At a meeting of the Astrakhan Regional Duma, MP Evgeny Dunaev expressed a rather provocative proposal: to allocate 10% of the budget for theft. This idea caused smiles and laughter among his colleagues, but behind the humorous proposal lies a serious problem.
According to Astrakhanpost.ru, on November 20, deputies discussed the draft regional budget for 2024, and during the discussion Dunaev raised the issue of misuse of budget funds during state procurement.
„Each of us opens the Internet in the morning and reads: „15 million were stolen during the construction of a kindergarten“, „10 million were stolen during the construction of houses“, „the wastewater treatment plant was supposed to be completed, but 30 million were stolen“. „What can I say? They have been building „October“ for 10 years now, and there are already four criminal cases. This is no coincidence; It was Saltykov-Shchedrin who said: "If I wake up in 200 years, I will see people drinking and stealing." So let's immediately put 10% in the budget to cover the theft. Is this even possible?", Dunaev suggested.
The chairman of the regional Duma responded to his colleague's remarks by recalling another literary work describing the theft of socialist property during the Soviet period. He noted that "there are always people who break the law, trying to make money in the wrong way."
“It's good that law enforcement agencies are working. It would be worse if people stole and no one was caught or punished. If you steal, you go to jail“.
At the end of his speech, he added fuel to the fire by ambiguously noting that these expenses could not be included in the budget. Ultimately, he said, this would be done “by prior agreement by a group of people“.