Will the people in “Druzhba“ 2 have heating at the beginning of the heating season, or will they not have it… Voyslav Todorov, municipal councilor from “Stand Up Bulgaria“, part of the “BSP FOR BULGARIA“ coalition, spoke to FACTI.
- Mr. Todorov, we are at the beginning of the heating season, but tension has been created with a major repair of the heat transmission network in “Druzhba“ 2. There is already a commission in the Sofia Municipality that is examining the case. There were also representatives of „Toplofikatsiya“. What did you learn and where are things going?
- The biggest question that never received a clear answer is why the repair had to happen during the heating season, and not in the summer. That way, people would have been spared the inconvenience of being left without heating and without hot water in the winter.
- And what did the company say...
- The answer from „Toplofikatsiya“ was that they did not have enough information about the breakdowns until the end of the heating season in April. After the heating season ended, they then realized how many breakdowns there were in „Druzhba“ 2 and that this necessitated the urgent repair of this network. The public procurement procedure is still ongoing. This is an absolutely untenable argument that they cannot make a report on where there are problems, and they realized this in April. Then in August they have launched a public procurement procedure, the repair will probably start in October and people will be without heat. These arguments are absolutely ridiculous. Now we are talking about a repair that will cause inconvenience to tens of thousands of subscribers - we are talking about 10-15,000 families that will be affected. They will have to invest additional funds in the purchase of boilers, radiators, air conditioners, etc. All things that “Toplofikatsiya“ has no intention of compensating for.
- That's what I was going to ask. What compensation will people have…
- “Toplofikatsiya“ said that the compensation they have the opportunity to do is for people not to pay for the service during the time they will not have heating. And this is natural and it is also written in the Regulation that they do not have the right to charge for the time during which they do not provide a service. This is more than a baseless argument. What can we say about people who are in a more severe social situation? situation. For them, this will be an extremely painful issue, which “Toplofikatsiya“ refuses to comment on. In my opinion, this repair could have been done during the summer months.
- Who from “Toplofikatsiya“ attended these meetings and gave answers…
- The company's Executive Director, Petar Petrov.
- How is he appointed?
- The Executive Director is elected by the “Toplofikatsiya“ Supervisory Board. Mr. Petrov was elected last year after the previous Executive Director resigned. “Toplofikatsiya“ is among the companies that have a completely unnecessary two-tier management system. The Municipal Council elects the “Toplofikatsiya“ Supervisory Board, in turn, elects the Management Board and Executive Director. Here, of course, the big question is how and who continues to manage “Toplofikatsiya“, because the chairman of the Supervision for many years has been Sasho Chakalski, who is the former head of the Municipal Bank. Chakalski has been the head of the Supervision since the time of Fandakova. He was never replaced. Now you can see the way in which “Toplofikatsiya“ is managed - vicious and rotten. This is also visible in their financial results. For this year, the projected losses of “Toplofikatsiya“ are 400 million leva, and for last year they were 100 million leva.
- We are talking about an extremely large increase in losses…
- Yes, that's right. The company's liabilities already exceed 2.5 billion leva and will grow at breakneck speed. Their liabilities to “Bulgargaz“ alone are 1.8 billion leva. “Toplofikatsiya“ is technically bankrupt. If the state - in the person of “Bulgargaz“ and BEH, decides to collect these liabilities, “Toplofikatsiya“ will close immediately. And another thing that is important to me. “Toplofikatsiya“ must necessarily provide a schedule for the repair activities. The executive director said that under good circumstances, each of the units should be deprived of heat supply for between 7 and 15 days. But he did not give any guarantee that this will be the case, that the time will not be extended considering the construction works. The least they should do is at least provide people with a schedule of when and for how long their heating will actually be turned off. That way, everyone can make some kind of calculation. For example, if someone has a second home, either with relatives or with parents, etc. Just so that people can plan what they do if things get stuck. If they decide that they will not show any flexibility, to do the repairs next year... They have such an opportunity.
- Mayor Vasil Terziev spoke about a concession for “Toplofikatsiya“. What an option this is…
- The fiasco with the still unstarted repairs in Druzhba gave rise to talk again about concessioning the company. This is not a solution. It will not lead to replacing the network, nor to fair billing. On the contrary, if we look at the examples of the ERPs or Sofia Water, the network will continue to be old and compromised, but the price will become unbearable for people.