Translated material
Our dear man
Kaliningrad deputies are concerned about why the governor does not live on his salary
The head of the Kaliningrad region, Georgy Boos, decided to increase his salary - it had not been revised for three years and, as it turned out, turned out to be the smallest among his colleagues. However, some regional legislators have raised questions about the governor's income .A heated argument occurred during the first meeting of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma after the summer holidays. The head of the regional Ministry of Finance, Elena Matveeva, told deputies about how the budget was executed in the first half of the year. It turned out that it was not very good; many programs and simply expenditure items were not financed to the planned extent. The head of the parliamentary committee on law and order and security, Vladimir Nikitin (in the previous convocation of the regional Duma, he was its chairman) was worried about why the regional authorities are financed in such modest amounts.
“Why are government spending so low? To the regional Duma, to the governor? - asked Mr. Nikitin. Speaking about the highest official of the region, he said that from the documents presented it follows: only 18% of the plan was spent on maintaining the governor. “What will the voter say? He will think that officials don’t need money and they don’t live on salaries!” - said the former chairman of the regional Duma, apparently forgetting that voters are absent as a class in the current mechanism for bringing the head of a subject of the Russian Federation to the post. Minister Matveeva clarified: “The governor gives the salary to the orphanage. Twice a week he flies to Moscow and St. Petersburg at his own expense!”
This answer did not satisfy Mr. Nikitin: “But this is very ugly! Look how much he received in six months - 45 thousand (rubles - Ed. )! " Some deputies giggled (it must have been funny for those whom the regional prosecutor's office recently convicted of establishing commercial enterprises; one people's deputy is listed as a co-owner of almost 40 companies). “This is not funny! - Mr. Nikitin interrupted his colleagues and continued, sincerely, apparently, believing in what he was saying. “A civil servant must live on his salary!” "Why? - the minister was just as sincerely surprised. - Our governor is a fairly wealthy man. And he does not see the budget as a source of his income. You can receive income from a business by transferring shares and shares to trust management.”
First Deputy Speaker of the Regional Duma Konstantin Polyakov took the floor. According to him, there is no company in the region that could take over the trust management of a civil servant’s business. “After the prosecutor’s office appealed, we were just clarifying this issue,” said Mr. Polyakov. Nevertheless, Minister Matveeva and former Speaker Nikitin each remained with their own opinion. Later, a Vremya Novostei correspondent asked the head of the regional Ministry of Finance whether any government officials were following the example of Governor Boos, giving up their salaries in favor of those who need it more? The position of Minister of Infrastructure Development in the regional government, for example, is occupied by ruble billionaire, co-owner of the Vester supermarket chain, Alexander Rolbinov. “I don’t know that anyone is doing the same thing as Georgy Valentinovich,” Ms. Matveeva disappointed.
Mr. Boos himself, after the Duma debates, gave the regional press an exhaustive commentary on his income. “My declaration is public, I provide it to the media, you can see it there. “I live on dividends from the functioning of my company,” said the governor, probably referring to Svetoservis. - I have a friend - the director of “Liquidation” Sergei Ursulyak. So he could not personally come to my birthday in January and therefore sent a video greeting, starting with the words “What can you give to a person with such a tax return?”
In October 2007 (during the campaign for the elections of deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Federation), the Central Election Commission published income declarations of registered candidates for deputies for the last year. Mr. Boos's annual income, according to these data, amounted to 64 million rubles, and about 5 million rubles were in the banks in his name. According to the governor, the amount of his salary as the head of the region is established by law - it is 73 thousand rubles, and there are no additional allowances to it. “Now we will amend the law, initiating an increase, since we have not revised the amount for three years. It turned out that among the governor’s salaries, mine is the lowest,” Mr. Boos clarified.
He noted that with his expenses, which he has to bear as governor, he tries not to burden the regional budget. “If I go on a business trip, my daily allowance is 200 rubles. per day. I don't need a hotel in Moscow. If the cost of a hotel room is more than can be officially paid, then I do not present these expenses. I have my own plane, I don’t have any expenses for it either,” said the Kaliningrad governor, proving that it costs the regional treasury little. The only expenses that are paid from the budget are the movements of Mr. Boos in a company car around the region.