Ministry of Construction pricing. The Russian Ministry of Construction is improving the pricing system in construction. Risks of using methods

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. The Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation will hold a meeting on the topic of applying new methods of pricing in construction at the request of large market participants involved in state infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Crimean Bridge, follows from a letter from Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Khamit Mavliyarov to the President of the Russian Union of Builders Vladimir Yakovlev, a copy of which available to TASS.

"The Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation, in accordance with the instructions of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak dated November 28, 2017.<...>informs that on December 7, 2017<...>under my (Mavliyarov’s - TASS note) chairmanship there will be a meeting on the formation of a regulatory framework in the field of pricing in the construction industry,” says a copy of the document.

The reason for the meeting was appeals from specialized associations (Russian Union of Builders, Rosasfalt) and companies in the industrial construction industry (Stroygazmontazh, Transstroymekhanizatsiya, Stroytransneftegaz), sent in November 2017 to the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, says the assistant’s letter Head of State Andrei Belousov to Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak (also available to TASS).

Risks of using methods

As follows from copies of requests from specialized market participants and non-profit industry associations, new pricing methods in construction were introduced in 2016-2017 by orders of the Ministry of Construction, but do not allow reliably determining the cost of construction in terms of wages, costs of machinery and equipment, and transportation of goods.

“The filling of the Federal State Information System (pricing - TASS note) by the Ministry of Construction is carried out according to standards that do not take into account modern technologies, materials and machines used in the implementation of investment projects,” the head of the Union of Builders Yakovlev points out in his address. “The methodology for calculating wages also needs to be reworked construction workers who work in difficult conditions, since new estimated standards do not allow staff to be charged regional coefficients and bonuses for difficult working conditions.”

In addition, transport costs are not sufficiently taken into account: first of all, differentiation will be required by groups of construction resources, modes of transport, and territories, the appeal says.

For example, during the construction of the Tavrida highway, 150 thousand tons of asphalt concrete mixtures were laid using the new Superpave technology, which is in national standards, but this technology is not included in the classifier of construction resources used to generate estimates for government orders, the head of Rosasfalt indicated in a letter. Nikolai Bystrov.

As a result, without the necessary changes, the use of methods can lead to bankruptcy of the largest organizations involved in the construction of unique facilities in the country, Sergei Garayev, general director of Stroygazmontazh, points out in his letter to the presidential administration.

The problem of government construction projects

“New pricing standards that take into account modern realities and the tasks of such large-scale construction projects that are significant for the state, such as the Crimean Bridge, are important for determining the estimated cost of capital projects. It is worth understanding that their construction is financed with funds from the federal budget, so there is a bilateral responsibility here : both the service provider and the state before business,” explained TASS in the pricing committee of the Union of Builders.

Earlier it was reported that the Crimean Bridge is being built at the expense of the federal budget within the framework of the federal target program “Socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol until 2020” without attracting extra-budgetary funding. Its length will be 19 kilometers. Construction and installation work at the site began in February 2016.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 228 billion rubles, the start of vehicle traffic on the bridge is planned for December 2018, train traffic - for December 2019. The customer is the Federal State Institution "Department of Federal Highways "Taman" of the Federal Road Agency", the contractor is the company of businessman Arkady Rotenberg, Stroygazmontazh LLC.

What changes are possible

Participants in the construction market in their appeals propose to develop new cost estimates taking into account modern technologies.

In turn, the Ministry of Construction allows changes and additions to new pricing methods, as follows from the agenda for the meeting. In addition, the ministry can identify pilot projects in which pricing reform will be tested. Among them may be industrial construction projects, the document notes.

On September 30, 2018, the construction complex should switch to the resource-based pricing method - this was officially announced by the Russian Ministry of Construction in the person of Deputy Minister Khamit Mavliyarov at the end of 2017. However, it appears that this transition has once again been postponed.

Let us recall that after a meeting of the State Council under President Vladimir Putin in May 2015, the Russian Ministry of Construction was instructed to undertake pricing reform in the construction industry. For this purpose, amendments were made to the Town Planning Code, and the Federal State Pricing System in Construction was developed and put into operation exactly a year ago.

As Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Construction Khamit Mavliyarov officially stated at the end of 2017, “taking into account the readiness of the market in the first half of 2018, we will go to the Government with a proposal to adopt a regulatory act on the transition to the resource model from September 30, 2018.”

That is, from September 30, 2018, when developing design and estimate documentation for objects using budget funds, the estimator will be required to use the price of construction resources (building materials, products, structures, equipment, machines and mechanisms), which are posted in the system.

