To avoid getting confused in checks

Representatives of Russian control bodies who gathered yesterday in the Kremlin declared their readiness to work according to a single plan - under the supervision of the presidential administration. About 40 control structures, conducting up to 10 million inspections a year, want to coordinate their efforts in order to eliminate the current duplication of inspections and cause fewer problems for those being inspected.

A meeting on improving the system of state control in Russia brought together representatives of 47 government bodies in the Marble Hall of the 14th building of the Kremlin (it is where the president addresses the annual message to parliament). Among those present were First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, head of the Russian Presidential Control Department Alexander Beglov and Chairman of the Accounts Chamber Sergei Stepashin.

Alexander Beglov outlined the scale of inspections carried out in the country. He said that 36 federal structures, now vested with the right of departmental control, carry out more than 10 million control activities a year, and a significant number of them are unscheduled. “Often inspections do not correspond to the tasks of state control,” said the chief presidential comptroller.

As an example of the redundancy of inspections, he cited Chuvashia, where in the first half of 2007 there were more than 8 thousand inspections per 5 thousand business entities. Another example of the diligence of inspectors: the Kurchatov Institute, which became the lead body for one of the nanoprojects, was inspected by 13 regulatory organizations in two months. A way out of the situation, said Alexander Beglov, could be coordination of the activities of controllers. According to him, the president has already instructed to solve this problem and formulate a plan of control measures for the next year.

However, Sergei Stepashin already knows how to fulfill Vladimir Putin’s instructions: to eliminate duplication of checks, he proposed creating a coordination control council under the President of the Russian Federation. The head of the joint venture would like to include in it the presidential control department, the Accounts Chamber, the Ministry of Finance, the Prosecutor General's Office, "as well as, possibly, the Federal Tax and Federal Customs Service."

Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika supported the need to consolidate departments, but named the presidential control department first among equals - it is this that, in Mr. Chaika’s opinion, should take on the role of coordinator of inspections. “It is necessary for the system of control bodies to become unified,” noted the Prosecutor General.

However, the Kremlin and the White House are not yet ready for real unity of departments - that is, for the creation of a single regulatory body in the Russian Federation (which was proposed by some meeting participants yesterday). Dmitry Medvedev, who closed the meeting, spoke out against the super-controller: “The creation of a Ministry of Control does not seem obvious to me. As a rule, such associations do not bring the desired result.”

Vadim Kommersant-Visloguzov

Control bodies want to work according to a unified plan