of the pandemic, remains open.

More than half a year ago, SCS’s employees have already contacted the leadership of the region.  The reason for this was the debts that could have brought the organization to bankruptcy.

It turned out that the company owed about 15 million rubles, and almost 6 million by that time had already been overdue.

Any attempts made by local journalists to obtain from any information about the financial condition of the municipal unitary enterprise from the administration of Rostov also do not find support and, as a rule, remain unanswered.

In a number of media outlets, Rostov's funeral business has already gained reputation of the most corrupted in the city.  Regular changes in management, as well as criminal cases that were initiated a couple of years ago against the employees of MUE, do not make the organization's image more attractive.  In 2019, the verdicts of the Voroshilovsky court fell on the former head of the municipal unitary enterprise Oleg Skripka and the head of one of the cemetery sections, Konstantin Ponomarev.  Both were sued over for bribes.

After a relatively successful 2017, which the SCS managed to finish with a profit of 173 thousand rubles, the company continued to generate losses for several years in a row: 7.8 million in 2016, 5 million in 2018, 4.1 million in 2019 and 4.4 million in 2020.

At the end of last year, the clients, who had to wait for almost two weeks for their deceased relatives to be cremated, complained about the SUE.

The leaders of the trade union, which unites the funeral organizations in the Southern Federal District, have previously raised the question of the oddities in the alleged bankruptcy of the municipal unitary enterprise.  Why does the company, with which numerous scandals in the city are associated, continue to win tenders for the organization of cremation services and maintenance of the Northern Cemetery?  No answer to this question has been received from the owner of the MUE.