Apartment for the prosecutor

The deputies agreed not to save on the Prosecutor General’s Office yesterday in the State Duma a new stage in the preparation of the draft budget for 2007 for the second reading began. From the level of the budget subcommittee, the discussion of the document moved to the meeting of the budget committee. The deputies decided not yet to analyze the amendments approved in the previous two days, aimed at reducing expenses for some sections of the budget, and immediately began the distribution of the released (so far, though only virtually) funds.

The need to additionally allocate 2.6 billion rubles to increase the circulation of the "Russian newspaper" did not cause any doubt among the parliamentarians. But the deputies did not like additional expenses of 324.6 million rubles according to the “Housing and Communal Service” section. The fact is that most of them (323.4 million rubles) were supposed to be directed to the construction of housing for prosecutors in the regions. Recall: the other day, the budget subcommittee has already denied the Prosecutor General’s Office to allocate 176.6 million rubles under the section “National Security and Law enforcement”, which were planned to be spent on about the same purposes.

Yesterday, parliamentarians changed their attitude to prosecutors. The chairman of the budget committee Yuri Vasiliev explained to the deputies that the Prosecutor General’s Office has been asking for this money for several years, but for the first time submitted all the documentation necessary for such a decision. According to him, if new prosecutors who come to the regions are not able to get housing, this will only spur corruption. As a result, the amendment aimed at solving the housing issue of the Prosecutor General’s Office was approved.

The deputies remain the remaining from the "housing" increase of 1.2 million rubles to be directed for additional financing of Sochi - apparently, in connection with the preparation of housing and communal services of the city for the 2014 Olympics.

300 million rubles were replenished with the Social Policy section. The Budget Committee agreed to provide 100 million rubles to finance public organizations, such as the school of training of dog -breeding dogs, and another 200 million rubles to finance social services for the population. True, this money will be allocated only on condition that the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy, which initiated this amendment, will present a clear estimate of the use of funds in this part.

Already today, the Budget Committee will continue its work on the draft budget-2007. Yesterday it was discussed not only in the State Duma, but also in the Federation Council at the expanded meeting of the Federation Council Committee on the Federation Affairs and Regional Policy. In general, senators like the document, since, in their opinion, it has become "more socially oriented." Nevertheless, from the point of view of the intergovernmental relations of regional representatives, in the future, not all suits the budget. So, according to the chairman of the Federation Council of the Federation and regional policy of Rafgat Altynbaev, against the backdrop of the balance of the budget-2007 draft, there is a serious shortage of regional budgets. "There is a centralization of budget revenues. There are no incentives for the independent socio -economic development of the regions," he said. As a result, senators recommended that the government foresee the financial assistance to the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in connection with the growth of their expenditure obligations and the need to implement the reform of local self -government. True, for this, deputies must first find hidden sources of financing in the budget draft.

05.10.2006 / Galina Lyashenko, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 182 dated 06.10.2006.