UOBAO authorities do not want to share the federal transfer with the Angara region

On Wednesday, at a session of the Legislative Assembly of the Angara region, deputies rejected the second agreement on the division of financial powers between the Irkutsk region and the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug. Yesterday, the chairman of the budget committee of the Legislative Assembly, Gennady Istomin, said that, despite the positive recommendations of the government, the deputies were forced to do this, since the agreements contradict each other and cannot exist simultaneously. The Ust-Orda side intends to find other legal ways to receive financial assistance from the federal center bypassing the region.

Until 2004, all “matryoshka” subjects of the federation (such as the Irkutsk region and UOBAO - Kommersant) received assistance from the federal budget and collected taxes separately. After changes in federal legislation, 24 spending powers from the autonomy were transferred to the region. Revenues from federal taxes collected in the district are credited to the regional budget. On December 6 last year, the leaders of the two subjects of the federation signed an agreement on the division of financial powers. The document assumed a return to the old scheme of separate financing. However, the AP did not ratify it. On January 24, a new agreement was signed, according to which the federal transfer is credited to the regional budget, and then within three days it is transferred to the district in the form of targeted subventions. The district authorities came under strict financial control by the region's main financial department (GFU). The UOBAO authorities decided to return to the separate financing scheme. On April 7, at a meeting of the budget committee of the Legislative Assembly, the deputy head of the district administration, Natalya Suborova, presented the deputies with an agreement dated December 6. However, representatives of the legal department of the Legislative Assembly stated that the document directly contradicts the already concluded agreement of January 24.
On the eve of the meeting of the recent session of the Legislative Assembly, the Ust-Orda side submitted to the budget committee of the regional parliament a letter from the government of the Russian Federation with a positive conclusion on the December agreement. However, the deputies at the session again rejected consideration of this agreement. Yesterday, after a press conference following the legislative session, Gennady Istomin showed this message to a Kommersant correspondent, signed by the director of the department of state administration and local self-government of the Russian government, Vsevolod Vuklov. According to the document, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation gave a positive conclusion to the agreement dated December 6. On its basis, a bill has already been prepared to amend the federal budget for 2005, which should return the separate transfer of federal transfers to the budgets of the district and region. Gennady Istomin informed government officials that the December agreement disavows the January agreement, which does not at all prevent the adoption of amendments to the federal budget.
Natalya Suborova told Kommersant that this outcome was expected. According to her, an unpleasant financial conflict has developed in the district: 24 expenditure powers are financed from the regional budget, another 17 from the district budget, but there are several expenditure items that did not go anywhere. In particular, this is financing of internal affairs bodies, veterinary supervision and sanatorium-resort treatment. For now, the autonomy is forced to find additional funds to support them. “The conclusion of the agreement on December 6 would allow us to amend the budget and solve these problems,” explained Ms. Suborova. However, yesterday Gennady Istomin said that amendments to the federal budget can only be made from July 1 and added that “if we had accepted the December agreement, then all the federal money (more than 1 billion rubles - Kommersant) for the district would have been stuck in the accounts Irkutsk Treasury until mid-summer.” According to Ms. Suborova, the autonomy authorities intend to look for other legal ways to achieve their goal, even if they have to bypass Irkutsk legislators.

DIMITRY ELOVSKY

Kommersant (Irkutsk) No. 72 from 04/22/2005

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