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Social Funds Leak to Non-Poor Beneficiaries
Russia’s income-tested social assistant programs that account for 0.5 percent of GDP are hardly efficient. In five regions, over a half of the money recipients couldn’t be referred to the poor category, signaled the World Bank report. The resources reach no more than 20 of actually poor beneficiaries.
In Russia, the income-tested social assistance programs, including child allowances, housing allowances, regional programs targeted exclusively at the poorest, couldn’t be called efficient, showed the National Report that the World Bank released April 24 based on a year study of such programs in five regions of the country– Karachaevo-Cherkess Autonomous District, Kalmykia, Tatarstan, Tver Region and Tomsk Region.
Due to the low-grade preparation and/or implementation of such programs, the resources go not to the poor beneficiaries but to the rather wealthy Russians; allowances reach no more than 20 percent of those in real need. In 2005, for instance, 55 percent of children and 62 percent of housing allowances' beneficiaries of Leningrad Region couldn’t be referred to the poorest category. Tomsk Region had 54 percent and 73 percent in 2006 respectively.
The core reason of such mediocre performance is the failure to take into consideration some crucial aspects, including the effect of the shadowy economy in Russia (44 percent of GDP in 2003, according to the World Bank), which prevents from generating adequate data on income.
So, the World Bank’s recommendation to Russia’s government is to elaborate more precise methods of determining the income of beneficiaries and improve monitoring of poverty fighting programs.
In the federal ministries, they practically declined to comment on the World Bank conclusions, specifying they knew not less than that bank’s experts about the social programs.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 26, 2007
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