Sverdlovsk Region Government is complying with the order of Head of Government Denis Pasler and is trying to cut down on the budget expenses by selling some cars from the government fleet of automobiles. These are passenger cars produced in Russia or abroad, vans, trailers, buses, and heavy-duty and special vehicles – fifteen units altogether, the government’s press service reports.

In fact, the Governor Administration and Sverdlovsk Region Government’s car park comprises 280 items.

‘Automobiles were typically assigned according to needs, based on the Governor Administration and the Government’s top officials’ orders. Some cars were also allocated to ministries and departments. After an analysis of how the passenger cars are used was done, it became clear that the officials travel to places to discuss the issues that could be resolved remotely. We should also consider pooling to avoid cases when the officers from the different departments of one and the same ministry use different cars,’ the message states.

Among the cars put to auction are the ones that cost between 150,000 RUR and 250,000 RUR a year to maintain, primarily Nissan Maxima makes. It has been roughly estimated that repair savings will come to 3.5m RUR at the first stage of the program alone.

‘At the second stage, we’ll sell all of our Nissan cars (35 units), as the car manufacturer does not produce any car parts for this brand, so the mileage will keep on growing while the repairs will keep on becoming costlier.’