Mishustin introduced new technologies to the Federal Tax Service through dubious schemes

Mikhail Mishustin is praised for the incredibly successful increase in tax collection, however, they are now less collected in dollar terms than in 2012.
17.02.2020
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The Insider analyzed the results of the activities of the Federal Tax Service over the years of Mishustin’s leadership and found that the increase in tax revenues, to put it mildly, was not so impressive, but the impression was made by the amounts spent on informatization of the department and passed through a dubious laying company.

Doubtful contracts

Compared with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the judicial system of the Federal Tax Service, it is a relatively small department (about 150 thousand employees) with a modest budget: at the time of Mishustin's arrival, it was 97 billion rubles. At the same time, the department spent tremendous funds on software development - from 2011 to 2019, the department spent more than 30 billion rubles on these needs, and more than 12.4 billion rubles were paid to create the Tax-3 system for state contracts since 2016 ( The Federal Tax Service has been creating this system since 2016 - and so far it has not earned at full capacity).

The main contractor of the Federal Tax Service is the company OA GNIVTS (“Main Scientific Innovation Implementation Center”). Until 2016, its founder, according to the SPARK database, was the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate No. 19 for the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and now the center has been transferred to the Federal Tax Service of Russia. The enterprise is headed by Alexander Antonov, who was the chairman of the property management committee of the Khimki city administration. For 9 years, GNIEC has received contracts from the Federal Tax Service in the amount of 24 billion rubles, many of which raise questions. For example, in 2019, the company received half a billion (5.15 million rubles) in a row to create a tax system in Uzbekistan - the contract was concluded within the framework of “free technical assistance” to the fraternal republic and provided for the analysis and development of the concept of both business administration and corporate identity of tax authorities Of Uzbekistan. Why suddenly the Russian tax authorities began to provide assistance to Uzbekistan free of charge and why the “development of the concept” required as much as half a billion rubles - is unclear.

The GNIEC received 9.2 billion rubles for the development of the same Tax-3 system. At least part of these contracts worth 2.6 billion rubles was subcontracted. The contracts were concluded in the framework of Federal Law 223, which allows hiding the winners of the auction, and in almost all cases, the purchase was carried out from a single supplier. Thus, the GNIEC itself determined who will be the developer of the system, but no competition was held. The largest orders for subcontracts from GNIEC and direct contracts from the Federal Tax Service were received by the infamous IBS Group structure of businessman Anatoly Karachinky: contracts were concluded with the IBS Expertiza and IBS Consulting companies. In total, 13.7 billion rubles were paid to these companies for system maintenance of hardware and software of the AIS of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, of which 1.1 billion rubles were paid to create the Tax-3 system. The IBS Group regularly acts as a contractor for state contracts and in 2018 was at the center of the scandal over the procurement of the FSIN, a criminal case was opened under the article on fraud. Then the investigators suspected a conspiracy between the agency and the company “IBS Expertise” upon receipt of a contract for 50 million rubles for the supply of equipment for connecting to the Internet in the colonies.

Effective but expensive

Experts have no questions about the effectiveness of the system built by the Federal Tax Service, it is well integrated with various government departments and really greatly simplifies administration.

“The Federal Tax Service has built a system of a fundamentally new class that allows you to process data nationwide and makes economic processes transparent - it collects all tax deductions as a mosaic,” said Vladimir Rubanov, Managing Director of Rosplatforma, to The Insider. His company also participated in the development of software for data centers of the tax service. “The same system of government services is at least two orders of magnitude simpler. The Federal Tax Service system has made centralized work with all citizens of the country - in fact, this is the register of citizens. For example, even small registry offices in the regions now have their own client access to central data centers, ”says Rubanov.

But was it worth 30 billion rubles? For comparison, the GAS “Justice” system, combining all courts of general jurisdiction with the creation of their sites and connecting to internal closed circuits, according to the RBC portal, at the time of 2015 cost the budget 21 billion rubles, and then it was criticized for its high cost: experts compared it with a file of arbitration courts (“Arbiter” CAD), which cost an order of magnitude cheaper — the total cost of its creation did not exceed 100 million rubles, although it is more progressive due to the automation of processes (thanks to it for electronic document management arb arbitration courts moved in 2010).

Experts interviewed by The Insider found it difficult to assess the adequacy of the scale of funds allocated by the Federal Tax Service, agreeing only that 30 billion for the development and implementation of information systems is an unprecedentedly large amount that is not comparable with other departments.

Modest results

State channels draw for Mishustin the image of an ultra-efficient and progressive manager who has achieved unprecedented success in increasing tax revenues. But what is this growth really?

Mishustin headed the department in 2010 - and already in 2011 the introduction of new technologies began. In rubles, the growth of tax revenues looks spectacular, on average more than a trillion a year - in the period from 2012 to 2029, revenues doubled (from 11 to 22 trillion). But it is in rubles. In dollar terms, less taxes are collected in Russia today than in 2012:

Mishustin himself in his reports reports on his work diplomatically: "The growth of tax revenues is ahead of the pace of GDP growth." Given that since 2014, GDP has not been growing, this, of course, is a feasible task. But even if we consider the increase in tax revenues in rubles, taking into account inflation over 10 years, tax revenues have increased by about 30% since 2011. However, one should not forget that tax rates have also increased over this time, therefore not all of this growth is associated with an increase in tax collection and the exit of the market from the shadow sector.

Officials

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