MINSK, 20 October (BelTA) – Making sure that every ruble from the budget of the Union State of Belarus and Russia is spent effectively is a number one priority in complicated current conditions when economic activities in various spheres in Belarus and Russia have slowed down. Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus Leonid Anfimov made the statement during the joint session of the boards of the State Control Committee of Belarus and the Accounts Chamber of Russia on 20 October, BelTA has learned.
The official pointed out that spending all the resources the budget has to offer is still a problem although underspending has been reduced since 2014. Still nearly RUB255 million was left unspent in 2015. Accrued surplus balances have reached staggering sums — nearly RUB2 billion as of 1 January 2016.
Leonid Anfimov said that while the Russian economy and the Belarusian one suffer from a certain lack of funds, the Union State budget demonstrates quite a surplus. Interesting programs that the Union State budget could finance are available. “Our ministries, organizations, and commercial entities should work harder searching for money to resolve problems of mutual interest for Belarus and Russia,” said the official.
An analysis of how Belarusian-Russian programs are fulfilled indicates that since 2010 the number of joint programs has been halved — from 18 to 9, with financial support down by 20.5%. In 2015 the money spent on implementing programs totaled 67.9% of the overall spending. “Audits indicate that there are several problems in need of our attention and resolution,” stressed the Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus.
At present nine joint programs are being implemented, with their funding at RUB3.2 billion (99.6% of the planned budget appropriations). Gross spending by customers and executors of the programs amounted to RUB3.166 billion (98.4% of the financed volume).
Transactions by the participating states represent the bulk of the revenues of the Union State budget. The size of the contributions has been unchanged since 2009. In 2015 revenues of the Union State budget totaled RUB4.9 billion, with spending at RUB4.7 billion (94.8% of the planned amount).
During the session on 20 October representatives of the Belarusian and Russian auditing agencies adopted a joint action plan for 2017. The document provides for carrying out a number of joint and parallel auditing measures.
The joint session was held as a video conference. Participants discussed the fulfillment of the Union State budget in 2015. The event was chaired by heads of the auditing agencies Leonid Anfimov and Tatiana Golikova. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Igor Petrishenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov, Deputy State Secretary of the Union State Ivan Bambiza, representatives of the Permanent Committee of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia were also present during the session.
