Top news Western Siberia: Aman Tuleev, Association of Indigenous Peoples

October 26 – November 1

Regions of Western Siberia referred to a traditional method of optimizing expenses – Kemerovo and Altai Region authorities decided to cut down apparatus expenses and eliminate unnecessary positions among municipal officials. Association of Indigenous Peoples hopes to start a pilot home construction project in Altai. Read weekly report by FederalPress.

Kemerovo/Kuzbass

Governor of Kemerovo Region Aman Tuleev warned municipal authorities of the region that they are not allowed to increase salaries for municipal officials or pay them additional bonuses for work. Whereas all payments to budget-dependent professionals should be made in full volume. The governor also initiated a check-up of the number of employees of the municipal administrations to ensure there are no unnecessary jobs.

Altai Region

Authorities of Altai Region followed suit in optimizing expenses for the local governance apparatus. Vice-governor Vladimir Pritupov announced that the expenses will be cut down by 10% next year. Often tax payments to the municipal budgets aren’t enough to cover the expenses for the municipal apparatus, or people are hired for unnecessary jobs while actually needed specialists are missing.

Republic of Altai

Republic of Altai might soon become the first region in Russia where the government will build homes for ethnic minorities. This pilot project suggests constructing contemporary infrastructure and homes in places where indigenous peoples of Altai currently reside. The project is lobbied in the State Duma by president of the Association of Indigenous Peoples Artyom Sumachakov.

Tomsk Region

Tomsk Region reports increase of oil production by 1.6% (making 7.58 million tons of oil) as of September 2009. This rise was achieved mainly thanks to minor oil companies which usually occupied only 8% of the oil market in the region. Now their proportion in oil production makes 23%. At the same time Tomskneft controlled by Gazprom and RosNeft reduced its oil production plan by 300 thousand tons and now reports it failed to achieved declared production volume.