The needs of United Russia members are paid for at state expense

As Kommersant found out with the help of the “State Expenditures” project launched the day before by Alexei Kudrin’s Committee of Civil Initiatives (KGI), authorities and budgetary institutions do not hesitate to pay for the needs of local United Russia members. Thus, the Irkutsk Regional Duma signed a contract for 1.3 million rubles. to cover the work of the United Russia faction in the local newspaper, and Tyumen allocated funds for “United Russia tabletop souvenirs” of 18 thousand rubles. every. Experts consider this to be inappropriate spending of budget funds.

Photo: Dmitry Korotaev, Kommersant / buy photo

One of the largest contracts in favor of United Russia was concluded in December 2013 with LLC “Newspaper “SM Number One”” by the Irkutsk Regional Duma. For 1.3 million rubles. from the regional budget she ordered “services for covering the activities” of the United Russia faction for a year. The same contract, but for 1 million rubles, was concluded in 2012. However, the Legislative Assembly entered into contracts to cover the activities and factions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (the service provider was the regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation; the cost of services was 750 thousand rubles in 2012 and 600 thousand rubles in 2013). Contracts for the LDPR and Civic Platform represented in the regional Duma could not be found.

The budget of the Nizhny Novgorod region paid for food for the United Russia faction at field meetings. In November 2013, such a contract was worth 51 thousand rubles. The Legislative Assembly concluded with the Kolkhida company. In August 2013, a contract for 35.5 thousand rubles. LLC "Yasnaya Polyana" was concluded. And in November 2012, regional United Russia members ate 49.5 thousand rubles at an extended meeting of the faction. (the service was also provided by Colchis). Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Anti-Corruption Committee Alexander Khinshtein (United Russia) does not consider these expenses to be inappropriate, since they supported the work of the legislative assembly.

The project, which allows you to search for the results of already concluded government contracts, was launched by KGI. Its main difference from the official government procurement website, as one of the developers Ivan Begtin explained to Kommersant, is a “more convenient and faster interface” and the ability to create your own service for monitoring government procurement based on it. Previously, other organizations, including the ONF, created projects to monitor government procurement.

A number of Bashkir universities distinguished themselves by subscribing to the newspaper "United Russia. Bashkortostan" at the end of 2013, for example, the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University and the Ufa State University of Economics and Service. The contracts were small - for 16-17 thousand rubles - but they were concluded a year earlier. And in 2011, the administration of the Tyumen Regional Duma distinguished itself by purchasing from the local budget ten “United Russia tabletop souvenirs” worth a total of 180 thousand rubles. The supplier, a master of artistic wood carving Evgeny Chaikin from Yoshkar-Ola, told Kommersant that the souvenir was “ordinary”: “a wooden bear, a flag, a watch. Everything is handmade.” He did not receive any more orders from the regional Duma.

Such contracts are “a mistake, stupidity and ineffective spending of budget money,” Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, told Kommersant. And Rospil project lawyer Lyubov Sobol believes that such contracts can be the basis for an inspection by law enforcement agencies.

Sergey Goryashko, Maxim Ivanov

"Wooden bear, flag, clock"