Government programs need quality review – deputy minister

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 8, 2013) Russian government programs require a quality review, as their funding is not backed by real budget spending, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said at a parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council in Moscow on Tuesday.

“Government programs in key sectors – infrastructure, healthcare, education and science were compiled and considered with financing that is around 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion rubles higher than what has been factored into the budget. In order not to reduce spending in real terms and in percentage to GDP for education, healthcare – for what is currently being compiled, in essence, in the budget system as a whole, – we need a serious, it seems, quality review of government programs,” Klepach said.

This is not something for “one month,” he said.

The 3% economic growth forecast for 2014 is “conservative, but not inertial,” as inertial growth would not permit a 3% growth rate. To achieve the forecast rate of growth next year various measures need to be adopted, including to encourage investment growth.

The deputy minister also confirmed the GDP growth forecast for 2013 at 1.8%, adding that “extrapolation of current trends indicates a lower rate of growth, but we expect things to pick up at the end of the year.”

Klepach told the press that the president and government have instructed all departments to submit amendments and adjustments to government programs by November 1 “taking into account what is written in the budget.” The volume of funding required for the government programs is 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion more each year than envisaged in the three-year budget, he said.