“The Federal State Register of Estimate Standards, 118 collections of state elemental estimate standards, 21 collections of consolidated construction price standards, 29 methodological documents, 77 normative legal acts, 99,545 positions of the construction resources classifier” are located in the FSIS CS,” the Russian Ministry of Construction reported on December 27, 2017.

However, already in the summer of 2018 it became clear that it would be necessary to switch to the resource method from October 1 of this year. It definitely won’t work - FSIS CA is not filled with the necessary data, and the professional community has accumulated a large number of comments and complaints about many methodological and regulatory documents. Moreover, some of the methods for calculating estimated prices are still under development and have not been approved by the customer - Glavgosexpertiza of Russia. At the same time, the total costs of pricing reform and FSIS CS have already exceeded 1 billion rubles.

At the same time, at the moment there is no deputy minister in the Russian Ministry of Construction responsible for pricing in the construction industry - two months have passed since Khamit Mavliyarov left, and his position is still vacant. The activity of the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia in this area has also noticeably decreased, and the first deputy head of pricing, Irina Lishchenko, also left there.

As for the Russian Ministry of Construction, in June 2018, at one of the meetings, the new Minister of Construction Vladimir Yakushev casually mentioned that the industry would switch to the resource method at the end of May 2019. Perhaps this deadline will also be revised.

President of the Union of Estimating Engineers Pavel Goryachkin commented on the delay in the transition to the resource-based pricing method in construction:

- Today is September 30, which means that the transition of the country’s construction complex to the “resource method” of pricing was supposed to begin from today. In any case, quite recently the Ministry of Construction of Russia promised us this and this date was agreed upon with the construction community!

In fact, the Ministry of Construction of Russia today is not able to provide even the current “base-index” method of pricing, since the Indices for the third quarter of 2018 have not yet been released! At the same time, we record a continuous increase in prices for building materials during the summer “hot period”, as well as in labor costs, machinery and mechanisms.

The Federal State System FSIS CS of the Ministry of Construction of Russia was loudly “put into operation” exactly a year ago. After a year, it can be stated that the system does not work, is degrading, and even those enterprises that initially tried to provide price data began to ignore it.

What do we end up with? The pricing reform in construction has been abandoned, the leaders of the reform have fled, the instructions of the country's leadership are not being carried out, and even the existing pricing mechanism in construction is gradually being destroyed...

Why is the President of the Union of Estimating Engineers skeptical about the actions of the Ministry of Construction on the eve of the State Construction Council

The president of the Union of Estimating Engineers, director of the department of expert-analytical work and pricing in construction of the Association of Builders of Russia Pavel GORYACCHKIN answers the magazine’s questions.

— Pavel Vladimirovich, since our great More than two months have passed about the problems of pricing in construction. And what is happening in the sphere of pricing today, on the eve of the State Construction Council, which, despite your , judging by the latest information, will still take place in May? What can we expect from this forum?

“I believe that we may be seeing an imitation of activity and an attempt to turn the State Council into some kind of formal meeting, an ordinary talking shop.

Well, the minister will speak at the State Council Mikhail Men with a big report. He will say that everything is OK with us, we will continue to build, subsidize mortgages, solve the problems of defrauded shareholders, put things in order in the SRO, etc.

Then several ministers and governors will speak and talk about their regional problems: one about dilapidated housing, another about the problems of major repairs, etc.

At the end of the meeting, the meeting participants will receive parting words from the President and go about their business - preparing for the next State Council.

— So you don’t expect the State Council to build a revolution?

- What kind of revolutions can there be here? Can you even remember at least one State Council where there was a revolution?

Let's think about something else. For example, why is the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently made proposals for certain administrative changes, and the President Vladimir Putin approved them?

Let me remind you that it proposes to shift the emphasis in the work of government structures so that they move away from all this formalism that has overwhelmed them today. After all, what do our ministries and departments mainly do? They tick the boxes...

- ... but they shouldindustries to engage in.

- Right! Therefore, it is necessary to radically change the system of approach and assessment, the criteria for the work of ministries. Which, in fact, was what the prime minister proposed, and the head of state approved. We are talking about a certain reform of the public administration system.

Without this, we will not move forward, but we will continue to chatter and imitate activities. Tell fairy tales about how well everything is going well with us,

The Ministry of Construction will receive the President’s parting words at the State Construction Council. Then it will be clothed with instructions. And until the next State Council, the ministries will close (I emphasize, not fulfill, but close) these instructions. But “close” and “execute” are still different things.

So, as long as we continue to “close orders,” nothing good can be expected.

