KUGI passes go and collects $200

KUGI (Committee of Government Property) has begun to audit the "Petersburg Telephone Network" (PTS) which is the continuation of a series of audits of the cities existing monopolies. The goal of the audit series is to check the work effectiveness of the c

<BR>KUGI (Committee of Government Property) has begun to audit the "Petersburg Telephone Network" (PTS) which is the continuation of a series of audits of the cities existing monopolies. The goal of the audit series is to check the work effectiveness of the companies and the grounding of their rates. According to KUGI press secretary, Galina Uzdina, conclusions have already been reached in four audits of the series: Lengaz, TEK, Vodocanal, and Lenenergo. The head of the economic methods department at PTS Yuri Lev commented that he doesn't understand "the notion of 'excessive rates'. We offer a whole bunch of services but the most basic of these (providing telephone connections to private apartments) for us is a profit loss". According to Delovoj Peterburg, the prime cost of basic services total approximately 33,000 rubles per month and including the VAT approximately 40,000 rubles. However the rate for a telephone connection is 28,000 rubles per month. The KUGI ordered audits of all monopolies are being handled by two auditing companies: Marketing-Consulting-Design (MKD), and Business-Fund Qualitet, which were chosen "by the reputation method".