"Using its political influence, the government forces numerous legislative initiatives, many of which are unviable, through the parliament," said Mironov when presenting his report "On the State of Legislation in the Russian Federation" to the Federation Council.
Mironov believes that frequent amendments made to the current legislation are "evidence of the extremely low quality of law-making work characterized now by negligence and overhastiness."
As an example, the Federation Council speaker cited the situation that arose around Law 122 (the so-called benefits law).
"This useful and correct idea was not properly prepared from the point of view of its implementation. The authors of the law in the government assured us that not a single citizen would feel that his situation has grown worse, but we can see it quite well what has happened in reality." Mironov continued.
He cited statistics of introducing amendments to the Tax Code: over six years of its existence, this document had 82 wordings which were changed more than once a month. "A similar situation has evolved around the Budget Code, with amendments being made to adjust the Code to the next year's draft budget," Mironov noted.
He is convinced that "the domination of the executive branch in law-making leads to the instability of legislation, its subordination to the pressing needs and even convenience of various ministries and departments."
"We are doing the government's bidding and believe that the laws will be improved by amendments and additions. This approach should have been given up long ago," the speaker called on his colleagues.
The Federation Council's report cites disappointing statistics on introduced and adopted legislative initiatives. Thus, in 2004, State Duma deputies submitted 353 draft laws of which 65 were adopted, the Federation Council submitted 56 draft laws, with three adopted, and the regions put forward 451 legislative initiatives, with two passed into law.
The Federation Council's report will be submitted to the president, the government, the State Duma, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Arbitration, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation for consideration.
