Budget violations have fallen in price – Newspaper Kommersant No. 39 (7484) of 03/07/2023

In 2022, the Accounts Chamber revealed almost 4.5 thousand violations and shortcomings in the budget system for a total of 885.6 billion rubles, follows from the prepared report on the results of the work of this control body. Interestingly, with an increase in the number of violations in the crisis year, their total amount compared to 2021 has almost halved. In general, cases of deviations from the rules were identified in budget accounting, in the distribution and use of subsidies, as well as in the construction sector at the expense of budget funds.

The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation summed up the results of its work in 2022. The voluminous report (Kommersant has it) summarizes the results of inspections that covered all the main areas of the use of budget funds. It is expected that the report will be submitted to the State Duma and. O. head of the joint venture Galina Izotova at the plenary meeting on March 16.

In total, state auditors revealed almost 4.5 thousand violations and shortcomings for a total amount of 885.6 billion rubles. The number of violations has slightly increased compared to 2021 (then it was 4.2 thousand), but their amount has almost halved (from 1.5 trillion rubles). Traditionally, the largest share of violations falls on non-compliance with the requirements of budget accounting and reporting – 705 such facts for 736.5 billion rubles. (against 473 by 571.3 billion rubles a year earlier).

Violations in the execution of the budget were found 1.2 thousand – in the amount of about 75 billion rubles. First of all, these are cases of deviations from the rules in the provision and use of subsidies by legal entities (by 33 billion rubles). It is noted that this is already systemic. We are talking, in particular, about non-compliance with the conditions for granting subsidies, about the failure of recipients to achieve target indicators and about insufficient work “to ensure the recovery of the balances of subsidies from previous years to the budget revenue.” All this, the joint venture notes, testifies to the need to improve both the quality of planning and to strengthen the control of departments over the use of subsidies.

The Accounts Chamber traditionally paid special attention to the implementation of state programs, in particular, in terms of their preparation and execution. Despite the reform of programs – we recall that since 2022 they have been synchronized with national projects (see “Kommersant” dated March 1), state auditors still note that the goals and indicators of state programs do not match the goals set by strategic planning documents, and indicate the presence of many planned indicators “without significant dynamics”.

Within the framework of the Federal Targeted Investment Program (FAIP), which is a set of budget construction projects within the framework of state programs and national projects, 104 violations were identified in the amount of 15.3 billion rubles. (against 112 such facts for 33.5 billion rubles) – mainly it is a violation of the procedure for state investments in objects or the acquisition of real estate in state property.

Problems in this area lead to an increase in the terms or to the impossibility of construction, to its rise in price and the redistribution of significant funds. It should be noted that the possibility of transferring funds from objects that are being built behind schedule to those that are being built faster has been provided for since 2020 as an anti-crisis measure, and since 2022 it has become a permanent mechanism – this was associated, in particular, with an improvement in the commissioning of facilities and cash execution FAIP.

After criticism about the conservation of significant budget funds in unfinished projects, the government rebuilt the FTIP management vertical and created a plan of measures to reduce the volume of “incomplete” (see “Kommersant” dated April 5, 2022). This work is also noted by the Joint Venture, although it does not provide up-to-date estimates of the volume of construction in progress (at the beginning of 2022, it was about 64 thousand objects). At the same time, state auditors draw attention to the fact that against the background of ongoing efforts to reduce the number of such facilities, there are no measures to prevent the emergence of a new “in progress”.

Evgenia Kryuchkova