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All Russia Front blasts bureaucrats' buying expensive cars

The "anti-rating" of local administrations that placed orders for deluxe vehicles came on the heels of the anti-rating of Russian governors

MOSCOW, February 11. /ITAR-TASS/. All Russia Popular Front (ONF) has criticized officials for overspending on expensive cars after looking into procurements for municipal needs, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Tuesday.

The "anti-rating" of local administrations that placed orders for deluxe vehicles came on the heels of the anti-rating of Russian governors. ONF experts analyzed municipalities' purchases using the state procurements website as reference. In particular, they focused on some 200 purchases in the period from September 1, 2013 through January 31, 20124. A large part of orders was priced between 280,000 rubles to 1.12 million rubles. However, the experts reported purchases of cars exceeding these indicators by several times. These cars topped the "anti-ratings," for example the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 purchased by Vladivostok legislators at 3.434 million rubles.

Supervisor of the For Honest Procurements project, co-chairman of the ONF Central Headquarters Alexander Brechalov believes that purchasing expensive cars is wrong by the municipalities with a population of 15,000, 20,000 or 40,000 people.

"The leadership of this or that area should drive cars that a majority of their voters can afford. It is the only way for local authorities to learn to hear the population and its hopes," Brechalov said.

But officials do not think that buying expensive autos is something extraordinary.

"Ninety percent of regional officials could make do with vehicles costing 1.2 million rubles at the most. Our study shows that some municipalities use inexpensive domestic cars, such as Cheverolet Niva, LADA Largus and LADA Granta priced between 280,000 and 750,000 rubles," the ONF co-chairman said.

According to Brechalov, the ONF will forward letters to all the municipalities awarded "anti-ratings" or the local administrations that cancelled tenders for government procurements. "We'll demand that officials justify the choice of expensive cars and ask the governors of those regions to take notice of district officials' purchasing policy," he said.