Tatyana Nagibina blog post, 19.11.2020

What a “happiness” it is to live in the Omsk region, as our “achievements” put us ahead of all Russian regions. How our officials love to excel!

Our officials do not cease to amaze us with their ideas on how to help themselves, come up with something so that to improve their already “comfortable” situation, and all this in a most difficult period for the region and the country. After all, right now there is an urgent need to find money to fight the epidemic. Right now, during the pandemic, when it is necessary to reduce unreasonably high salaries for themselves, or at least consider the option of a temporary cut in established salaries, when the ordinary people are sometimes left without a livelihood, and because of this someone who is sick is forced to go to work, infecting others at work and in public transport, how to survive when the prices of medicines and foodstuffs have been rising, despite the fact that the main goal should be to save the lives of the population, it was our Omsk officials who took care of their income and decided to raise their salaries. The governor signed two decrees related to the increase in the salaries of regional officials.

The first decree envisages an increase in the salary for “specialists” in the junior position of the civil service from December 1, 2020. The second decree stipulates for an increase for those who are not formally civil servants but work in government bodies.

However, they did not stop there and took another step that the inhabitants of the region should evaluate as a manifestation of care of people. Omsk officials handed over their cars to doctors, but instead they bought for themselves 37 newly imported cars worth 53 million roubles.

In mid-September, Governor Burkov announced publicly that regional authorities were transferring their used Russian-made official cars to district doctors in city outpatient clinics to improve the mobility of doctors. But then he found a new extravagant solution how to spend budget money so that it would not be very painful, having parted with the old cars, explaining this by constant car repairs – in this case one needs to buy new cars from a foreign manufacturer.

So what if there is an epidemic in the city, doctors are lacking, there is no money to treat people, there is not enough medicine, there is a shortage of places in hospitals, but there will be new foreign cars, including business class cars.

We can only rejoice for those in power and sympathise with the rest of the region’s inhabitants, because they have been and remain hostages of such stifling care.