Translated material
Hit below the pager
"United Russia" decided to count the money in other people's pockets
“United Russia” has decided to control who gets paid and how much in the Sverdlovsk region, but party members still prefer to remain silent about their income. Local United Russia members set themselves the goal of sending salaries in envelopes, acquired their own pager and invited all residents of the region to report delayed salaries, meager salaries and “black” accounting.United Russia members called their action directly and without embellishment: “Honest pay for decent work.” As explained in the executive committee of the regional branch of the party in power, the initiative did not arise by chance - in December 2006, a United Russia congress was held in Yekaterinburg, at which party members throughout the country were tasked with bringing the average monthly salary in Russia to 25 thousand rubles by 2010.
Four months later, Sverdlovsk activists of the party in power were ready to fight to solve this problem. According to the deputy of the regional Duma from the party in power, Nail Shaimardanov, wages in the region are growing at a faster pace. “This year the region’s budget includes a 30% increase in salaries,” he explained. At the same time, the party emphasizes that such growth became possible precisely because Governor Eduard Rossel and Chairman of the regional government Alexei Vorobyov are members of the party, and United Russia has a majority in the regional parliament.
According to the logic of party members, the planned increase in wages in the public sector will automatically increase wages in other sectors, but no one can guarantee the result. Therefore, simultaneously with the increase in salaries, United Russia members decided to declare war on salaries in envelopes.
Of course, executive authorities have been fighting this evil for many years, but have not yet won any serious victories. At the request of the government, lists of enterprises with debts on salaries and contributions to the Pension Fund are published in the official publication of the governor. But this measure did not produce results; moreover, it cast a shadow on well-known regional structures - in particular, enterprises belonging to the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church appear on the lists of debtors.
The head of the regional department of the Russian Pension Fund, Sergei Dubinkin, calculated that due to salaries in envelopes, the state receives less than 70% of taxes. “If in the Sverdlovsk region at the end of 2006 the official average salary was 14 thousand rubles, then according to reverse calculation, based on the payment of the unified social tax, revenues to the Pension Fund, the average salary in the region is only 5 thousand 628 rubles. , the rest is in the shadows,” he says.
Now they decided to go from the other side - they put a pager into operation. The first messages were not long in coming. One of the first to complain was a man who identified himself as Zufar and said: “The construction organization Domostroy LLC has not given money to painting teams since December 2006. They gave it out in envelopes. I told them: “Why are you giving it out in envelopes? We will not have a pension." After that they didn’t give out any money at all. The foreman was fired."
A media scandal followed. Employees of the Ural Resonance television agency accused their director Evgeny Gubko of issuing salaries without notification and delaying salaries. “He may give out less than he promised. In response to our requests to stop this practice, he threatens us with dismissal. We all voted for your party in the elections, so we ask you to intervene and help us,” the TV crew wrote to United Russia.
At this point the activity of the party members dried up. Now they only promise to collect all messages and transfer them to trade unions and the Pension Fund, where the collected data will be dealt with separately. A particularly active campaign did not work out for a number of reasons, and one of them was the lack of a clear personal example. Thus, United Russia members who have established themselves in politics so far refuse to discuss their salaries with residents of the region. In less than two years, they have already increased their salaries four times. The speaker of the regional Duma, Nikolai Voronin, told reporters that the question about the size of his new salary was unethical, and Governor Eduard Rossel (from July 1, his monthly salary will reach 228 thousand rubles), when asked by journalists about the deservedness of such a salary, answered: “I get three times less than you."