— Last week the Cabinet of Ministers approved a bill introduced by the Ministry of Construction aimed at reforming estimated standardization and pricing in construction. He approved it, despite the fact that a few days earlier the Ministry of Economic Development expressed its firm “fie” about this document, preparing a negative review of it. Your comment?

— After the end of the Government meeting on this issue, the Minister of Construction spoke to journalists about some new methods. But the bill itself does not contain any new methods of pricing in construction.

What are we talking about anyway? That there will be some kind of state register of estimate standards. But we already have it - only today it is called federal, but will be renamed state.

According to the bill, all government construction projects at all levels, including state corporations, unitary and other enterprises where there is a state share, are required to determine the cost only according to state estimate standards. But there is no novelty in this either: even now all construction projects are determined on the basis of state estimate standards.

The bill mentions some kind of price monitoring, but it is already being carried out.

That is, to be honest, I don’t see any novelty or revolution in this document at all: this is some kind of butter, all this is already determined by the very regulations on the Ministry of Construction, they are already doing all this. Why is another law needed?

We have the corresponding 35th MDS, there are SNiPs, a glossary, etc. Why turn the Town Planning Code into some kind of indigestible multi-volume document with all these amendments?

- What is the point here?

- And I'll tell you. This is the very activity I was talking about. We have passed a law, and now we will introduce a Government resolution on monitoring prices for construction resources. Although there are also guidelines on this issue for determining the estimated cost of materials...

Let me remind you that the Ministry of Construction has been talking about the resource method for two years now. As a representative of the Union of Estimating Engineers, I’ll say: why talk about the same thing for two years? Let's introduce the resource method now. Immediately!

Let's calculate all construction projects using the resource method, and begin to determine the cost only on the basis of price monitoring data, which will be conducted by the Russian Ministry of Construction. And then we’ll see what happens in our country.

When the relevant department makes such statements, you need to calculate the consequences of these statements and the extent of your responsibility. And the ministers of economic development, finance, the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and other departments should also think about where we will end up as a result.

Let me remind you that today, when forming the FAIN and targeted investment programs in the regions of Russia, systems are used that are based on certain averaged indexed price indicators. The Ministry of Construction itself issues quarterly indices for recalculating the estimated cost; regional administrations also generally index the estimated cost.

When developing these indices, they try to place the indicator at the so-called lower bound of value. Few people have seen these calculations, but believe me, I know what I'm talking about. And these indices are a kind of tool to curb the appetites of contractors.

Now let’s imagine what will happen with the open state budget standards that the Ministry of Construction is talking about. In addition to the fact that they will contain all sorts of nonsense, which I have already mentioned more than once, starting from tow, nails and screws, there will be prices formed according to the data of suppliers. Everything is open, everything is in sight. Here you can’t draw anything along the lower border!

It is a big responsibility to force construction organizations to practically work at these declared prices. They will say: guys, why did you, for example, write that the reinforcement costs 23 thousand, when it now costs 32 thousand rubles?

— By the way, the reinforcement really jumped incrediblyrecently: by 40% since the beginning of the year!..

- I just gave an example. So, they will ask where these numbers come from. And most importantly: who will be responsible for these declared prices?

As for us, we, the surveyors, are all for it. OK, let's introduce the resource method now. And then we'll see what happens.

- And what will happen?

— I assure you that the Government of the Russian Federation, primarily the ministers of the financial and economic bloc, will be the first to say that this will lead to an inflated budget, a collapse of the funding limit, etc. This is how it will all turn out!

You need to think about the consequences before declaring anything. And when the regulator says this, he must understand that by doing so the agency takes full responsibility for spending public funds on capital investments.

And here you can’t attribute anything to the contractor! Really, what are the complaints against him? Please, here is the city code, here are state estimates and standards. And the contractor must build according to these prices, which fix the specific technology of work. This is the price for these resources, the contractor will say, so money is on the table, and that’s all there is to it!

— Do you think the leadership of the Ministry of Construction has not calculated all the consequences of its proposals?

“Either it didn’t calculate or, perhaps, on the contrary, it did—and that’s why he’s been talking about it for two years now, but hasn’t actually switched to the resource method. There's a lot to think about here.

The conversation was conducted by Andrey CHERNAKOV

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Expert Directorate of the President of Russia, the Control Directorate of the President of Russia, the Russian Union of Builders, the Office of the Accounts Chamber of Russia, the Ministry of Energy of Russia, the Main State Expertise of Russia, PJSC ALROSA, JSC StroyTransNefteGaz, LLC Stroygazmontazh, the Russian Union of Builders, the Union estimating engineers, Transstroymekhanizatsiya LLC, Transneft PJSC, Russian Railways JSC, Rosasfalt Association, DSK Avtoban, Inter RAO LLC - more than 40 participants in total.

