Translated material
Vertical of sabotage
The Prime Minister, following the President, admitted that officials do not carry out his instructions
Over the past week , first President Dmitry Medvedev , and yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, publicly assessed the work of their subordinates in a very impartial manner. They actually admitted that the orders of the top officials of the state are chronically not fulfilled. As experts interviewed by Vremya Novostey note, the authorities’ failure to comply is increasing year by year. This is a systemic problem, which is additionally superimposed by the psychology of the crisis, making officials feel even more acutely like temporary workers.Last Wednesday, during a video meeting on the progress of implementing the instructions of the head of state, Dmitry Medvedev indicated where non-executive officials who are delaying the implementation of the instructions given to them could go - to the street. The thematic meeting contained many angry reprisals from Mr. Medvedev against both federal and regional bureaucrats.
And on Monday, the Prime Minister used a specific example to draw similar conclusions - Vladimir Putin demanded the dismissal of officials who failed to adopt standards to reduce prices in the construction industry. Yesterday, the head of government received his deputy Dmitry Kozak, who reported on the state of affairs with the adoption of building standards. The Prime Minister was surprised that with lower salaries, as well as the cost of electricity and materials in Russia, construction work is often more expensive than in Europe. Even despite the fact that recently work has been underway to change the principles of pricing in this industry.
As a result, the cost of construction, including facilities of national importance (for the APEC summit in Vladivostok and the Olympics in Sochi), has increased - a result, according to the prime minister, that is the opposite of expectations and the tasks set. As Mr. Kozak said, by now updated estimated construction standards have been approved, but for some items the work has been carried out formally, which has led to an increase in construction costs.
The Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers was outraged by this attitude to the matter: “Officials who implement government decisions in this way should be immediately relieved of their positions. I ask you to submit proposals as soon as possible—right today.” The head of the Ministry of Regional Development, Viktor Basargin, yesterday already proposed dismissing his deputy Sergei Kruglik, who oversees construction and housing and communal services issues in the department.
The very facts of such ineffectiveness of the executive branch no longer surprise anyone, and even double control - on the part of the president and the prime minister - does not help. Experts consider this a systemic problem that cannot be solved by the sporadic activity of senior officials.
“The problem is the general inefficiency of the system, which has taken on too much functionality, is plunged into turnover and cannot determine priorities,” says Anton Danilov-Danilyan, former head of the economic department (now the expert department) of the presidential administration, now head of the expert council “ Business Russia". “For an order to be truly carried out, it must be prepared. In my time, departments of the administration worked quite clearly on the preparation of the president’s instructions, which endorsed the instructions, previously called up the executors, and studied their resources - financial security, personnel. Only those instructions that were written with a pen in the margin were at risk of non-fulfillment,” recalls a former Kremlin administration official. Mr. Danilov-Danilyan found it difficult to assess how exactly the system works now, but noted that recently he had to listen to many comments about the low competence of civil servants.
Evgeny Yasin, scientific director of the State University Higher School of Economics, Minister of Economy in the mid-1990s, and before that the head of the presidential analytical center, believes that inefficiency is inherent in the very nature of the current bureaucracy. Officials carry out only those instructions that they themselves consider reasonable. In addition, there is a negative effect of tandemocracy, when the president is forced, including through the head of the prime minister, to control the work of the federal government. And the chairman of the government himself, in order not to bring discord into the tandem, has to demonstrate that ministers and officials not only do not care about the president’s instructions, but also sabotage the instructions of their direct superiors.
“These are all natural consequences of the administrative reform of the 2000s, which consisted mainly of ostentatious shake-ups of the structure of government agencies - from ministries to departments, agencies and back,” recalls the history of the formation of modern Russian bureaucracy, director of the department of strategic analysis of the FBK company Igor Nikolaev . He also has experience working in government agencies in the 1990s, including as an adviser to the government apparatus. But the main thing was not done - no effective motivation for the work of officials was proposed: the majority perceives their official position as a source of rent. “In addition, the situation worsened due to the crisis, when many people developed a pronounced psychology of temporary workers. At the same time, officials understand that finding a competent replacement overnight is not so easy, which means that the boss will think more than once before dismissing an employee,” says Mr. Nikolaev.