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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged regions to live according to their means and stop inflating budget expenditures.

Consolidated regional and municipal budget expenditures in 2009 increased by 4 percent and in some regions by more than 25 percent, Putin said at a meeting of the commission on regional development on Monday.

He noted that many regions are increasing public administration and other such expenditures. "On the whole, consolidated regional and municipal budget expenditures for administrative bodies in 2009 increased by 4 percent, and in some regions by more than 25 percent," the prime minister said, adding that the growth was 38 percent in the Magadan region, 30 percent in Ingushetia, 25 percent in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 27 percent in Moscow, and 24 percent in Adygeya.

"The following arguments are put forth: the overall workload for the administrative personnel is increasing and money is needed for the work of anti-crisis groups, monitoring and other additional functions. New funding is secured for such tasks," Putin said.

"Anti-crisis management should be ensured by way of internal redistribution of resources and personnel, saving in less important areas rather than by inflating staffs and budgets," he added.

He urged regions to live according to their means.

"When drafting the budget for 2010 we sharply reduced ministerial and departmental expenditures," Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

Administrative expenditures were cut by 30 percent in 2009 and will be cut by another 15 percent in 2010. "The overall reduction will exceed 40 percent," the minister said.

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