Regional Officials a Little Bit Closer to People – FBK Rating

Experts of the FBK Institute of Strategic Analysis made the rating of “isolation” of the regional officials from the people as in 2013.

Based on the Rosstat data, the average salaries of the officials (employees of executive bodies of the RF subjects) in the region were compared with the average salary in the same RF subject.  (Here the salaries of employees of the territorial federal executive bodies were not regarded.)

As of 2013, the first place in the rating of “isolation” of the regional officials from the people is Khabarovskiy Kray where the salary of officials is almost 2.4 times higher than the average for the region. To the top three also belong the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Avtonomniy Okrug and the Volgograd Oblast. And though the Volgograd Oblast used to be “the second best’ in the rating (as of 2012), the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Avtonomniy Okrug made a leap up from the 15th place in the rating (as of 2012) to the 2nd.

The highest average monthly salary of the regional officials in 2013, like in 2012, was in the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Avtonomniy Okrug – 169502 roubles. The lowest in the Ingush Republic - 25737 roubles (the average lowest salary for the economy was also there – 21648 roubles). The largest “leap up” was made by the officials in the Stavropol Kray: 26 lines up in the rating for the year (from 45the to 19th). The largest “gap” is with the officials of the Moscow Oblast: 43 lines down (from 17th to 60th).

The honorary last place in the rating is taken by Moscow for the fourth year running where the salary of a regional official (69418 roubles) exceeds the average for the city (68246 roubles) by 2% only, with the decreased gap of 7% as of 2012. In the other capital city of St-Petersburg the salaries of officials (73453 roubles) turned out to be by 69% higher than the average monthly salary in the city (43579 roubles). In 2012 the gap was 77%.

The number of regions with the salaries of over 1.5 times exceeding the average salary for these regions reduced to 54 (in 2012 there were 56 of them, in 2011– 66). That is, in the majority of regions the salaries of regional officials are still noticeably higher than the average salary for the region; however, the number of such regions is gradually going down.

If in 2010 the average salary of officials of the regional executive bodies exceeded the average for the country by 65%, as of 2011 the excess was 62%, as of 2012 such excess was 56%, then as of 2013 it was 52%. “That confirms the trend towards approximation of the salary level of officials with the average for the country, which is a positive process,” states Igor Nikolayev, the FBK Institute of Strategic Analysis Director.

However, in about a quarter of all the regions (in 24 RF subjects) the opposite picture could be observed – the gap between the salaries of officials and rank and file people increased. The leader in the “separation increase” is the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Avtonomniy Okrug with the gap between the salaries of officials and the average for the regions increase from 1.9 up to 2.4 times.

As the FBK experts point out, the overall result of the rating –“more and more close to the people” – is quite natural. First of all, the situation with the regional budgets is gaining tension, their scarcity grows. Secondly, in such situation the Federal center’s attitude towards the accelerated growth of officials’ salaries is negative, “Although, the federal officials themselves are not characterized with modesty in regard to the growth of the own salaries,” noted Igor Nikolayev. The growth of salaries of officials of the central federal executive bodies was 36.5% as compared with the level of 2012.

“Rating of discrepancy” as of 2012

“Rating of discrepancy” as of 2013