Collection from the service: The Accounting Chamber criticized the Russian Post for delaying pensions

Pensioners may be compensated for a delay in payments. The Accounting Chamber will make such a recommendation to the Ministry of Labor based on the results of the audit of the Russian Post (Izvestia studied the auditors' report). Unlike labor legislation, pension legislation does not provide for monetary compensation for late receipt of money, and cases of delays have been recorded repeatedly in recent years. In addition, the supervisory authority revealed that the Russian Post inefficiently uses the funds allocated to it for the modernization of branches, and also takes out too large loans, which should be limited. Izvestia found out what else is wrong with the work of the Russian Post and how to fix it.

How to get a pension in the Russian Post

The Accounting Chamber criticized the Russian Post in its report on the results of the company's activities in 2020 and early 2025. In particular, the auditors found that during this period, the organization repeatedly violated the deadlines for the delivery of pensions, which are set by the Social Fund. However, there are few such cases: for example, in 2024, the delivery of pensions was delayed 52 times by one or two days. According to the law, the Russian Post must deliver the pension no later than the next day after receiving the money from the local Social Fund.

The main prerequisite for the delay in payment is the possibility for Russian Post to extract income from the allocation of targeted funds, the control body believes.

In this regard, the Accounting Chamber in its report suggests that the government instruct the Ministry of Labor and the Social Fund to submit proposals to amend legislation in order to establish monetary compensation for pensioners for late payment of benefits. Currently, pension legislation in Russia, unlike labor legislation, does not provide for monetary compensation for late payment of such funds.

"Given the facts of violations of the deadlines for the delivery of pensions and benefits in 2021-2024, the introduction of a compensation mechanism for late delivery of pensions and benefits will help to increase the responsibility of Russian Post in terms of meeting delivery deadlines," the Joint Venture report says.

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The increase to the insurance pension from 2026 will be calculated in February and April.

Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Labor and the Social Fund, as well as to the Russian Post. However, the risks associated with delays in receiving pensions through the mail are often of a technical nature, emphasizes Associate professor of the Faculty of Economics of the RUDN University, Candidate of Economics Andrey Girinsky. But it is still necessary to protect pensioners.

— The percentage of compensation can be calculated in various ways, including in a certain proportion of the monthly payment amount, — the expert suggested.

According to him, compensation can be established both by the general rules of service and by individual parameters for a specific client, if such an opportunity is provided. Andrey Girinsky does not rule out going to court in a controversial situation.

What other problems did the Accounting Chamber identify in the work of the Russian Post?

The delay in the payment of pensions is not the only problem that the Accounting Chamber has identified following the audit. For example, the Russian Post inefficiently uses the funds allocated from the budget for the modernization of branches. In recent years, 17 billion rubles have been allocated for the repair and maintenance of 3.3 thousand facilities in remote and rural areas. However, as a result, only 723 facilities were upgraded in 2022-2023, the auditors estimated. This creates risks of non-fulfillment of the president's instructions to upgrade at least 25,000 facilities by 2030.

Before that, in June 2024, Russian Post had already been fined 100 million rubles for delays in repairing branches.

In addition, the joint venture revealed that the Russian Post does not use about 2 thousand property facilities to make a profit, and a number of facilities are not fully loaded. For example, the loading of the Paveletsky railway post office with an area of 23.6 thousand square meters was no more than 15%. In addition, there is organized manual sorting of mail during transshipment between railway and motor transport.

Due to staff shortages, unprofitability and lack of premises, the number of post offices operating in a reduced mode has doubled over the period 2020-2023, and the number of mailboxes installed outside communication offices has more than doubled, the report says. And at the beginning of last year, every sixth branch (more than 6 thousand) was temporarily closed. As a result, this affects people who find it more difficult to get postal services.

The audit of the Accounts Chamber also revealed that Russian Post is attracting borrowed funds without conducting an appropriate economic assessment, and the borrowing limit has not been set. In this regard, the auditors propose to develop a draft strategy for the development of postal communications until 2030, where to set for Russian Post a debt limit and a limit value for Net debt / EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

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According to the accounting statements, the net loss of Russian Post in 2024 amounted to 20.6 billion rubles, the partner of the Pen bar association recalled. & Paper by Sergey Uchitel. This is almost three times more than in 2023 (7.2 billion rubles). At the same time, the interest payable on loans in 2024 increased to 16.7 billion rubles.

— Russian Post is one of the most inefficient state—owned enterprises. It has long been associated with sluggishness, bureaucracy and poor quality of services," said Sergey Uchitel.

According to him, the ambitions of the company itself and each of its next managers to create a "new face" of Russian Post and modernize it are costing the budget more and more every year and are turning into criminal cases against bosses at various levels. On the other hand, it is impossible to get rid of post offices, because they perform an important social function, in particular, in remote and hard-to-reach territories. At the same time, the demand for services is constantly decreasing, and it becomes even more difficult for companies to earn money in such conditions.

At the same time, no commercial bank is ready to provide such a borrower with financing on preferential terms, but, on the contrary, taking into account the economic situation and risks, lending to Russian Post may be on higher-market terms, noted Sergey Uchitel. And, according to the expert, setting limits on lending is not enough. It would be more efficient to privatize the company, but it has too many assets on its balance sheet, which makes this process difficult.