Senators want to protect local authorities from excessive control and oversight

The Federation Council started talking about the need to consolidate new approaches to control and supervisory activities in the law on local self-government. Until now, most of the relaxations in this direction have concerned business, as a result, municipalities have come under attack, complaining about an unbearable fine burden and inflated financial demands from controllers. Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has been invited to participate in the creation of mechanisms to protect against inspectors.

To execute all court decisions made against local governments from the beginning of 2023, it is necessary to pay 227 billion rubles, First Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak said on November 7 at a meeting of the Council on Local Self-Government under the Upper House. According to him, in some cases, the amount of “penalty” debt already constitutes a significant part of the revenue side of their budget and it is simply impossible to pay the entire amount, since municipalities physically do not have such funds.

Municipalities complain about numerous orders that come from inspectors without taking into account the financial situation of local authorities. “We have 240 million rubles. income, but we are required to build treatment facilities for 1.5 billion,” complained the head of the Kalyazinsky district of the Tver region, Konstantin Ilyin, to the council members, especially noting the “punitive” bias in the activities of the prosecutor’s office and other regulatory bodies. “240 million rubles is the revenue part, but how many fines?” – Mr. Turchak asked. “About 50 million rubles,” Mr. Ilyin readily reported. “50 to 240 of your own income – how to live? It seems to me that this is a rhetorical question,” summed up the first vice-speaker. At the same time, he noted, this is a completely typical story.

As of October 1, 2023, 8,680 inspections of local government bodies were carried out, 96 of them were carried out by federal-level control bodies, Vyacheslav Timchenko, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Regulations and Organization of Parliamentary Activities, told his colleagues. He recalled that in the relevant law on local self-government, only 16 powers are assigned to municipalities, but indirectly, in 170 laws, they are assigned an additional more than 200 powers, and no funds are allocated for their implementation.

Excessive requirements are often established by by-laws, which determine exactly how local government should exercise certain powers, said Larisa Kalinichenko, Minister of Finance of the Stavropol Territory. The regional government analyzed 19 regulations adopted from 2015 to 2023; their implementation requires more than 20 billion rubles. In addition, as of September 1, local authorities received 2,045 orders, the implementation of which required more than 21 billion rubles, while the budget included 249 million rubles. And there are those that can be five times the budget and must be executed “immediately.” At the same time, the prosecutor’s office often gives positive conclusions on the draft document, and after its adoption lodges a protest, the official added.

Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Alexey Khersontsev recalled that in 2019–2021 the government worked on the reform of control and supervisory activities and the so-called regulatory guillotine (revision of regulations containing excessive requirements). “I fully admit that municipalities were outside the scope of this project,” he admitted.

To correct the current imbalance, the senators propose to enshrine in the law on local self-government the entire range of preventive and prophylactic measures that are already in place for business. In addition, a mechanism for working interaction between control and supervisory authorities and municipalities is needed, Andrei Turchak emphasized: “We propose to provide a mechanism for the joint preparation of road maps to eliminate violations. Accordingly, if they are observed, do not apply any coercive or punitive measures against municipalities and heads of municipalities.”

In addition, the senators insist, the procedure for the execution of judicial acts that contain instructions to municipalities should be more clearly regulated: the responsibility of the financial authority to ensure their accounting and execution should be enshrined in the Budget Code of the Russian Federation. The Local Government Council also proposes to strengthen the protection of municipal officials from liability if they, for good reason, cannot immediately fulfill their obligations. “It is necessary to abandon the widespread use of penalties against municipal employees – this has a negative impact on attracting personnel and, in general, on the prestige of the municipal service,” said Mr. Turchak.

To develop mechanisms for such protection, senators propose that Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov hold an extended meeting with the invitation of all his deputies, municipal and regional leaders, as well as representatives of public organizations working in the field of local self-government.

Anastasia Kornya