MOSCOW, March 11 (RAPSI) - Members of the United Russia party, Irina Yarovaya and Mikhail Starshinov, have proposed a bill to the State Duma that introduces a separate article in the Criminal Code for state procurement theft, RIA Novosti reports Wednesday.

Currently, the crime is categorized as fraud and abuse of power punishable by up to ten years in prison.

According to the bill, the embezzlement of funds and property related to goods and services purchased for federal and municipal purposes without aggravating circumstances could be punishable by up to six years.

If the value of stolen property or funds exceeds 6 million rubles ($95,300) and the theft was carried out by an organized criminal group or while carrying out a defense related state contract, the crime would be punishable by seven to 20 years.

Yarovaya said the parliament party has also proposed amendments to contract law, according to which the contractor and executor must report any co-executors (subcontractors). At the moment, this obligation occurs only when the contract value is over one billion rubles ($16 mln) for federal and 100 million rubles ($1.6 mln) for municipal purposes. “We believe this must be required regardless of the contract value,” the parliament member said.

Aggravating circumstances for the crime include abuse of authority and bribe taking when the theft occurs during execution of a state, municipal or defense procurement order.