Projects for the development of small towns in Russia are not being implemented effectively enough, although serious money is allocated from the budget for these purposes. This conclusion was reached by the auditors of the Accounting Chamber. The report was published on the agency’s website.
The main problem was the distribution of funds without control and goals. As the auditor Svetlana Orlova writes, neither quantitative nor qualitative performance indicators are spelled out in the agreements concluded with the regions. We also did not find any measures of responsibility for violations of obligations assumed in the contracts.
Thus, according to the report, the declared socio-economic effect of the programs that won the aid competition have not been achieved. The state has been allocating money for the development of cities and historical settlements since 2018. As of the end of last year, 166 out of 240 projects were implemented, 15 billion rubles were spent on them.
In addition, in their applications, the program participants promised to attract funds from regional and local budgets, as well as private investments within the framework of co-financing. However, only three quarters of the regions provided such statistics, and they managed to attract only 1.9 billion rubles, or 48 percent of the declared volume.
The Accounts Chamber proposed to appoint a responsible body for spending on the development of small towns, so that he would control the projects themselves and their implementation. This will eliminate such situations as in Pereslavl-Zalessky.
The authorities of this city in the Yaroslavl region indicated the presence of parking on the main square as a key problem. But after spending the money, the parking situation has not changed. As it turned out, the improvement of the square was not included in the final list of works, as well as the creation of two more objects for which funds were allocated.
Deputy Head of the Ministry of Construction Yuri Gordeev agreed with the claims of the Accounts Chamber and promised to finalize the regulatory documents and establish additional requirements. At the same time, he pointed out that the program for the development of small towns is in demand and has shown a good effect. The official did not specify which one.
Earlier, the Accounts Chamber found out that the task of ensuring the availability of mass sports for Russians has not been solved in the volumes that were planned. The main funds were spent on the construction of new facilities, but their visit was not available to most citizens.