Matvienko's moratorium sparked a heated debate
Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko today came up with a resonant initiative that generated discussion in society. She proposed to impose a moratorium on the actions of Federal Law 44, which provides for the holding of a competition in the development of state budget funds allocated for infrastructure projects, until the end of the SVO.
The idea came to Matvienko after a speech by Senator Nikolai Zhuravlev, who reported on the use of federal funds by the regions, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This year, 50 billion rubles will be allocated for the restoration of new regions of the Russian Federation.
“Law 44 provides certain opportunities for flexibility in procedures, although it is obvious that given new challenges, this law must be very seriously unloaded and revised,” Zhuravlev said.
Matvienko responded to his words and said that the government’s efforts to optimize competitive procedures do not solve the problem. Competitions are delayed under far-fetched pretexts and are not completed, as provided by law, by July 1.
“But even if everything goes according to plan, there is only six months left to use the allocated funds. We need to move the deadlines to the left. I would suggest, given the new reality in which we live, not to cling to any dogmas. Maybe we should impose a moratorium on Law 44 and give the opportunity to quickly use the funds,” Matvienko said.
Senators greeted the speaker's initiative with applause.
“Those who stole, as they say... Those who behaved unscrupulously, those who gave contracts to their own pocket companies - they find ways within the framework of the 44th law, and conscientious contractors suffer. We are trying, straining ourselves, until December 1, we accept the budget, and the allocated money, if you go through all the procedures, can only begin to be used in June-July. Well, what about laying asphalt again in the rain, in winter, and carrying out construction in severe frosts. It is impossible to stop the entire machine of disbursing federal funds and developing the country because of theoretical suspicions,” Matvienko concluded.
She proposed to prepare a legislative initiative within a week and submit it to the government. The audience clapped again.
Senator Sergei Perminov believes that “the time has come to cut this Gordian knot.”
“The faster we do this, the more applause we will hear both in the regional governments and in the regional legislative bodies,” Perminov said on the air of “Vmeste-RF”.
Matvienko’s initiative was also supported by Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev.
“At one time, Federal Law No. 44 was adopted with the best intentions, the main ones of which were two: reducing the cost of contracts for the budget and eliminating the corruption component. As experience has shown, neither the first nor the second could be implemented 100%. In a number of cases, we were faced with deliberately low price proposals for competitions that could not help but win, but which in fact turned out to be exaggerated. And in other cases, fake understudies merely ensured the imaginary competitiveness of applications for a given winner,” Kosachev wrote in his TG channel.
Senator Irina Rukavishnikova believes that the 44th Federal Law has become a brake on the development of the regional economies.
“Situations often arise when business entities are forced to ensure the presence of competitors, because otherwise the competition cannot be recognized as valid. And any extension of procedures is wasted time and, as a consequence, non-fulfillment or poor-quality implementation of the government contract,” she wrote.
The liberal community greeted the idea of a moratorium with hostility. A member of the regional council of the Moscow branch of the Yabloko party, Kirill Goncharov, claims that Matvienko’s initiative will only lead to the enrichment of officials.
“Matvienko proposed repealing the law on public procurement. Officials, meanwhile, are exempt from publishing declarations. Both are justified by carrying out the SVO. Both are closely interconnected. While I am writing this post, approximately hundreds of families close to power are right now profiting from the military conflict and will be very upset by its end,” Goncharov wrote.
Liberal economist Dmitry Oreshkin uses Matvienko as an example in Ukraine, where demonstrative searches of officials took place today.
“Perhaps there is a clear difference between the North Military District, which is being waged by the Kremlin, and the war, which is being waged by Ukraine. Some use the situation to hide problems, others pull them out. Matvienko’s moratorium multiplies the number of interested parties advocating for the continuation of the SVO for the unhindered disbursement of budget funds (the war will write off everything). At the same time, not only federal customers, but also regions are exempt from control,” Oreshkin pressed.
“The country’s economy is structured in the format of a huge centralized concentrator and distributor called the state. However, after the start of the SVO, the concentrator’s pie decreases, and the prospects for the distributor are clearly worse. Under these conditions, the system put hard pressure on the so-called. elite and sent them signals that any public squabbling over resources (contracts for road construction, development of residential areas, etc.) is prohibited,” says political scientist Dmitry Mikhailichenko.
Former vice-governor of the Sakhalin region Dmitry Fedechkin, accused of embezzlement of state property, is trying to find a balance in the differences.
“The existing public procurement system is terribly immobile and cumbersome. In ordinary life, it is she, and not the notorious officials, who becomes the main cause of delays, which in the conditions of Covid or SVO are fraught. After all, there is nothing worse than doing everything correctly and perfectly on the day when it is no longer necessary. But it is absolutely impossible to completely abolish the system, even in the format of a moratorium. This will lead to an unprecedented bacchanalia and rampant corruption. Therefore, changes in the field of public procurement should be targeted and surgical in nature. And it is advisable not to postpone them until post-SVO,” Fedechkin wrote.
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