Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg at a meeting on October 26 in three readings at once accepted a draft law that allows civil servants to receive increased payments for business trips to the annexed territories of Ukraine and not report on the spending of funds.
What does the document say. The bill doubles the monetary remuneration for St. Petersburg deputies and officials during business trips to the Russian-annexed territories of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. “Daily allowance” amount to 8480 rubles. How noted the leader of the Yabloko faction, Alexander Shishlov, is 17 times more than the usual daily allowance.
The document allows government agencies to pay business travelers “unreported amounts in order to reimburse additional expenses.” The law does not spell out what is meant by “unreported amounts”. From the current wording, supposethat officials and deputies going on business trips to the annexed territories will be able to receive any money without any accountability.
How the document was discussed. During the meeting, Alexander Shishlov drew attention to the fact that, despite the multiple increase in the daily allowance, the bill states that the budget will not incur additional costs. Governor’s representative in the Legislative Assembly Konstantin Sukhenko answered: “Now we travel less to other countries, and we will save on this.”
Criticizing the bill, Shishlov called “unreported amounts” a corruption factor and suggested that those who wish to visit the “attached” territories at their own expense. He also asked for time for amendments – the leadership of the parliament gave them five minutes. The amendment proposed by Yabloko, excluding deputies from the document, was still not accepted in the end.
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