Komsomolskaya Pravda: "Putin to control teachers’ salaries"
The Ministry of Education and Science wants Popular Front members to monitor schools.
To begin with, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to report on budget performance. "The main question is how much we've earned and how much we've spent," he said.
Alexei Kudrin: "Government revenue for the first six months totalled 5.304 trillion roubles, or 51.5% of the adjusted revenue target... Expenditures in the reporting period were 4.664 trillion roubles, or 42.2% of the year-end figure after adjustments. We have confirmed our previous budget deficit forecast at slightly more than 1.5%. The Central Bank has transferred the biggest unplanned revenues, an additional 93 billion roubles."
"Our government revenues are increasing not only because of soaring energy prices, but also because of economic growth," Putin observed.
Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina supported his words with figures: "Gross domestic product has grown 3.9% in the first six months. Overall, we see stable, positive trends in GDP growth. In the second half of the year, we expect the GDP to grow 4.5% because of greater investment and accelerated construction."
"So, the construction industry has also grown?" Putin asked.
"Yes, it was 0.9% for the industry in general in the first six months with a 6.4% increase in completed housing projects. In June, industrial production grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.5%," Nabiullina reported. "We expect higher growth in agriculture in the second half of the year. We had low growth last year, with production volumes slumping due to abnormal weather. But this year, we expect a good harvest."
"This year is very important for agriculture. We have had droughts for two years running, so now we need to replenish inventories. I know that people are working hard, often skipping meals or sleep," Putin said, casting a severe look at the ministers. He instructed them to select the best grain growers and suggest proposals on awarding them at the end of the harvesting season.
Small business is also doing well. Overall, 20.8 billion roubles have been allocated from the federal budget to support small business, primarily the companies that work in industry and innovation.
"A total of 2.4 billion roubles have been earmarked for innovation companies. We have received applications from 1,500 companies. This year, we will allocate 2 billion roubles for entrepreneurs who are just starting out, with grants totalling some 300,000 roubles. This is the sum which small companies or beginning entrepreneurs will be able to request for this purpose," Nabiullina recalled.
She admitted that the North Caucasus is in a special position: "There is demand for all support measures there, including grants and loans. This year, a total of 1.7 billion roubles will be allocated for the district. We hope that this financial support – though it is not very significant – will allow many companies to start creating new jobs."
Andrei Fursenko, minister of education and science, asked the Popular Front for help because his department cannot monitor what is happening in every school.
"We have transferred to the regions the 20 billion roubles allocated for modernising agriculture. We've coordinated time schedules for increasing the average teacher salary by at least 30%. I'd like the Popular Front to control the implementation of these decisions. We don't want people to say our school was promised this or that but nothing was done,' but rather, 'they've done what they promised,'" Fursenko said, glancing at Putin.
"Control will be helpful here – in this case, public control is the best option," Putin said and again urged the government to increase the efficiency of budget expenditures and to spend the money only on high priorities: "Every invested rouble should produce the best results. Please, cut to the minimum all expenditures that are not meant for the top priorities and proceed from the budget's real opportunities." He added that ideally it would be good to complete the year without any budget deficit.
One more goal is care for orphaned and abandoned children. About 60% of disadvantaged children are placed in foster care these days.
"We already have quite rigorous requirements for foster and adoptive families. But experience shows that we need to take this even further. Raising an adopted child is a great responsibility and not everyone can do it. We need compulsory pre-adoption seminars and training courses on teaching and psychology for Russian and foreign citizens. But we must not create any additional material problems for potential adoptive parents. I think the state should cover adoption expenses."
Yelena Chinkova
