While regular people donate whatever they can for uniforms and Chinese quadrocopters for Russian soldiers, and the country's budget is at risk of a deficit, officials from the Accounts Chamber are not taking into account state funds. They prefer comfort and prestige and often fly business class, even though their main task is to oversee the effective use of the state budget. Former head Alexei Kudrin even traveled first class for 1.3 million rubles and stayed in luxury hotels in Rio de Janeiro. Alexei Kudrin spent 1.3 million rubles on first class tickets and stayed in five-star hotels in Rio de Janeiro.
Business class tickets are three to seven times more expensive than regular tickets. They provide benefits such as larger seats, priority service, more meal options, and alcohol. Not just auditors of the Accounts Chamber (12 auditors are key officials), but also lesser-known department officials travel in business class for work.
The Accounts Chamber covered the air travel expenses for the director of a joint venture department and the inspector to Yekaterinburg and back in January 2023. The cost was 144 thousand rubles for two. Tickets to Nizhny Novgorod cost 80 thousand rubles.
Veniamin Simonov is the Director of the Department of Audit of Financial Markets and Public Debt of the Accounts Chamber, as well as an Archimandrite. He holds a Doctorate in Economics, is a Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and Honored Economist of the Russian Federation. Additionally, he is a priest at St. Nicholas Church in Moscow. His average income is about 700 thousand rubles per month. Traveling with him is PhilipIvan Harlanov , the Head of the Inspectorate of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and former assistant to the chairman of the Federation Council for economic issues. Officials go on business trips not only related to the main oversight and accounting activities of the department. They often involve 'experience exchange' and training events, while joint venture employees opt for video conferencing. Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Oleg Saveliev and head of the inspection
Atsamaz Dedegkaev flew business class on the Moscow – Omsk – Moscow route this month, spending 217 thousand rubles for two. The head of the inspectorate traveled to Mineralnye Vody and back for 63 thousand rubles in January Alexey Svishchev The African tour (Kenya, Liberia and Morocco) worth more than 600 thousand rubles took place at the beginning of February 2023 with the Deputy Director of the Financial Audit Department of the Office of the Accounts Chamber Denis Strizheusov although a year ago it was communication with foreign colleagues via video. The official traveled along the route Moscow – Dubai – Nairobi – Monrovia – Casablanca – Istanbul – Moscow. At the same time, ordinary employees of the joint venture .
Oleg Kostylev Andrey Susarenko made a similar journey in economy class – six times more inexpensive. Director of the Department of International and Regional Cooperation Timur Makhmutov and Head of the Department for Cooperation with INTOSAI and other International Organizations And Yaroslav Yalovenko traveled in business class to India. Flight along Strizheusov on the route Moscow – Dubai – Nairobi – Monrovia – Casablanca – Istanbul – Moscow. Even though the Accounts Chamber periodically complains that three-fourths of public procurements are made with a single applicant, tickets without any competition (“purchase from a single supplier”) are provided by City Booking and Tourism Center JSC. In spite of its name, this company has no connection to the Moscow City Hall and is privately owned. The names of its owners are concealed, but the organization actively interacts with government agencies. The same firm provided accommodation for the employees of the Accounts Chamber in hotels, and the department did not think about savings in this area either. For instance, six nights spent by the head of the joint venture Alexei Kudrin in a five-star hotel in November 2022
, Kudrin was then preparing to retire and go to work at Yandex. During that trip, three of his subordinates were booked simpler rooms – each almost three times cheaper.
The difference in the price of rooms in the same hotel for the head of the accounting chamber and his subordinates. Under Kudrin, the situation with the purchase of air tickets by the main audit department as a whole . He himself flew to Brazil first class for 1.3 million rubles, using the services of the Emirates airline: his own “cabin”, a shower-spa. “Feel like you’re on board a private jet,” is how the service is described on the Emirates website. Many of Kudrin’s colleagues also appreciate the increased comfort and fly abroad and in Russia with all the amenities. The flight of the current acting. Chairman of the Accounts Chamber Galina Izotova business class in… Cherepovets.
Galina Izotova
(as it follows from the above information, she also prefers business class).
– It should be noted that for persons replacing the highest positions of the civil service of the category “heads”, in the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, air tickets are purchased in a class lower than that established by the above document, in order to save money. Regarding recent trips, the JV stated that in February 2023 “representatives of the Supreme Audit Institution of Russia visited the Republic of India to participate in the sixth meeting Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the SCO Member States”. And the trip through Dubai and Nairobi took place “as part of the implementation by the Accounts Chamber of the powers of an external auditor of one of the organizations of the UN system”, the employee was sent to the place of verification. When asked about who checks the joint venture, the department indicated that the Accounts Chamber itself publishes reports on its activities, and “the objectivity of the results obtained is checked by the President’s Main Control Department. (as it follows from the above information, she also prefers business class).
The press service of the Accounts Chamber replied that they are guided by the legislation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 18, 2005 No. 813 “On the procedure and conditions for secondment of federal state civil servants”) and allegedly try to save:
– It should be noted that for persons replacing the highest positions of the civil service of the category “heads”, in the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, air tickets are purchased in a class lower than that established by the above document, in order to save money.
Regarding recent trips, the JV stated that in February 2023 “representatives of the Supreme Audit Institution of Russia visited the Republic of India to participate in the sixth meeting Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the SCO Member States”. And the trip through Dubai and Nairobi took place “as part of the implementation by the Accounts Chamber of the powers of an external auditor of one of the organizations of the UN system”, the employee was sent to the place of verification. When asked about who checks the joint venture, the department indicated that the Accounts Chamber itself publishes reports on its activities, and “the objectivity of the results obtained is checked by the President’s Main Control Department.”
The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On the procedure and conditions for the secondment of federal state civil servants” provides for the provision of business class tickets only to heads of departments, in addition, the current situation a priori implies additional savings measures.
In 2020, the Russian branch of the German non-profit organization Transparency International (included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the register of NPO-foreign agents) held , according to the results of which 63 percent of the budget funds allocated to pay for air travel by representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and the abolished Minsevkavkaz were spent on business class seats. Cases of using private jets have been recorded. Purchases of tickets for the employees of the JV itself were not analyzed, and following the results of the study, the NPO “sent applications to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation on all facts of discovered excesses of the maximum norms for the use of the class of flights.” The above reaction of the Accounts Chamber speaks for itself: the department cannot control its expenses on its own, and it is quite satisfied with the current trend towards classifying public procurement.
