The government will satisfy citizens with public services by 60 percent

By 2014, in order to receive a public service, a citizen will need to contact a government agency only once, and not twice, as now, businessmen - twice instead of eight, and the average waiting time in a government presence should be reduced by three times - to 15 minutes. These are the goals of the government-approved concept for increasing the accessibility of government services until 2013 - according to calculations by the Ministry of Economy, their achievement should satisfy 60% of those applying to government agencies.

The Government-approved Concept for Reducing Administrative Barriers and Increasing Access to State and Municipal Services for 2011–2013 will replace the Concept of Administrative Reform. The new document remains aimed at simplifying procedures, regulating services and developing multifunctional centers. However, its approach to improving public administration is more comprehensive: now, in addition to administrative reform, it takes into account budgetary reform, civil service reform and plans to create e-government.

Among the “system-wide” measures to reduce administrative barriers in terms of licensing, the concept proposes switching to a notification procedure for doing business, and in cases where confirmation of product compliance with established requirements is required, replacing licensing with certification. In addition, the document involves an inventory of all legislation in the field of licensing and the creation of a unified procedure and list of licensed activities. At the same time, the text of the document prepared by the Ministry of Economy directly states: theoretically, a notification procedure for starting a business is already provided for 20 types of entrepreneurial activity - however, in practice it does not work due to the contradiction between federal legislation and regional laws, which must be completely repealed. In terms of improving state control and supervision, the document also points to the need to “optimize” these procedures. The authors propose to implement it by introducing into the current legislation the most detailed specification of the subject and subjects of inspections and control activities with the publication of mandatory requirements for such activities on the Internet. The issue of time it will take to make such an amendment is not considered in the administrative reform plan for the next two years.

When developing a system of self-regulation, the White House now intends to exercise caution. The government placed responsibility for its “objective shortcomings” on the self-regulatory organizations (SROs) themselves. Due to “the low efficiency of self-regulatory organizations in performing the functions assigned to them by law,” the concept proposes amending the current law on SROs, de facto depriving them of independence. It is proposed to replace it with regulation of the development of standards, the formation and use of compensation funds, as well as control - both of the SROs themselves over their members, and of the authorized bodies over the activities of the SROs. At the same time, the introduction of the institution of self-regulation in new industries should be “accompanied by a thorough study of the possible consequences.”

The concept proposes to strictly fix the payment for the provision of public services in the form of a state duty. It will be charged only for services that will not be included in the special lists of free services, and the maximum fee is proposed to be justified economically. No restrictions are imposed on the level of prices “necessary and mandatory for the provision of state and municipal services provided by independent non-governmental organizations.”

As a result of the implementation of these proposals, the Ministry of Economy plans by 2014 to reduce the number of citizens’ appeals to government agencies when receiving a specific government service to one from the current two, and for businesses - to two appeals instead of eight. The average waiting time in line for citizens should be 15 minutes by 2014 instead of the current 55 minutes. We note, however, that the Ministry of Economy assesses the level of citizens’ satisfaction with the quality and accessibility of government services quite soberly: by 2014 it should reach at least 60%.

Daria Nikolaeva

The concept has changed