The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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Address by Boris MALTSEV at the LI Session of the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast (July 28, 2011)
The LI Session of the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast was opened with a minute of silent prayer for the victims of the tragic events that occurred in July all over the world.
The Speaker expressed his concern over the economic situation in Europe: a default in Greece remains highly likely. The crisis is jeopardizing Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The European leaders have developed an action plan to prevent the spread of the debt crisis in the Euro zone.
The United States are anxious about the key deadline, i.e. August 2, when the American law-makers take a decision whether to raise the debt ceiling which now totals USD 14.3tn. Unless the Congressmen raise the debt ceiling, the USA is going to be short of funds to cover interests, pension commitments, social programs and health insurance programs. Yet it is their home affairs. The world is concerned over the global repercussions of this technical default. A single country can ruin the entire global economy.
In Norway the death toll of outrageous twin terror attacks reached 93 – death toll of the bomb explosion in Oslo center stands at 7, and 86 people are dead as a result of the rampage at the youth camp on Norway’s Utoya Island. Boris Maltsev expressed his condolences to the Norwegians who suffered from the villainous act of atrocity committed by the terrorist. Most probably the tragedy was the act of an obviously insane individual (as a normal person would never have committed such a crime, regardless of his views).
For the whole month Russia has been mourning for victims who died in numerous disasters: Bulgaria boat, helicopter in Chukotka, emergency airplane landing in the north of Tomsk Oblast, accident of the bus on a route from Semipalatinsk to Tomsk. We’d be most grateful if this terrible list of tragedies and casualties never continues. We are mourning for the dead and expressing our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and friends.
Most of his speech Boris Maltsev devoted to state supervisory authorities. The Speaker made a special point of the safety control in industrial processes. In his speech he made a guess regarding the causes of the current situation and such a great number of accidents and tragic consequences of the above events. “As I see it, there are three major causes of these catastrophes. First is wear of infrastructure and vehicles most of which were manufactured as far back as the Soviet times and their life has long expired. Second is corruption. And third is poor performance of the state supervisory authorities, lack of transparency and public reporting in their work.”
The Speaker suggested that the deputies pay particular attention to reports of the key state inspection agencies in the Oblast, agencies which are to prevent technological disasters in nuclear, oil and gas, chemical, transportation and other industries in the Oblast. As a representative body the Legislative Duma shall take on the responsibility to create favorable conditions for state inspections activity in the Oblast. “Only by joint efforts of the federal and municipal executive authorities, the representative authority, and the civil society we must and we will raise the level of Tomsk inspection agencies from the level of ‘a private’ to the level of ‘ the general’,” said Boris Maltsev.
About the agenda
The deputies will consider 50 issues at the LI Session.
There is a special set of bills which stipulate an increase in salaries of workers of educational institutions from September 1, 2011. It is important that the increase is not provided for specific workers but for the SALARY POOL in general.
The deputies will discuss changes in the Law “On the Oblast budget for 2011” which increase budget revenues by 1.8bn rubles and expenditures by 2.3bn rubles. “This is federal money for the most part, but part of this amount was earned by the Oblast. With this extra money we can add to the existing 400m rubles 100m rubles more to increase salary pools of Oblast-financed institutions from September 1. Thus, we reduce the risk of failure to meet our commitments.”
In addition to 28m rubles allocated from the Oblast budget there are extra 30 million to be spent on the 2011 program for provision of housing to young families. That amount comes on top of 98m rubles from the federal and local budgets.
It is proposed to spend 50m rubles on additional support for the agricultural complex. Also, 150m rubles could be provided to the city of Tomsk to co-finance construction of Pushkina road junction.
A set of documents concerning a change in status for the Audit Chamber is submitted for consideration. The Chamber will become more impartial and its name will change to Chamber of Audit and Accounts of Tomsk Oblast.
The subject of “A Governor's Hour” will be safety compliance at the Siberian Chemical Combine and supervisory bodies which are supposed to ensure our safety.
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