The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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February 28, 2013. 17th Session of the Duma of the 5th convocation
The session was broadcast online. The agenda of the session and the bills submitted for consideration by the deputies were published on the Duma website beforehand.
Oksana Kozlovskaya, Duma Speaker opened the session with her traditional address to the deputies (summary of the Speaker’s speech).
DEPUTIES’ STATEMENTS
Five deputies used their right to make a statement.
Oleg Gromov expressed his concern over the current problems of small and medium-sized business.
“If the federal government does not lift insurance contributions from small and medium business, already this year the number of entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas, will drop significantly. They will not be able to bear this burden any longer. Local budgets will be short of revenue, and more unemployed people will come to employment offices. I believe, that leads to complete demotivation of business and deterioration of the investment and business environments.”
Tomsk Oblast Vice Governor for Industry and Fuel and Energy Sector Leonid Reznikov immediately responded by providing a short statement on the problems of small business related to an increase in insurance contributions to the Pension Fund effective from January 1, 2013. The Administration of Tomsk Oblast addressed the Ministry of Finance with a request to initiate development of a federal bill to amend current legislation accordingly.
Following Oleg Gromov’s statement the deputies agreed to create a joint working group to study the issue and develop a path forward plan.
Aleksey Fedorov drew the audience’s attention to the spread of drugs in Tomsk Oblast.
Anton Sharypov expressed his disapproval over the actions of the security forces towards oppositionists.
Vladimir Khan in his statement touched upon the spending on the construction of Olympics facilities in Sochi and called Sochi a “monument to Russian squander”.
“The Olympics construction project has returned very little money to the domestic construction industry since it makes almost no use of domestic materials. President Putin mentioned the amounts already plundered with the numbers not falling below two billion rubles. …After all, the distribution of money between the center and the regions in unfair and it should be changed somehow.”
Vladimir Kazakov spoke of a necessity to create an anti-corruption commission in the Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast.
AMENDMENTS TO OBLAST BUDGET
The deputies considered amendments to the law On the Oblast budget for 2013 and the planning period of 2014 and 2015 which increase the total revenues by 499.8m rubles and expenditures by 512.7m rubles with the deficit growing by 12.8m rubles.
The revenues mostly grow through an increase in non-repayable receipts from the federal budget (495.7m rubles). Region’s own tax and non-tax revenues are increased by 4.1m rubles from a privatization of two real property items and a land plot, included in the forecast.
Earmarked federal funds will be used to provide pharmaceutical benefits to the federal social security beneficiaries (294.7m rubles), pay financial incentives for school teachers for classroom management (120.8m rubles), provide payments under the Rural Doctor program (20m rubles) and support other health care actions (59.7m rubles).
Unused in 2012 commitments of the Tomsk Oblast Road Fund (16.8m rubles) will be used to:
– Increase subsidies for the local budgets for capital and routine repairs of the surrounding grounds of apartment blocks and related access ways
– Increase subsidies for the local budgets for capital and routine repairs of public motor roads
– Increase subsidies for the local budgets for engineering and construction (reconstruction) of local paved public motor roads to rural communities which do not have a year-round connection to the region’s public motor road network
– Increase allocations under the item “Intraregional development projects to provide year-round connection of rural areas with the region’s public roads via local paved motor roads”
The amended 2013 budget revenues are 42bn rubles, including tax and non-tax revenues 36.6bn rubles and non-repayable receipts 5.4bn rubles. Expenditures are 44.9bn rubles and deficit 2.88bn rubles (7.8%).
The deputies unanimously voted to pass the bill in two readings at once.
The deputies also voted for amendments to the law on Oblast budget spending on investment and innovation activity in 2013 which reduce the total amount of relevant allocations by 117m rubles to total 2.710bn rubles.
REPORT OF AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS
The Oblast deputies reviewed and took into account the 2012 performance report of the Chamber of Audit and Accounts of Tomsk Oblast. In 2012, the Chamber identified 343 cases of breach of current legislation in the planning and implementation of the Oblast budget, local budgets, the budget of the Tomsk Oblast Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Fund; and in Oblast-owned property management.
Total value of the violations is 1,477,800,000 rubles, including misuse of budget funds 54.6m rubles and ineffective use of budget funds and Oblast-owned property 184.2m rubles. As of the date of the report, 11.2m rubles had been recovered to the Oblast budget. Actions to eliminate and prevent further violations had been taken such as adoption of necessary regulations; development of missing and correction of existing contracts and agreements; correction of financial accounting and reporting documents; necessary changes to the regulations of audited entities. As a result of audit checks disciplinary actions were taken against 16 officials.
