KUGI is striving to solve property dispute in the port of Saint Petersburg
Committee on management of government-owned property (KUGI) of Saint Petersburg undertook another attempt to speed up a solution as regards a legitimacy of an agreement related to the lease of berths by stevedoring company in the port of Saint Petersburg. Alexei Chikanov, deputy chairman of KUGI held a special meeting on August 9 at Smolny. The decision was taken to settle the date for Saint Petersburg branch of Rosmorport FSUE when the documents should be handed over to KUGI. That will enable to start in September independent evaluation of berths’ value on the grounds of which new lease agreements are to be concluded. In such a case stevedoring companies and Rosmorport will be able to apply to the Prosecutor’s office of Saint Petersburg for withdrawal of claims filed before the Arbitration.
Having come to a court
Municipal prosecutor’s office became interested in the situation with the lease of state property in the port of Saint Petersburg at the end of 2005. In prosecutors’ opinion the agreements on the lease of sea births concluded by Rosmorport FSUE with stevedoring companies violate the legislation having not been legalized in the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo). That aspect was enough for the prosecutor’s office to apply to court. The Arbitration Court of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region has from March 2006 accepted 13 of such claims. The hearings on the above claims are to start in the coming autumn.
If the court invalidates the above agreements the port activities may be destabilized. In order to avoid such a turn of events the following bodies have joined the process of solving the conflict: Ministry of Transport, Federal Agency of river and sea transport as well as Valentina Matviyenko, Governor of Saint Petersburg, who had raised the issue of lease relations in the port at one of the meetings of Sea Board under the Government of RF. As for the stevedoring companies, they also negotiate with the officials via the Association of Sea Trade Ports (ASOP).
KUGI is to solve the conflict
On the grounds of a decree No 156 issued by the Government of RF in March of the current year the issues related to lease of hydraulic engineering structures (HES) in sea ports are within competence of the Ministry of Economic Development the structure of which includes Posimushchestvo. This very Ministry is to approve a method for evaluation of government property in ports and to draw new legitimate agreements with lessees. Since the issue of leasing berths in the port of Saint Petersburg is the most urgent problem, the responsibility on settling the conflict was delegated by Rosimushchestvo to Saint Petersburg KUGI with a special letter.
Since the port’s berths are now under Rosmorport management, KUGI asked the specialists of this company to provide a number of reference documents. In particular, Saint Petersburg branch of Rosmorport FSUE should furnish the draft technical specifications on estimation of HES market value before September 15, 2006. It will be approved unless it contravenes basic principles of estimation adopted by KUGI. Then an independent estimator (Rosmorport recommends RMS-Otsenka company) may start its work in September. As Serik Zhusupov, ASOP’s executive director, noted in an interview with PortNews IAA “we have already come to a preliminary agreement that the evaluation should be based on the berths’ replacement cost value”. PortNews IAA has also received the confirmation of it at the Ministry of Transport of RF, which sent its recommendations on HES evaluation to the Ministry of Economic Development at the beginning of August.
As is known, any agreements of leasing government-owned property shall be concluded on the grounds of a competition. However, Decree No 156 allows the lease of berths without a competition by those stevedoring companies, which own the property indissolubly connected with the berth. Saint Petersburg KUGI asked Rosmorport to provide by August 21 the list of stevedoring companies enabled to conclude new lease agreements without any competition. Besides Rosmorport was also asked to divide the berths subjected for lease into lots by the same date.
A chance to agree
For the moment being nobody knows what are the new lease agreements to be like. According to Zhusupov, there is a preliminary agreement that minimal period of the lease of HES is to be 15 years. As for the existing agreements this period is 1 year maximum. ASOP thinks that indexation of agreement should be once a year maximum being based on inflation with a reduction factor of 0.8 or 09. The cost of renting will grow, without doubt. Different experts and market members make diverse forecasts as regards future rent payments. Those specialists who shared their forecasts with PortNews IAA think that berths’ rent price may grow by 10-20% or even by several times.
Nobody can also specify the terms for independent evaluation of the berths in Saint Petersburg port. Stevedoring companies note that the work to be done is great and it should take several months. Besides, At the same time, hope that the very fact of estimation may be considered by the prosecutor’s office of Saint Petersburg as a striving of the participants of port activities for adjusting lease agreements in accordance with the legislation. “In this case the prosecutor’s office will probably have a reason to take a decision on voluntary settlement”, Zhusupov thinks. At the same time some stevedoring companies fear that Rosmorport may fail to prepare all necessary documents requested by KUGI in time and the prosecutor’s office will have no ground to stop the proceeding. But ASOP’s executive director is sure that private companies will not have to take the work of Rosmorport as regards the development of basic documents including the draft procedure for evaluation of HES. “Rosmorport just needs an assistance in this work”, he said.