Local authorities began to identify more violations amid a moratorium on inspections

Governor of the Stavropol Territory Vladimir Vladimirov drew attention to the problem of excessive activity of control and supervisory authorities in relation to municipalities at the parliamentary hearings on the budget held on October 3 in the Federation Council (SF). According to him, in order to satisfy all the requirements set by the supervisory departments, an additional 27 billion rubles must be included in the region’s budget for 2024. Given that the revenue side of the regional budget for 2023 is 160.2 billion rubles, and the expenditure side is 190.1 billion rubles, it follows from the law on the budget of the Stavropol Territory.

Vladimirov gave an example of unnecessary budget expenditures: due to updated safety requirements in the region, the height of fences in schools had to be increased by 20 cm to 2 m, while according to building codes the height should be 1 m 80 cm. “In building codes – 1 m 80 cm , according to safety standards – 2 m. Why not leave 1 m 80 cm? RUB 4.6 billion it just fell in the Stavropol region. This puts more and more pressure on the budget,” complained the head of the region.

The governor complained about obligations that the region could no longer fulfill. “In some municipalities, the local budget has been exceeded by 5 times due to instructions from supervisory authorities. That is, in fact, these municipalities are bankrupt today if they fulfill all their obligations,” he was forced to state. Addressing the Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, Vladimirov said that “there is no need to put pressure on subjects and municipalities with regulations [контрольно-надзорных органов]”during a special military operation.

According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation as of September 1, the volume of debt of municipalities amounts to 386 billion rubles.

The governor of Stavropol admitted that his call sounded “revolutionary,” but Matvienko agreed with him. “As for the control and supervisory authorities, a moratorium has been imposed on their inspections [бизнеса], so they now, with double tenacity, began inspections of municipal authorities, began to strangle them and again impose financial obligations, realizing that the time is not right and there is no money,” she noted, adding that this is “an eternal topic.” The Speaker of the Federation Council noted that “the government needs it [проблему] consider it very carefully and keep it under control,” and cited as an example a fine of 18 billion rubles imposed by Rosprirodnadzor on one of the enterprises in Tuva.

“Anton Germanovich, does anyone have anything in their head at all? Well, how can this be? There, the enterprise itself is not worth that much,” she said, addressing Russian Finance Minister Siluanov. As a result, according to Matvienko, the enterprise stops and unemployment begins. “Yes, we need to come and make some kind of road map, spread it out over time, look at the financial situation at the enterprise, and work out this road map together. They came, 18 billion rubles, they left. And then the courts and then the paralysis. This is the economy of the republic, the economy of the country,” she added.

The moratorium on scheduled inspections of enterprises was approved on March 10, 2022; the corresponding government decree was in force until the end of last year. The document became part of a set of measures proposed by the Cabinet of Ministers to ensure sustainable economic development and reduce the burden on business under sanctions. On December 29, 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin extended the moratorium until 2023.

On June 27, Vedomosti reported that in total last year, control and supervisory authorities carried out 339,100 inspections of government and commercial organizations in all sectors of the economy. This is the lowest number in the last 20 years, with 881,700 inspections in 2021. At the same time, the number of inspections decreased by almost 3 times compared to 2021 due to the current moratorium on inspections. In the report of the Ministry of Energy “On state and municipal control in the Russian Federation for 2022”, prepared for the government, the words of the head of the department, Maxim Reshetnikov, were quoted: “Without wasting time on them, without distracting employees, business saved about 80 billion rubles.”