Two negatives make an affirmative

Moscow authorities are again faced with an “unexpected” budget surplus

The capital's financiers consistently demonstrate their inability to correctly predict the income of the city treasury. Yesterday, at a meeting of the city government, where the results of 2007 were summed up, even deputies of the Moscow City Duma from United Russia were forced to admit the validity of the statements of the oppositionists accusing the mayor's office of artificially inflating the budget deficit on paper. In reality, at the end of the year, the capital’s treasury has been in the black for several years now. In particular, based on the results of nine months of 2007, it was clear that the excess of income over expenses amounted to 124.2 billion rubles. with a planned deficit of 95.8 billion rubles. All this, as the chairman of the budget and financial commission of the Moscow City Duma, United Russia member Igor Antonov, admitted, leads to “irregularity” in the disbursement of treasury funds. “We have not been able to get rid of storming and rush jobs when implementing city programs,” he said.

Let us recall that the leader of the Yabloko-United Democrats faction, Sergei Mitrokhin, also drew attention to the habit of officials of underestimating income in order to then secretly distribute extra-budgetary funds for various investment programs. When discussing the nearly trillion-dollar 2008 budget proposed by the mayor's office this fall, he called on officials to significantly cut targeted investment programs, transferring funds to social spending. Money for investment programs will still be found closer to the end of the year, Mr. Mitrokhin argued. Representatives of the ruling party in the Moscow City Duma partially agreed with his proposals, and yesterday it became clear why - the volume of “super income” really allows the city government to painlessly allocate significant funds to the necessary areas. True, here another problem arises - their effective development.

According to Igor Antonov’s calculations, Moscow budget revenues over the past three years have increased from 440 billion rubles. to more than 970 billion rubles, but officials systematically do not have time to spend the funds in portions. Thus, in 2005, the second half of the financial year accounted for 33.7% of the total amount of budget expenditures, in 2006 - already 40.3%. In 2007, over the past few months, almost half of all funds were spent - 45.3%, or 444.5 billion rubles. The deputy noted the “growing trend of irrationality of expenses coupled with dynamic growth of income”: more than half of the volume of targeted investment programs had to be implemented in the fourth quarter of 2007. As a result, Mr. Antonov claims, the city fell behind in the implementation of the program for training qualified personnel, and it was not possible to achieve the planned result on some social projects. “Only 15% of families have improved their living conditions compared to what was planned,” the deputy complained. True, as befits a representative of the party in power, he immediately assured that the unspent funds “have been placed on deposit in banks and in any case will ensure the implementation of city programs.”

The mayor's office explains the practice of uneven use of budget funds by the supposedly unusually large size of the treasury for officials. “The large amount of funds leads to the fact that we work in a more expensive way,” Yuri Roslyak, first deputy mayor, head of the complex of economic policy and city development, confirmed the wastefulness of his subordinates. He promised that from 2008, financiers will be guided by the principle “not maximum utilization of budget funds, but maximum results.”

The mayor of the city, Yuri Luzhkov, also tried to convince the deputies that his team was a victim of the “big budget syndrome.” “We have worked satisfactorily in implementing the city’s programs,” he assessed the work of his subordinates, noting “a certain relaxation” in budget execution. “I am making a demand to save city money, to ensure greater investment of brains in its distribution,” said Mr. Luzhkov, addressing, in particular, the head of the city’s construction complex, Vladimir Resin. - This is a reproach to you for not being able to ensure a uniform construction process. Previously, there was a serious breakdown by quarter - 25% were done evenly. Now a large number of objects are concentrated at the end of the year, there is an emergency, unusable atmosphere.” The mayor expressed the hope that the city services “Moscontractcontrol” and “Mosinvestcontrol”, created this year, designed, among other things, to control treasury expenses, “will strengthen this direction.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO