Minus Rosoboronzakaz

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu decided to reform the sphere of state defense procurement, proposing to the head of state to abolish the corresponding federal service. Shoigu proposes that the functions of Rosoboronzakaz, which is currently under the jurisdiction of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, be distributed among other departments, including civilian ones.

The Federal Service for Defense Procurement, Rosoboronzakaz, as the name suggests, is responsible for monitoring and supervising the implementation of norms and regulations in the field of defense procurement, as well as in the field of procurement, information about which is a state secret.

The predecessor of the modern department, the State Committee for Defense Procurement, was formed under the Ministry of Defense on March 11, 2003 - then, for the first time in a long time, the state sharply increased funding for arms purchases, which is why Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov decided to create a special institution that could control expenditure of budget funds.

In March 2004, during the administrative reform, the state committee was transformed into a federal service, which began to control tenders within the framework of the state defense order, oversee compliance with technical regulations, monitor pricing and the state of defense industry organizations. The functions of the department also included maintaining a register of single and unscrupulous suppliers.

In May 2012, during the formation of the government of Dmitry Medvedev, Rosoboronzakaz, which had previously been under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, became subordinate to the government, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin began to oversee it.

Rosoboronzakaz is a small agency by Russian standards. The central office employs less than 300 people; the service budget in 2014 amounted to only 385 million rubles.

Perhaps it is precisely the fact that Rosoboronzakaz is not a large and influential department that allowed Sergei Shoigu to think about its abolition.

In the letter that the Minister of Defense sent to the President, a copy of which was at the disposal of Kommersant, Shoigu says that all the functions of Rosoboronzakaz are successfully performed by other departments and, therefore, there is no point in maintaining the apparatus of the entire service.

In a letter to Putin, Shoigu explains that the Accounts Chamber exercises control functions in the area of ​​spending budget funds, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service - in the area of ​​placing orders for government needs. There is also an interdepartmental commission under the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is involved in preventing violations of the law in the field of state defense procurement. The Minister is confident that Rosoboronzakaz duplicates these functions.

Maintaining the register of single and dishonest suppliers, which is carried out by Rosoboronzakaz, can also be transferred to another department - for example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is already responsible for accounting for all organizations of the defense-industrial complex, or the antimonopoly service, which maintains registers of single and dishonest suppliers in the civilian sphere.

“The lack of direct ties with industrial organizations does not allow Rosoboronzakaz to carry out an objective assessment of their production capabilities, unlike the Ministry of Industry and Trade,” says, according to Kommersant, a letter to Shoigu. The minister is also confident that Rosoboronzakaz is not capable of licensing enterprises.

Shoigu also holds Rosoboronzakaz responsible for the fact that state defense procurement tasks were untimely placed this year - it was this department, the minister believes, that delayed the holding of closed auctions, as well as the procedures for concluding contracts with single suppliers.

The Minister of Defense, taking into account all of the above, proposes that the president simply abolish Rosoboronzakaz, as an ineffective department that cannot cope with its responsibilities. It is proposed to redistribute its functions among other institutions. It is proposed to transfer the functions of controlling the expenditure of funds to the Accounts Chamber, placing orders through the state defense procurement, maintaining the register of unscrupulous suppliers - to the FAS, and maintaining the register of single suppliers and work on issuing licenses to defense industry enterprises - to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

It is also possible that part of the functions of Rosoboronzakaz may be transferred to the military-industrial commission under the Government, headed by Dmitry Rogozin. In this way, the Deputy Prime Minister can retain under his control some of the powers that are today concentrated in Rosoboronzakaz.

President Vladimir Putin, according to Kommersant, put the resolution “I agree” in Sergei Shoigu’s letter, so the fate of Rosoboronzakaz is practically decided. Previously, the Minister of Defense addressed the same proposal not to the head of state, but to the Prime Minister - Rosoboronzakaz is not part of the “presidential” part of the government. However, government officials decided not to touch the department.

In Russia, entire federal departments are very rarely abolished. It happens that certain functions flow from one ministry to another - for example, the Ministry of Health was previously responsible for social development, and now the Ministry of Labor. The latest example of a large merger is the merger of Roscartography and Rosnedvizhimost under the wing of Rosreestr, however, even here, despite the fact that formally two entire departments were abolished, in reality almost the entire range of their functions was transferred to another department, which means that, if desired, there can be enough from there just taken back.

Despite the fact that Rosoboronzakaz reports to the government and not the president, Sergei Shoigu turned to the head of state. According to the Constitution, the structure of the government is determined by the President on the proposal of the Prime Minister immediately after his appointment. However, practice shows that it is the head of state who decides which department to create or abolish, where to transfer what powers, etc. Decrees on this are prepared in the Presidential Administration, although, of course, the opinion of all interested ministers is taken into account.

Now all that’s left to do is to hold several meetings and prepare an appropriate decree. If the president decided to abolish Rosoboronzakaz, then there is hardly anyone to prevent this, even formally.