Accounts Chamber's audit reveals inefficiency of state support for Northern Caucasus

The subsidies allocated to the regions of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) did not remove the tension in the labour market and did not lead to a radical improvement in the investment climate, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation concluded.

There are no noticeable improvements in the NCFD as a whole and in individual regions, the Accounts Chamber of Russia reports. According to it, out of the 27 investment projects planned for 2017-2018, only 9 were implemented, and 577 new jobs appeared. The above facts "cannot radically change the situation in the labour market, given that about 70,000 jobs are created on average in the macroregion annually. The indicator on the volume of the off-budget investments is also not fulfilled: in 2017, only 22% investment of the planned volume was attracted, and in 2018 ­ 36%," reported Svetlana Orlova, an auditor of the Accounts Chamber of Russia at a board meeting.

According to the Russian Accounts Chamber, in 2017-2018, 8.8 billion roubles were allocated from the federal budget for the development of Northern Caucasus under the state programme "Development of the North-Caucasian Federal District for the period until 2025". In 2019, other 2.4 billion roubles were allocated to Northern Caucasus from the federal budget.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 22, 2019 at 02:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.