Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of YABLOKOs parliamentary faction
in St.Petersburg, introduced his amendments to the Rules of
the Budget and Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly
of St. Petersburg. These amendments are targeted at improving
the transparency of the Committee, as well as enhancing control
over the budget planning. According to Yavlinsky, adoption
of these amendments would reduce abuse in the field of public
funds.
"We need to qualitatively change our approach to the
[city] budget. The whole process should be modern and transparent.
Only in this case it is possible to reduce corruption,"
Yavlinsky said. He proposed to the city MPs to publish the
agenda of the Committee and all the relevant documents at
the web-site of the Legislative Assembly. Also he noted that
the agenda of the Committee should be approved in advance.
"It is unacceptable that the documents on such important
issues are handed to the Committee members several minutes
before the vote. The present order makes it impossible to
analyse the correctness of the calculations. Budgetary control
is the most important function of MPs, at it is hardly realised
today, he stressed.
"[At present] most of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
MPs vote for the budget without its detailed analysis or control
over expenditures, being satisfied by redistribution of less
than one per cent of the budget for their own goals within
the frameworks of the Committee. It resembles an exchange
of services: MPs do not control the budget, and the officials
allow them to spend 0.5 per cent of the budget at their discretion.
This is a pattern of political corruption," Yavlinsky
said.
He also recollected how the MPs approved the budget for 2013.
"Despite the fact that during the review of the entire
document, it was clear that the budget was non-transparent,
inefficient and would not be implemented again, the MPs even
did not bother to find out why almost half of the planned
expenditures was not been spent in the first nine months of
2012: why schools, hospitals and other social facilities were
not built..., all that St.Petersburg government promised to
do but did not do! Consequently, 38 deputies simply press
the buttons "for" the budget without thinking about
it. And the next day investigators from Moscow come to the
Committee on Energy, conduct investigation, searches and make
arrests. This had to happen one day. And I do not rule out
that this is only the beginning," Yavlinsky noted.
Grigory Yavlinsky managed to overcome the resistance of the
members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the Legislative
Assembly from the United Russia and LDPR factions. The Committee
adopted a decision to create a working group for examination
of Grigory Yavlinskys amendments.
See also:
YABLOKO
Against Corruption
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