Parliamentary hearings of the Social Code of Tomsk Oblast

The discussions of the draft Code gathered representatives of the legislative and executive branches of power, representatives of public organizations and associations, and social security beneficiaries. The draft Social Code is a collection of more than 30 regional framework laws or, counting the amendments, 127 laws which regulate the social support services provided by the government to the population. For a month all interested parties could join the dicsussions, comment on the draft Code and ask questions at the Duma forum. Almost every participant at the parliamentary hearings stressed the importance of the Social Code.

Igor Chernyshev, Chairman of the Labor and Social Policy Committee opened the hearings. He encouraged the attendees to openly criticize the subject and not to hesitate to argue with the organizers.

“The Code was not written for the public officials but for the people,” he stressed. “For those who need support. And they are many. Today, social support services are provided to around 300,000 people, i.e. one out of three people in Tomsk Oblast. All categories of the people from the moment of birth fall within the scope of these laws. They are children under 14 years old, nursing mothers, large families, low-income families, war and labor veterans, pensioners, various beneficiaries from health care, education, culture, etc.”

According to Vladimir Samokish, Deputy Governor for Social Policy the website of the Duma received around 100 comments on the draft Code. After the hearings even more comments and observations will come. They will all be taken into account when the final version of the Social Code of Tomsk Oblast will be developed. Vladimir Samokish explained that the social security scope will not change. Under the current laws, the social security spending totals 7 billion rubles annually, and these commitments will not be affected. The Social Code is needed as an easy-to-use collection of those laws for the people.

Oksana Kozlovskaya, Tomsk Oblast Duma Speaker suggested regarding the Social Code to a greater extent as a code of social support for the population.

“Let it be our first step. Let it be the first stage where we have organized all our social support laws into a single system. The next stage will be joint discussions of today’s proposals with the leaders of public organizations. The time has come for us to go ahead with the talk on the agreement of public accord and creation of a new development thrust for our social policy. Our current budget carries very serious social policy commitments. Just compare: in 2011, with the budget of Tomsk Oblast 36 billion rubles, the total amount of social payments was over 40 billion rubles! Without the support from the federal government, the Oblast would not have coped. The problem is that 80% of this money is spent on categories rather than specific targets. The whole world believes that not individuals but families should benefit from social support. But what do we know about an average family in Tomsk Oblast? Little or almost nothing. Therefore, our next task is to identify social policy priorities and the categories of people who need that support in the first place.”

The Duma Speaker thanked the participants for the open dialogue and suggested having a follow-up meeting with the leaders of public organizations based on the recommendations from the hearings.

The participants accepted the recommendations and backed the Speaker’s proposal. The draft Social Code is published on the Duma’s website - http://old.duma.tomsk.ru/files2/21188_2012_03_Socialnyi_kodeks_Tomskoi_oblasti.pdf(Russian).

The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast

Parliamentary hearings of the Social Code of Tomsk Oblast