The following agenda items were put up for discussion:
1. On the consideration of regulations and methodological documents developed by the Ministry of Construction as part of improving the pricing system for design and construction.
2. On the methodology for determining estimated prices for labor costs, for the operation of machines, for materials and equipment and prices for services for the transportation of goods for construction.
3. Issues of developing NCS for industrial construction projects.
4. Updating and supplementing state estimate standards.
5. Harmonization of the FSNB-2017 and industry estimate standards.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Russia Khamit Mavliyarov.

Opening the meeting, Khamit Mavliyarov outlined the position of the Ministry of Construction on the timing of the start of implementation of the resource pricing model in construction on budget financing projects: “... it is proposed to discuss the deadline - September 1, 2018, so that all participants in the budget and investment and construction process are ready. The Russian Ministry of Construction has no desire to specifically speed up this process, since we need to work out all the methods, and most importantly, launch the placement of reliable price information in the Federal State System “Pricing in Construction” FSIS CA. Considering how the system is being filled in the first quarter of next year, when calculating the weighted average prices of material producers, we will have to use methods of comparative analysis and indexing for homogeneous groups of resources. In the future, we need to achieve a 100% guarantee that prices correspond to market realities. I ask you to speak out on this issue and support our position.

At the last meeting, we decided to create several Working Groups - in particular, on the methodology for determining estimated prices for labor costs, for the operation of machines, for materials and equipment, and prices for services for the transportation of goods for construction. I ask the group leaders to report on the process of their formation and the timing of submitting proposals on relevant methods to the Ministry of Construction.

In general, we want to build a process for improving the pricing system in close cooperation with the professional community, large companies working on budget construction projects, and state corporations that fall within the scope of the adopted legislation in the field of pricing and estimate regulation.

The transition to a resource model is aimed at increasing the reliability and “transparency” of the estimated cost of budget financing. We are not going to somehow interfere and regulate relations in the extra-budgetary sphere. There, all this should be regulated by negotiated prices and contracts.

Based on the results of our work in the first half of 2017, we must go to the Government with a proposal to adopt a regulatory act, and maybe a legislative decision on the transition to a resource model. By this deadline, all methodological documents must be completed. If there is a need, it is possible to cancel some of the already adopted methods and introduce them taking into account processing....”

The following speakers made presentations at the meeting:
Olga Garashchenko - deputy. Chairman of the RCC Committee on Pricing in Construction
Pavel Goryachkin - President of the Union of Estimating Engineers
Elena Poll - Director of the Department for Expertise of Tender Documentation and Formation of Contract Prices of StroyTransNefteGaz JSC

In his speech, the President of the Union of Estimating Engineers Pavel Goryachkin announced the formation of a Working Group on the methodology for determining estimated prices for the operation of machines and mechanisms, its work plan and the timing of submitting proposals to the Ministry of Construction.

List of issues proposed for discussion at the Working Group meeting:
- On the need to revise (amend) the Methodology for determining estimated prices for the operation of machinery and mechanisms (Approved by order of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation dated December 20, 2016 N 999/pr).
- On adjusting standard cost indicators for all types of repairs, maintenance, and machine diagnostics.
- On adjusting the average annual operating conditions of machines and mechanisms.
- On taking into account the specifics of developing estimated prices for the operation of foreign-made machines and mechanisms.
- On the accounting of mechanized tools as part of the State estimate standards.
- On adjusting the methodology for calculating the weighted average replacement cost of machines, etc.

Pavel Goryachkin supported the proposal of Deputy Minister of Construction Kh. Mavliyarov to postpone the start of implementation of the resource pricing model in construction to September 2018 and proposed to set the date from September 30.

In this case, we should only talk about new construction projects (beginning with design) and competitive procedures (government procurement in the construction sector), according to which the initial (maximum) price of contracts will be formed on the basis of new design and estimate documentation.

The speaker noted that when transitioning to a resource model, it is necessary to eliminate the need to recalculate estimate documentation, carryover balances of the estimated cost according to the resource model in terms of already concluded and executing contracts for design and development work, construction, reconstruction, major repairs, etc. For the period until September 2018, based on the results of price monitoring for the fourth quarter of 2017 (the deadline for publishing prices in the FSIS CS is February 25, 2018), price monitoring in the first and third quarters of 2018, work out and eliminate identified shortcomings and errors in the collection and processing technology and presentation of data on current estimated prices of construction resources, including on individual pilot projects and models. And based on the results, submit a proposal to the Russian Government to adopt the appropriate regulatory act on the transition to the resource-based method of pricing in construction.

