Excuse me!

In the Amur region, heads of rural settlements renounce power

A crisis of power occurred in the Belogorsk district of the Amur region. The heads of administrations of rural settlements are submitting their resignations one after another. Two leaders have already resigned voluntarily. Two more village chiefs lost their posts on the proposal of the district prosecutor's office.

As the head of the Belogorsky district administration, Alexander Voronkov, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent, the leadership of four other settlements is close to the same decision. Village heads, according to him, are simply forced to resign: otherwise the prosecutor's office will initiate criminal cases against them for numerous cases of failure to fulfill official duties.

The first in the Belogorsk region to resign was the head of the administration of the small village of Uspenovka, Viktor Krivtsov. Mr. Krivtsov worked in this position for 14 years. “I resigned from my post only because of Law 131 (on the basic principles of local self-government. - Ed. ),” says the ex-head of Uspenivka. - The powers that I received after this document came into force are completely unsupported by funding. “I fundamentally disagree with most of the provisions of this crude and undeveloped law.” Uspenovka is a small village where almost 70% of the residents are pensioners. In recent years, the village administration has supported rural improvement, housing and communal services and the social sphere through subsidies from the district center. After the redistribution of powers, all responsibility for these areas fell on the shoulders of Viktor Krivtsov. However, according to the new law, no additional funding is provided for the implementation of the new powers that have fallen on the heads of the heads of administration.

As a result, the stokers of the Uspenov boiler house spent three months without pay, and the district prosecutor's office opened an administrative case against Viktor Krivtsov. It is obvious that even after this there was no money in the rural treasury to pay salaries. And Mr. Krivtsov himself, without waiting for a case to be brought against him within the framework of the Criminal Code, voluntarily resigned. His successor lasted in power for only two weeks after the elections and also followed the example of the former head of Uspenovka. As the head of the rural municipal election commission, Lyudmila Pshennik, said, the election marathon in the small village has not stopped for six months. Residents refuse to go to the polls, and candidates for the post of head have to be persuaded to take part in the struggle for power.

The head of the village of Svetilovka, neighboring Uspenovka, Viktor Sovgir, was also punished for non-payment of wages to employees of the public utilities sector. “Nobody wrote a complaint,” says Mr. Sovgir. - The prosecutor's office itself, by way of supervision, sued us, and we were convicted. The judges themselves didn’t know what to do with us. But there is a law, and they fulfilled their law.” According to the head of the department for information and analytical work of the administration of the Belogorsky district, Olga Kapshtyk, the court decided to disqualify the head of the municipal formation “Svetilovsky Village Council” for a year. Viktor Sovgir filed an appeal and is currently ruling, awaiting the next trial. Calculates that the next decision will be in his favor.

According to the prosecutor of the Belogorsky district, Alexander Prokhorov, the local authorities of most municipalities simply do not know how to work, and the lack of management skills is covered up by talking about the impossibility of implementing Federal Law 131. The position of the prosecutor's office is quite tough. Although not a single case has yet been brought against insolvent village leaders in the Amur Region, if the budget deficits of municipalities are not brought to the parameters approved by law, the heads of local authorities cannot avoid criminal liability.

Local authorities are required to ensure that the budget deficit does not exceed 10% of the total budget. According to the head of the administration of the Belogorsk district, Alexander Voronkov, even the regional center, the city of Belogorsk, does not meet this indicator, not to mention small rural settlements. In the Belogorsk region there are only three settlements where, within the framework of the new law on local self-government, it was possible to create deficit-free budgets - Vozzhaevka, Nikolskoye and Tomichi. Their situation is improved by the income tax paid to the local treasury by the numerous military personnel stationed in these municipalities. For those heads who are unable to find funds in the near future to pay off wage debts to their public sector employees, the district prosecutor’s office threatens them with the most stringent measures, including prison terms and confiscation of property. After such statements, petitions for the resignation of the heads of four more villages appeared on Mr. Voronkov’s desk: Prigorodny, Kustanaevka, Knyazevka and Nekrasovka. And this is far from the limit, according to the district administration.

Ilya SERGEEV, Amur region