The Prosecutor of Tomsk Oblast proposed to change the Oblast legislation on the activity of the Chamber of Audit and Accounts so that all reports by the Chamber are sent to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The Deputy Duma Speaker brought to everyone’s notice the fact that the amount of audited funds in 2012 was twice as much as in 2011 and that was why there were twice as many violations identified.
The deputies took the report into account.
SPECIAL PROTECTION
The deputies passed amendments to the Oblast law On special protection areas in the second reading. The bill was developed to close a gap in current legislation by defining grounds to establish and change boundaries of special protection areas (SPA) in Tomsk Oblast. In accordance with the federal law On special protection areas regional government bodies shall establish borders and define the level of protection of natural monuments located in the region. The adopted amendments establish that regional SPA boundaries be modified in the following cases:
– Inclusion of another SPA or an area meeting the SPA requirements in a regional SPA
– Exclusion of a portion of territory from a regional SPA due to the fact that natural areas and objects of nature located in that SPA lost their special protection status or scientific, cultural, aesthetic and recreational importance
The bill was passed unanimously without discussion.
NEW IMPETUS FOR HOUSE BUILDERS
The deputies considered in the first reading a bill on the rules for the development of lists of citizens entitled to purchase economy class housing on the land owned by the Russian Federal Housing Legislation Development Fund.
The lists will be compiled and approved by local governing bodies of the municipal entities of Tomsk Oblast. The winner of the auction will conclude purchase agreements or shared construction participation agreements with the citizens included in the lists, on pricing terms fixed in the auction minutes.
Categories of citizen eligible for economy class housing are defined in the Decree by the Russian Federation Government On certain issues arising from the implementation of the Federal Law On the development of housing construction related to the provision of certain categories of citizens with a right to purchase economy class housing.
The originators of the law believe that it will prove beneficial for the socioeconomic situation in Tomsk Oblast in terms of providing a new impetus to the housing construction industry and improving people’s housing conditions.
The deputies unanimously voted to pass the bill in the first reading.
GOVERNOR’S HOUR
The subject of the traditional Governor’s Hour was the forthcoming spring flood. Head of the Russian EMERCOM Administration in Tomsk Oblast Igor Kirzhakov described actions to be taken to prevent emergency situations in the region for the period of spring tides and floods in 2013.
All municipal entities are gathering forces and allocating funds for rescue operations, preparing territories for temporary accommodation of affected households and farm livestock, assisting in the insurance of houses located in the areas at risk of flooding.
The Oblast budget allocates 8m rubles for the preparations for the flood season, including 1m rubles for river ice monitoring, 2m rubles for aviation operations, and 5m rubles for ice-breaking operations.
ASSISTANCE TO FARMERS
The deputies considered amendments to the Oblast law On providing local governing bodies with specific public authorities in the area of government support to farming enterprises. The bill reflects a change in a number of definitions and cancels several subsidies provided to support the region’s agricultural industry.
In 2013, each liter of sold milk will be subsidized from the federal and regional budgets under a special Decree of the Russian Federation Government. Also, starting with 2013, farmers will be compensated for expenses on organic fertilizers by means of a new subsidy from the federal and regional budgets.
Several measures of government support will be merged to facilitate application for subsidies for private farmers. That will improve affordability and utilization efficiency of budget funds allocated to developing farming enterprises in remote areas and local dairy farmers.
The deputies unanimously voted to pass the bill in two readings at once.
NEW APPROACHES TO FUNDING EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
The Oblast deputies adopted amendments to the Oblast law which provide local governing bodies with authority to organize provision of free primary and emergency medical care (except specialized emergency medical services) to women during pregnancy, childbirth and after delivery, in Tomsk Oblast.
From January 1, 2013 the related funds are allocated from the compulsory health insurance budget, with the exception of expenses related to the provision of emergency medical services to people without the compulsory health insurance policy and emergency medical services which are not included in the basic compulsory health insurance scope, such as mental health services.
STRAY DOGS MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL
The deputies passed amendments to the Oblast law On keeping dogs and cats in Tomsk Oblast in two readings and a new bill On providing local governing bodies with specific public authorities related to the control of stray animals in the first reading.
In 2010, the society’s urgent attention to the subject of keeping cats and dogs resulted in adoption of the Oblast law On keeping dogs and cats in Tomsk Oblast.
Recently, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation resolved that the legal regulation of sanitary and epidemic control actions including collection of stray dogs should be included in the scope of authority of the regions. Therefore, stray animals control activity shall be managed by the Oblast Administration and financed from the Oblast budget.
