"Let's start without money for now"

In the Nizhny Novgorod region they will engage in anti-corruption education for children

Members of the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region approved the regional target program “Anti-corruption in the Nizhny Novgorod region”, designed for 2009-2011. The main objectives of the program will be, as stated, the organization of monitoring of corruption, as well as anti-corruption education, training and education of young people. Moreover, anti-corruption education and prevention, it seems, is the strong point on which Nizhny Novgorod officials are going to ride in their reports on the work done to the federal authorities.

According to a sociological survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, 86% of Nizhny Novgorod residents have encountered facts of corruption. Bribes form the core of corruption: according to the survey, more than 64% of respondents admitted to illegally remunerating officials during the previous 12 months. At the same time, 67% of respondents believe that today the measures taken by the state in the field of combating corruption are not effective.

According to Dmitry Krasnov, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, entrepreneurs and officials are equally to blame for corruption, which is confirmed by opinion polls. This leads to an unexpected conclusion for a person called upon to protect the interests of the entrepreneurial class: “Don’t blame everything on the authorities!” Who does Mr. Krasnov propose to “blame” on? “There is no less corruption in schools, so it is necessary to educate people from school,” follows another anti-corruption recipe. On the other hand, how and who exactly will be involved in anti-corruption education of the younger generation is not written in the program.

It also does not say how much money will be needed to implement the plans. “We are approving the program without money, isn’t it strange?” - said the chairman of the legislative assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Viktor Lunin. “We will start without money for now - within the framework of already existing anti-corruption programs,” reported the head of the department for ensuring economic security, interaction with law enforcement agencies and mobilization preparation of the office of the governor and government of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Sergei Vasiliev.

Deputy Prosecutor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Evgeny Denisov proposed reflecting “the amount of money needed to fight corruption” in a separate legal act.

In fact, there are already quite a lot of anti-corruption programs - both federal and regional. For example, on February 28, 2008, the law on combating corruption in the Nizhny Novgorod region was adopted in the second reading. The law was developed to form an anti-corruption system in the region by conducting an examination of regulatory legal acts and anti-corruption monitoring. Another thing is that it was adopted before the current President of Russia took office.

We need one comprehensive document in response to the anti-corruption calls of the country’s president, and such a document is appearing in the region. There is no extra money in the regional budget, so for now it has been decided to fight bribes, as they say, with bare hands. Let us repeat, there are no particular specifics about the struggle. But regional government officials seem to be preoccupied with other issues. For example, First Deputy Governor Vladimir Ivanov is more interested in “why there are no people responsible for carrying out the events in the program.” And another deputy, Alexander Tsapin, was worried about which department would be responsible for placing anti-corruption advertising in the media.

Governor Valery Shantsev noted that the program is important and timely, because “a person must be made to understand from his very birth that corruption is bad.” Then he added that each government agency should develop its own plans to combat corruption, “the situation with which is not hopeless if we fight it all together, as one team.” According to the head of the region, “all laws of the Nizhny Novgorod region are written for honest people, but honest people suffer from them, since laws often turn into barriers.”

After which the governor began to think about the topic “Is the increase in corruption cases a minus or a plus?” In light of recent trends, it turned out that this is more a plus than a minus. Because the work on the ground to eradicate corruption will apparently be assessed according to the usual quantitative indicators.

As a negative example of the fight against corruption, the governor told his subordinates at a meeting of the regional government how the case of the deputy head of the Nizhny Novgorod Vodokanal, who was accused of embezzling public funds in the amount of 1.5 million rubles, ended. While the investigation was ongoing, this man was put... under house arrest. He stayed at home for a whole year and a half. And in the end, he received exactly these same one and a half years of imprisonment, without leaving his home. That is, by the time the sentence was pronounced, he had already served his time. “Although everything was obvious on the same day when he took the money,” the governor noted.

“All the people who remained free realized that nothing special had happened,” added the head of the region. Therefore, Valery Shantsev strictly warned representatives of law enforcement agencies “right down to the courts” that the situation will now change. Perhaps Valery Pavlinovich wants to answer in his own way the question recently asked to his circle by Vladimir Putin: “Where are the landings?” It was inescapably clear in the governor’s gaze that if it had been his will, he would have long ago carried out demonstration plantings on the territory entrusted to him.

Sergey ANISIMOV, Nizhny Novgorod