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President Dmitry Medvedev signed off on his National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2012-13. The announcement was made at a meeting of the anti-corruption council on Tuesday. Of significant note was the president's initiative concerning the monitoring of authorities' expenditures.

"If the checks reveal that the expenditures of an official clearly exceed his revenues, and he cannot explain it ­ it could be grounds for his dismissal, and for the property, which was acquired using the unknown income, to be transferred to state ownership," RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying. "Changes to a number of legislative acts are also expected, in particular, an addition to the Civil Code provision that property acquired using dubious funds be transferred to state revenues."

RIA Novosti wrote that, in particular, if a single purchase of real-estate, cars or company assets exceeded the total of three years' worth of income for the official's family, then that would be grounds for an explanation to be demanded as to the source of the funds. Medvedev announced that work on the new proposals would need to completed by March 22.

A settling of scores

The current provisions mark a change in Medvedev's stance on the issue, however. In November of last year, Medvedev was not so enthusiastic about the idea of expenditure declarations, stating in a meeting with foreign press that "in our environment it could turn into a way of settling scores, or become such a system, which will itself provoke corruption ­ share it with us or we will investigate you for life looking for high expenses," RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying at the time.

Honest working officials are not camels

At the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday, Presidential Administration head Sergei Ivanov reminded journalists of Medvedev's earlier warnings, adding that the monitoring of officials' expenditures should not be allowed to turn into a witch hunt.

"Alpha

On the one hand, you need control on spending, but we cannot turn the process into a witch hunt, a settling of scores, in a figurative sense, that for Russia, unfortunately, could widely become the case," RIA Novosti quoted Ivanov as saying.

"Therefore, we must think about the official's good name, and not create a situation where the official, who in good faith is fulfilling his obligations ­ and they are the majority of us, I dare say ­ will not be able to work, and simply provide accounts and prove that, sorry, he is not a camel."

Keywords: Russia, Corruption - Russia, Government, Politics - Russian News - Russia

 

President Dmitry Medvedev signed off on his National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2012-13. The announcement was made at a meeting of the anti-corruption council on Tuesday. Of significant note was the president's initiative concerning the monitoring of authorities' expenditures.

"If the checks reveal that the expenditures of an official clearly exceed his revenues, and he cannot explain it ­ it could be grounds for his dismissal, and for the property, which was acquired using the unknown income, to be transferred to state ownership," RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying. "Changes to a number of legislative acts are also expected, in particular, an addition to the Civil Code provision that property acquired using dubious funds be transferred to state revenues."

RIA Novosti wrote that, in particular, if a single purchase of real-estate, cars or company assets exceeded the total of three years' worth of income for the official's family, then that would be grounds for an explanation to be demanded as to the source of the funds. Medvedev announced that work on the new proposals would need to completed by March 22.

A settling of scores

The current provisions mark a change in Medvedev's stance on the issue, however. In November of last year, Medvedev was not so enthusiastic about the idea of expenditure declarations, stating in a meeting with foreign press that "in our environment it could turn into a way of settling scores, or become such a system, which will itself provoke corruption ­ share it with us or we will investigate you for life looking for high expenses," RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying at the time.

Honest working officials are not camels

At the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday, Presidential Administration head Sergei Ivanov reminded journalists of Medvedev's earlier warnings, adding that the monitoring of officials' expenditures should not be allowed to turn into a witch hunt.

"Alpha

On the one hand, you need control on spending, but we cannot turn the process into a witch hunt, a settling of scores, in a figurative sense, that for Russia, unfortunately, could widely become the case," RIA Novosti quoted Ivanov as saying.

"Therefore, we must think about the official's good name, and not create a situation where the official, who in good faith is fulfilling his obligations ­ and they are the majority of us, I dare say ­ will not be able to work, and simply provide accounts and prove that, sorry, he is not a camel."