Yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dotted the “i’s” and crossed the “t’s” on the introduction of a new anti-corruption measure – a declaration of expenses by State Duma deputies and government officials. Having recalled that he made this proposal at United Russia’s inter-regional conference in Bryansk, Putin declared that his idea enjoyed the support of the people: “It is clear that society welcomes this anti-corruption move.” Analysts believe he made this proposal in view of the forthcoming elections.
Putin mentioned this idea at the Bryansk conference in March. “A person who decides to get involved in politics must be transparent,” he said then. In referring to the discussion of this issue yesterday, Putin said that “tougher control over the income of officials and deputies should improve the performance of the government and create more barriers to corruption.” He instructed Vyacheslav Volodin, deputy prime minister and chief of the Government Staff, to draft a relevant bill.
Expense declarations were discussed in 2008 when the Duma adopted the first package of anti-corruption bills introduced by President Dmitry Medvedev. However, this discussion did not produce any practical results. In August 2010, Deputy Prosecutor-General Alexander Buksman suggested adopting a bill obliging officials to report on their spending as a “lever to counter corruption.” Nobody in the Duma objected to this bill, but no practical action was taken either.
Nonetheless, United Russia Duma Deputy and a member of the anti-corruption commission, Alexei Volkov, told Kommersant yesterday that work on the bill “has dragged on for a long time now.” He believes it is necessary to reveal expenses. In his opinion, this measure “will be very effective, although it will be difficult to verify the information on such a big scale.” He also thinks the expenses must be monitored by tax agencies rather than personnel departments: “Authorising the latter would be a conflict of interest because they depend on their bosses.”
Anton Belyakov, A Just Russia Duma Deputy, believes that a declaration of expenses would be effective if it were to include all citizens. “This measure would help control the gray market that cripples our economic progress and that the government tires so zealously not to notice,” he explained.
Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, Kirill Kabanov, believes the problem could have been resolved sooner: “As early as December the opposition suggested ratifying the 20th item of the UN convention that provides for a declaration of expenses.” The Duma was supposed to review this proposal in March, but the discussion was postponed for a month (see March 18 Kommersant). Kabanov added that to make the law effective, “it is necessary to introduce the notion of illegal personal gain and to create a mechanism for the confiscation of property.”
Volkov thinks Putin made this proposal with the future election campaign in mind: “Recently all anti-corruption initiatives came from the president. This may be why Putin decided to make his proposal on the same issue.”
Alexander Zhuravlyov