Regarding the issues of improving FSIS CS and pricing methodology, the speaker made a number of proposals, in particular:
- According to the Regulations on the FSIS CA and price monitoring, "... among the persons providing information on prices are legal entities and their separate divisions engaged in the production of building materials, machinery and mechanisms included in the Classifier of Construction Resources, the revenue of which is the previous calendar year is at least 10 million rubles...". The indicated annual revenue is too small! This may lead to the fact that the FSIS CS may include dubious manufacturers who do not ensure the proper quality of building materials. We propose to set an annual revenue threshold of at least 100 million rubles.

When registering manufacturers, it is necessary to introduce a requirement to indicate not only the legal address, but also the addresses of the location of production facilities, warehouses of finished products, supply bases and access railway tracks (if any). If you carefully analyze the location of manufacturers (suppliers) in Yandex maps of the FSIS CA System, you can see that many (not all, but many) of them are indicated either by legal address, or by the address of the administration (management), and not production (warehouses) ).

It is necessary to introduce compliance between the codes of the Classifier of Construction Resources KSR-2016 (order dated 03/02/2017 No. 597/pr) and the Classifier according to order dated September 29, 2017 No. 1400/pr. In the new version of the Classifier, not only new resources have been added, but many names and codes of individual sections and groups, the resources themselves and units of measurement have been changed. Many positions in groups now start with -1001 rather than -0001. In fact, the previous edition of the DAC (order dated March 2, 2017 No. 597/pr) is almost impossible to use. In addition, GESN and FER as amended in 2017 (orders No. 1038/pr and 1039/pr dated December 30, 2016) were formed on the basis of the DAC-2016.

When working with FSIS CA data, it is necessary to eliminate the situation when, if a specific material resource is not produced in the region, then you should look for a manufacturer in other regions, that is, “wander” through the FSIS CA in search of him.

For a solution, it is proposed: to include in the FSIS the CA and large regional suppliers (dealers, sales offices, etc.) who provide supply, packaging, intermediate storage of materials and equipment and work directly with manufacturers. It is noted that large suppliers are often able to provide supplies of resources at prices even lower than the current selling prices of the manufacturer itself.

In addition, the FSIS CS for all regions of the Russian Federation must present (in the context of each region) estimated prices for the entire range of resources, regardless of whether this resource is imported from another territory or local material. To do this, it is proposed to establish a rule according to which the price in the region (subject of the Russian Federation) is understood as the price for the city - the administrative center of the region on the terms of ex-vehicle for the local manufacturer, and for imported materials - ex-station (pier, port, airport) of destination or a free vehicle at the point of cargo transfer on the territory of the administrative center. In this case, the estimated (selling) price in the FSIS CS for imported materials will always take into account their delivery to the administrative center, and provide for the subsequent calculation of the transport component only for intra-city (regional, district) transportation.

For example, in the city - the administrative center of region "A" there is no manufacturer of thermal insulation materials. The manufacturer is located in another region "B". In this case, for region “B”, the estimated (selling) price of a free vehicle at the manufacturer’s warehouse of finished products is published in the FSIS CS, and for region “A” - the price with delivery to the region by type of free transfer of cargo.

Pavel Goryachkin also proposed other methodological approaches to determining transport costs, including the need for simplified accounting of the so-called. "auxiliary" (other) materials and simplified calculation of transport at the "Project" stage.

On the other hand, for objects located in areas remote from regional centers and established logistics routes and schemes, on the contrary, more detailed approaches and methods for taking into account natural and climatic conditions, seasonal factors, the condition and the very presence of roads and other routes for the delivery of construction materials are needed .

At the end of the speech, the speaker expressed the hope that with the joint constructive work of the Russian Ministry of Construction, specialists, the professional community, large construction organizations, ministries and departments, customers, etc. the ongoing pricing reform in construction will not be an object of constant criticism, but a real mechanism for optimizing the cost of construction and increasing its reliability for all participants.

The topic of forming estimated prices and calculating the transport component was also covered in the report of Elena Borisovna Poll - Director of the Department for Expertise of Tender Documentation and Formation of Contract Prices of StroyTransNefteGaz JSC and the message of Spartak Mikhailovich Startsev - Head of the Pricing Department of Transneft PJSC. In particular, the speaker pointed out that the accepted methods of the Ministry of Construction on these issues are absolutely not applicable in the conditions of construction of unique oil and gas complex facilities in conditions of their remoteness and, often, in the absence of paved roads.

Press service of the Union of Estimating Engineers