At the end of May, Vladimir Golovnev, the Moscow Region Ombudsman, received an appeal from the founder and CEO of the Limited Liability Company with a complaint about being brought to administrative responsibility for violating the procedure for maintaining a waste cadastre in the Moscow Region.

An organization that sells industrial oils and greases through an online store is included in the register of small and medium-sized enterprises and has the status of a "micro-enterprise". There are no industrial, warehouse or office premises on the balance sheet. Document circulation is carried out in electronic form using telecommunication channels. Therefore, as a result of the Company's economic activity, production and consumption wastes are not generated.

At the same time, as follows from the appeal, according to the results of an audit by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources Management of the Moscow Region, in connection with the failure to provide information used to maintain a cadastre of waste in the Moscow Region, the department of state environmental control of the Ministry drew up a protocol on an administrative offense to the entity. 

“I contacted the inspector, who explained  that I had violated the law, and a fine would be imposed in accordance with Part 1 and 2 of Art. 9.2 of the Administrative Code of the Moscow Region in the amount of 100,000 to 200,000 rubles. For our organization, the fine is prohibitive. The company's profit for the last year amounted to 147,053 rubles. With such a fine, the organization will remain without profit at the end of 2021", the entrepreneur wrote in his appeal.

It is worth explaining that the offense  was committed by the Company for the first time, and failure to provide information to the waste cadastre could not harm the environment.

In accordance with Art. 4.1.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation to legal entities that are subjects of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as their employees for the first time committed an administrative offense revealed in the course of state control (supervision), municipal control, in cases where the appointment of an administrative penalty in the form of a warning is not provided  by the corresponding article of the law , an administrative penalty in the form of an administrative fine must be replaced by a warning.

In this connection, the Commissioner applied to the Ministry of Ecology and Nature Management of the Moscow Region with a request for the possibility of assigning an administrative punishment in the form of a warning for the organization. The department made advance to entrepreneur and, despite the fact that the Company was found guilty of committing an offense, the fine will not be collected.

“It is very important in such situations not to let the entrepreneur give up. The organization is small, there is no staff of lawyers who understand all the intricacies of the legislation. The businessman considered that there is no waste - it is not required to provide information. But this is not the case. In this case, we managed to defend the interests of the businessman and replace the fine with a warning. At the same time, one should not forget that ignorance of the law does not exempt one from responsibility. There are 37 public receptions in the Moscow Region, where you can consult at any time on any issues related to doing business. If you have any doubts - contact us, and my colleagues will always help you. I sincerely hope that such stories will be the exception rather than the rule", commented the Moscow Region Business Ombudsman Vladimir Golovnev.