Press Release, 15.02.2017

YABLOKO’s Anti-Corruption Policies Centre has found out that the Russian Pension Fund is going to spend (without any tenders) 27 million roubles on for official travel of its staff in 2017. Sergei Mitrokhin, member of YABLOKO’s Federal Political Committee and head of Anti-Corruption Policies Centre, demands that the Fund should reduce this expenditure and has reported the violation of the Law on Protection of Competition to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.

Experts of the Centre have found a contract with the only supplier on the “purchase of services associated with employees’ business trips, as well as participation in festivals, concerts, performances and similar cultural events (including tours) on the basis of invitations to attend these events”. The price of the contract is 27 million roubles, excluding accommodation of the Fund’s employees.

According to the lawyers of the Centre, the expenses of the Fund on business trips totaled 147.9 million roubles for the past six years. More details are given in the table below.

Since 2011, the cost of air and railway tickets for the Fund employees increased by 12 million roubles. Most of the contracts were concluded with the state enterprise President-Service under the Presidential Property Management Department. Mass-media have already reported about the Fund’s wasteful procurement for travel.

The specialists of the Centre have also studied the reports on the contract for the previous years and confirm that the travel expenses of the Pension Fund have been systematically overstated.

Thus, deputy heads of the Fund used business class for their travels abroad: 117,000 roubles to Berlin, 306,000 roubles to Warsaw and 191,000 roubles to Paris. Anton Drozdov, head of the Fund, also used to travel with much comfort.

YABLOKO Anti-Corruption Policies Centre states that the wasteful spending of the Pension Fund should be curbed.

“The task of the Pension Fund is to distribute social benefits helping different categories of pensioners. Instead, the Fund spends budget money on luxury trips for its leaders, useless programmes, cleaning of marble floors, and other extravagant expenses. We told to [the Fund’s head] Anton Drozdov, that such spending had to be cut. But it looks like the heads of the Fund do not intend to economise on their own needs,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.

Earlier in the Centre published an analytical report on the Pension Fund expenses pointing to inflated costs, including salaries of regional fund managers of the Fund. The Centre has sent the new facts of violations to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.