Moscow funeral agents spend over one billion rubles a year on bribes for info on dead people - expert
MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax) - Funeral agents pay officials bribes worth over one billion rubles annually for information on people's deaths, Alexei Suloyev, vice-president of the Russian Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoriums, said.
"In Moscow alone, over one billion rubles worth of bribes are paid to officials who have access to information on deaths. There are currently 14 positions of people who have access to such information - these are ambulance doctors, district police officers, ambulance and firefighting services," Suloyev told a press conference at the Interfax central office on Tuesday.
He specified that funeral agents pay bribes amounting to 15,000-20,000 rubles for information on deaths and that the money is later included in the funeral services bill.
Suloyev said the funeral services turnover is officially estimated at 10 billion rubles a year in Moscow and 47 billion rubles in Russia. "The unofficial data on Russia is various; experts estimate it at some 200 billion rubles. No one can calculate it precisely when 80% of the business is in the shadows," he said.
Suloyev said the real prices for some funeral services are overestimated by 300-400%.