Translated material
"SOS" signal
Mikhail Fradkov and Alexey Kudrin disagreed on raising children and budget planning
The first attempt to discuss at a government meeting the most important postulate of administrative reform - namely, the transfer of ministries to planning expenses based on the specific stated goals of their activities - ended in embarrassment. Ministries are so vague in formulating the goals for which they are asking for funds so clearly that the chief government treasurer, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, was yesterday forced to play the role of a gloomy prophet. He directly stated that he considered his colleagues’ idea to place the “Consolidated Report of Government Actions up to 2008” at the center of budget planning as inadequate.Yesterday, at the next government meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov spoke about this document. He spoke about the tasks set by ministries and departments and their partial implementation (where this happened), about the methodology for assessing the work of regions (“fives” or “twos” were given, in particular, based on per capita income) and even about new trends in the development of global economy.
Mr. Zhukov prioritized solving the problem of quickly achieving “result-based budgeting.” Not in ten years, like developed countries, but faster. “Your key word is correct - planning!” - the Prime Minister rejoiced at the strategic thinking of his colleagues.
Some ministers encouraged and approved the report. For example, the head of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Mikhail Zurabov, noted as a virtue “forcing executive authorities to reflect” on their activities. But he admitted that there are a huge number of legislative restrictions on the path to “result-based budgeting”. But the Minister of Agriculture, Alexei Gordeev, spoke out against the idea that all cabinet members should adapt to the policy of the Ministry of Finance.
“One minister believes that he is in charge, and the main thing is to contain inflation. But we believe that it is important to come to the village and explain how we will fight poverty, how we will develop,” he complained and expressed hope for more constructive interaction with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development. “Two years ago we received a budget pacifier, we are working, We hope that we will get it, but you won’t be full from the pacifier,” Mr. Gordeev tried to reach the consciousness of his colleagues.
“The pacifier has one drawback - it spits out,” Mikhail Fradkov, the father of two sons, shared his experience. And he continued: “The child is growing, now you are growing, we are growing, the government is growing, when we reach the level of economic and strategic planning, then the budget will stop exist with its own life." And then he said, quite in the spirit of Dr. Spock: "But over time, the body demands as it grows, and the world develops, and trends, well, the pacifier will spit out sooner or later, or the bottle will have to be put down."
An extended comparison of budget planning with the development of an infant’s body gradually moved on to the resulting part: “Therefore, we demand that ministers quickly formulate program documents so that it would be easier for Alexei Leonidovich (Kudrin - Ed. ) to change equipment, from formula milk to something else , make it better, in volume - the same, but more nutritious."
The prime minister, who had acquired a taste for it, did not let up. “Before, this issue (long-term budget planning - Ed. ) would not have arisen, before everything was done at the level of the nipple and the baby, but the child is growing, and now we need to check what is going on in your children’s room. You have toys there scattered in all corners and the diapers were not changed.”
And then, apparently already getting ready for the Council on Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship that took place on the same day, the prime minister made the final conclusion: “It is clear that we need to get busy, and not suck on the pacifier, it is clear that we need to overcome the technological gap, develop agriculture, so that, like in Germany, we have potatoes at a minimum.” According to him, “until we clearly formulate the parameters of economic policy, a long-term forecast, and determine the direction of work, we don’t have to go to the Ministry of Finance until then.”
However, despite the prime minister’s solo, Alexei Kudrin this time did not do without a bright opposition speech. He stated that during the work on the document, a conceptual substitution occurred. “At first the report was intended to be a budget report,” Mr. Kudrin recalled. “Later, they suddenly decided to evaluate not the quality of budget expenditures, but the overall work of ministries and departments.” But even this, according to the chief financier, was difficult for the authors of the report to achieve. “We cannot plan reforms that are not valued in terms of money,” Mr. Kudrin insisted. “This report cannot be a budget planning tool.”
“Alexey Leonidovich, please say “in my opinion”!” - asked the prime minister. “Not in my opinion, but in the opinion of the Ministry of Finance,” Mr. Kudrin corrected the prime minister. And he continued: “God forbid that we use this report when forming the budget. Otherwise we will have an inadequate budget!”
The Prime Minister very harshly condemned such a “neglect of the document,” but still advised the ministries “not to set false goals.” The report, as usual, was generally approved without recording any dissenting opinions. But they will obviously not plan the budget on its basis. At least under the current Minister of Finance.