National project "Available Crook"

The Ural Presidential Envoy is looking for those responsible for the misuse of social spending from the state budget

Officials in six Russian regions have had their calendar rewritten: now the main date for them in the coming weeks is not the holiday night from December 31 to January 1, but January 15 of next year. It's all about the unexpected activity of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Ural Federal District, Pyotr Latyshev, who at the end of the year discovered misappropriation of funds in all sponsored territories.

Mr. Latyshev announced changes to the work schedule of civil servants the day before during a meeting in Chelyabinsk. A standard event with reports on the work done over the year to implement priority national projects quickly turned into a tough debriefing. It all started with a speech by the head of the Chelyabinsk Regional Ministry of Health, Viktor Shepelev, whom the plenipotentiary interrupted mid-sentence and demanded to account for the ineffective use of hospital beds. Then the same official received a scolding for the high mortality rate of the working-age population. Pyotr Latyshev did not stop: new criticism was addressed to the Chelyabinsk Minister of Education Vladimir Sadyrin. He began to talk about successes in 2006, but quickly received reproach for expanding the staff of administrative workers: regional school directors sometimes have six deputies, on whom a fair share of the teachers’ salary fund is spent.

Summing up the meeting, Mr. Latyshev several times recalled the personal responsibility of each official for his work and the need for a critical approach to his activities. But the main idea was voiced by the plenipotentiary in the finale - to find those responsible for “ineffective spending of budget funds” before January. “In January I would like to receive specific information about who was punished,” Pyotr Latyshev told the assembled officials. Chelyabinsk Governor Pyotr Sumin had no choice but to say: “Has everyone understood? Work!”

Now the plenipotentiary representative is expected in the remaining Ural regions: by the end of the year he plans to meet with officials of the remaining five subjects of the federation. In Mr. Latyshev’s office they say that the boss plans to repeat there what he said in Chelyabinsk. The reason for such sharp anger from the presidential representative is also explained. It turns out that in October an audit was carried out on the use by regional authorities of federal funds allocated for the implementation of national projects. It turned out that in each region significant amounts were spent on completely different purposes. In the Kurgan region, the volume of inappropriate spending reached 500 million rubles, in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - 1.2 billion. Pyotr Latyshev brought the results of the audit to the attention of Vladimir Putin, and was tasked with understanding the reasons and finding the culprits.

The plenipotentiary intends to do this as soon as possible. In Chelyabinsk, Mr. Latyshev named a specific date - January 15, 2007. Approximately on this day, a meeting of the district council, which includes all governors, will be held at the residence of the presidential representative. The civil servant will ask them where the money went, who was punished for it, and whether everything has been done to prevent misuse from happening again. “There is a lot to be done, but nothing - they managed to get the money, now let them fight with themselves. Even if they won’t be able to celebrate the New Year as planned,” the embassy says. At the same time, employees of the plenipotentiary’s office assure that Pyotr Latyshev is determined and is ready to transfer the results of his own investigations to the prosecutor’s office, despite the positions and rank of officials.

Mikhail VIUGIN