Elena Dubrovina (right) at a session (No. 48) of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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Parties May Get Simplified Accounting
The Central Election Commission has published the results of its financial audit of the political parties for 2007. Once again, no irregularities were found, and so the CEC is considering simplifying the accounting process. According to the CEC, the main violations in the procedure are the failure to file accounts or late filing and accepting sums exceeding the legal limits or failure to return those sums. There were 199 cases in which territorial offices of the Federal Registration Service were informed and in seven cases, regional offices of parties were charges with administrative violations.
There are cases, when large sums cannot be returned because of incomplete information from the donor and other reasons. The CEC does not consider that a serious violation, but a technical violation. CEC member Elena Dubrovina stated that “Parties need to have the opportunity to correct technical errors before the accounts are published. And the accounts are too complex. The forms need to be maximally simplified.” She intends to make those proposals to the commission. The parties are in favor of her suggestions. “Large volumes of funds returned by the parties shows that the requirements for party financing are excessively regulated,” commented State Duma member and head of the Communist Party legal service Vadim Solovyev.
United Russia Party representative on the CEC Sergey Kostenko agreed with Dubrovina. He also suggested a system of arbitration when a party and the regulator differ on a financial issue. But he emphasized the need to distinguish election time from non-election time. “A violation of procedure during an election campaign has to be monitored more strictly during an election campaign, with appropriate sanctions, up to exclusion from participation in the election,” he said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 22, 2008
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