FAS will have its own user account at the portal for the State Information System of the Housing and Utility Services

On 3 March 2016, Deputy Minister for Communications of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Evraev, discussed this and other opportunities at a workshop of the Antimonopoly Service on “Exercising powers in government regulation of prices (tariffs) for goods and services”. The workshop was organized by FAS for the staff of its regional Offices, representatives of executive bodies from the constituent territories of the Russian Federation and the Regional Energy Commissions (REC).

The State Information System for the Housing and Utility Services – GIS ZhKHk (dom.gosuslugi.ru) was devised by the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Construction and members of the State Duma.

“Its objective is to make the housing & utilities sector more open for public control, which is possible only when information is available: it is a standard formula”, pointed out Mikhail Evraev and reminded of a positive example of the public procurement portal (zakupki.gov.ru).

GIS ZhKHk is an essential project. “The way it is designed there is no need to send any enquiries, one can simply get in the site and see online everything what’s happening in the housing & utilities sector”. Also on 1 January 2017 the norm comes into force that gives members of general public a legitimate right not to pay for the housing & utilities services if the relevant information about the charges is not available on the portal. “No information – no money”, emphasized Deputy Minister. “Such economic incentive is the only thing that truly works in Russia”.

The system operator is “Russian Post” but “it does not mean any monopolization: all banks shall have equal access to the system”, stated Mikhail Evraev.

“We are not going to destroy anything in those regions that already have their own information systems, we shall integrate. In the regions where no such systems exist, there is no need to create anything: we shall provide all analytics and will adjust the systems to the interests of all subjects”, continued Deputy Minister.

Apart from submitting meter readings and paying for housing & utilities services the portal may be used to file a petition to the authorities, managing companies, resource suppliers; obtain information about revenues and expenses of homeowners associations, the ranking of managing companies, or chat in a forum with your neighbours, etc. Today more than 36,600 organizations, including FAS, are registered with GIS ZhKHk.

The Antimonopoly Service must publish information in GIS ZhKHk about suppliers of the resources for utility services and cases on holding such suppliers administratively liable.

It is being considered what kind of analytics and possibilities are required for FAS and the regional tariff regulation bodies in GIS ZhKHk.

“GIS ZhKHk is a socially important product that is already in operation. So far residents can’t see their apartments but it will be resolved in a couple of months when the system is integrated with Rosregister”, summed up Deputy Minister for Communications of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Evraev.