The Mechanism of Using a Single Subvention by General Education Institutions and Ways to Increase its Effectiveness

Interbudgetary relations is one of the main issues of public administration, in which intergovernmental transfers play an important role. This paper discusses the issue of one of the forms of interbudgetary transfers - subventions, or rather, a single subvention and its use in educational institutions of the Perm Territory. The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that the procedure for financing free public education is changing. In terms of providing guarantees for its receipt, a new element of the legal system appeared (in 2013) - a single subvention. The concept of "single subvention" is absent in the Budget Code and other federal laws of the Russian Federation. In the scientific literature, there are not enough explanations on the application of a single subvention in practice. Data on the effectiveness and legality of spending a single subvention by general educational institutions are not publicly available, so it was important to model the problems, study the mechanism of its use in the Perm Territory, and identify ways to improve the efficiency of this mechanism. This study was carried out in the Perm Territory for the first time. Working as a member of the Commission of the Perm Territory Chamber of Control (hereinafter referred to as the KSP) to check the expenditure of a single subvention in educational institutions, the necessary information was obtained. Objects of the control measure were the Ministry of Education and Science of the Perm Territory, the Department of Education of the administrations of the Perm, Kudymkarsky, Yurlinsky municipal districts of the Perm Territory, the city of Kungur, ten municipal educational organizations.The information of local self-government bodies of the Perm Territory on the use of a single subvention, provided by them at the request of the KSP, was also studied. Period checked: from 2017 to the first half of 2019. The audit showed that general education institutions use almost all allocated budget funds. However, during the control event, violations / problems were identified, the main of which are facts of inappropriate, unlawful and ineffective use of a single subvention. Most violations are in the inappropriate use of a single subvention. Of 38 626 603.0 thousand rubles transferred from the budget of the Perm Territory, 2 162 904.5 thousand rubles (5.6%) amounted to the amount of non-earmarked expenses, which, in accordance with Art. 8 of the Federal Law on Education [Federal Law 273-FZ] were to be paid not through subventions. In a number of schools, facts of unlawful spending of budgetary funds were revealed, expressed in unauthorized payments of wages in the absence of legal grounds for these payments. The facts of ineffective use of subventions were also revealed, expressed in violation of the procedures of the contract system in the field of procurement and the purchase of services / works at inflated prices from a single supplier. The facts of violation of the terms of concluding agreements on the provision of interbudgetary transfers, the terms of transferring a single subvention to municipal districts and urban districts, facts of providing schools with inaccurate reports, understating local standards for educational expenses were revealed. To understand the causes of violations, as well as what factors have the greatest impact on the subject of the study (the practice of providing and using a single subvention from the budget of the Perm Territory), I conducted a factor analysis using a questionnaire method in the form of an electronic survey heads of educational institutions of the Perm region. This was the first time such a survey was conducted in the Perm Territory. Statistical processing of the survey results made it possible to determine the generalized opinion of school leaders and their percentages on the subject of the study. The results are presented in this work. All this made it possible to generalize the identified problems and violations, to formulate recommendations for targeted, legitimate and effective spending of a single subvention in the field of school education. Given the relevance of this topic, I believe that the conclusions and recommendations can be studied and used in the practical work of other regions of the Russian Federation.