The Accounts Chamber was assigned a procedure – Newspaper Kommersant No. 233 (7434) dated 12/15/2022

The Federation Council (SF) on Wednesday approved presidential amendments to the law “On the Accounts Chamber”, updating the procedure for appointing the head of the control body. Now the upper house will have to propose at least three candidates for this post to the president, and he will have to choose one and put senators to the vote. Corresponding changes to the Federation Council’s own regulations were adopted at the same meeting. The deadlines allow appointing a replacement for Alexei Kudrin before the end of the year: the last “plenary” meeting of the Federation Council in 2022 will be held on December 23. But it is difficult to say in the upper chamber whether this will be done.

The adopted amendments develop the provisions of the updated Constitution, according to which, since 2020, the Federation Council and the State Duma have “exchanged” powers to appoint and dismiss the chairman and deputy chairman of the Accounts Chamber (CA). If earlier the head of the control body was approved by the lower house, and his deputy – by the upper house, now it is the other way around. At the same time, the appointment procedure itself will remain the same: the council of the upper house, on the proposals of the committees of the Federation Council, sends the president at least three candidates for the post of chairman of the joint venture, of which the head of state selects one and submits it for approval by the senators. If no candidate satisfies the president, he has the right to propose his own. Previously, the deputies approved the head of the joint venture in exactly the same way, only the Duma factions made proposals for candidates there.

Together with the amendments dictated by the Constitution, the law adopted by the senators also expands the powers of the joint venture as a whole.

In particular, it gets the right to check suppliers under government contracts; strategic audit is excluded from the list of audit types, but a new one is introduced – an audit of the compliance of the activities of state bodies with the current legislation; it is established that control and expert-analytical activities are carried out, including in relation to state programs.

The document was submitted to the State Duma back in November 2021 and adopted in the first reading at the end of the spring session – in May 2022, but in the fall the lower house did not return to it. The resignation of the head of the joint venture, Alexei Kudrin, which he asked for on November 29, actualized the issue of bringing the federal law in line with the updated Constitution, since the senators, accepting the resignation, had to be guided by the Basic Law directly (see “Kommersant” dated November 30). In addition, on November 30, a “temporary” procedure for approving the head of the joint venture was introduced into the regulations of the Federation Council – on the proposal of the president, which follows from a literal reading of the text of the Constitution.

Interlocutors in the State Duma then told Kommersant that the deputies were not going to rush to adopt the amendments, but already on December 8 the document passed the second reading, on December 13 the third, and on December 14 it was approved at the plenary session of the Federation Council. At the same time, the senators even “jumped ahead” a little: the relevant committee on the budget and financial markets recommended the Federation Council to adopt the document on Tuesday morning, while the third reading in the State Duma took place only a couple of hours later.

As Vyacheslav Timchenko, head of the regulatory committee of the Federation Council, explained to Kommersant, the process of discussing candidates for the position of head of the joint venture will begin immediately after the amendments enter into force, that is, after the president signs the law (he has two weeks for this) and publication.

Nevertheless, the Federation Council’s own regulations have already managed to be brought into line with the new procedure – at the end of the same plenary meeting on December 14. According to Mr. Timchenko, senators may have time to propose candidates to the president before the last “plenary” of 2022, which will be held on Friday, December 23. “But this does not mean that we will definitely consider (the President’s submission.— “b”) at this meeting,” he added.

A source in the leadership of the upper house told Kommersant that the deadlines allow all the necessary discussions to be held in the committees next week. But “whether there will be a need for this” is still unknown, the interlocutor of Kommersant added.

Political strategist Yevgeny Minchenko sees no signs that the parliamentarians are “in a hurry” to appoint a replacement for Alexei Kudrin – rather, they are trying to “create conditions for a choice.” “According to the latest insiders, the candidacy of Alexander Zhukov (November 27 RBC said that the first vice-speaker of the State Duma is being considered for the post of head of the joint venture.— “b”) is not final, there are more options. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure the technical possibility of their existence,” the expert says.

Andrew Ashes