Cuts in bureaucracy are essential
Over the last 10 years the number of Russian civil servants across all levels has grown 1.4 times. This data is contained in the final report on adjustment of the long-term strategy until 2020, which has been submitted to the government. There is an excessive number of civil servants in Russia and they hinder economic growth, believe the government report’s compilers, and they are basically something the country can ill afford. The budgets of all levels spend about RUB 67 billion a month on their salaries alone, or RUB 804 billion a year. If their number is reduced to even just the level of the year 2000, annual savings of some RUB 240 billion will be assured. Given the expenditure on premises, transport, communication and so on, these sums could double, believes director of the NRU HSE Institute for Public and Municipal Administration Andrei KLIMENKO.
Discussing the strategy for Moscow's socioeconomic development until 2025
On 10 December, the Higher School for Economics held the first meeting of the International Consultative Council (ICC) on the strategy for Moscow's socioeconomic development until 2025.
The capital's government appointed a research team, representing the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration and NRU HSE, to elaborate the strategy for Moscow's socioeconomic development until 2025. Work got underway at the two institutions of higher education in the summer of 2011 and it was decided to bring in foreign experts, too.
The ICC's objective is to assess the suggestions of the Russian experts from the standpoint of international experience of developing major cities.
IPAMM NRU HSE experts comment on the problem of regional differentiation
The vital issue, raised at the recent meeting of the Presidium of the State Council as to which system should be used to assess the work of regional heads and whether or not, to this end, a new "synthetic" indicator of "modernisation success of the regions" should be introduced, which, according to Dmitry Medvedev, would be linked with "the governor's personal success and with his ultimate fate", is a matter of concern for the vast minority of the population. That said, this minority is extremely influential: the governors themselves, Dmitry Medvedev and the current acting head of the Finance Ministry Anton Siluanov,' writes Kommersant Dengi in its article entitled Federation on Subsidies. The matter of regional differentiation that this article raises was the subject of comment by Nadezhda SIVASHEVA and Vladimir ELISEENKO, experts from the Centre for Regional Programmes to Enhance Public and Municipal Administration at IPAMM NRU HSE.
Representatives of expert groups from the Strategy-2020 project speak at a meeting of committee leaders from the Russian CCI
On 15 November 2011, a meeting was held of committee heads from the Russian Chamber Commerce and Industry, dedicated to a discussion of key aspects of Russia's socioeconomic development, as set out in the Strategy-2020 project. The event was opened and hosted by President of the Russian CCI Sergei KATYRIN.
The expert reports to the meeting were preceded by a brief welcoming address by NRU HSE Rector Yaroslav KUZMINOV. Reports were also presented by head of the expert group Optimising the state's presence: reducing regulatory functions, ensuring transparency and feedback in relations with civilians and business Andrei KLIMENKO, head of the expert group Strengthening market institutions. Ensuring stable conditions for ownership and development of competition and stimulating small business Andrei YAKOVLEV and head of the expert group Human health and habitat Sergei SHISHKIN.
IPAMM director Andrei Klimenko takes part in international forum on reform of civil service in Indonesia
On 9-10 November in Djakarta, the international forum Bureaucratic Reform: International Forum for Knowledge Management was held, organised by the Indonesian Government with the support of the World Bank.
IPAMM director Andrei KLIMENKO appeared at the conference with the report Reform of the Civil Service in Russia: Key Results and Prospects.
Public administration: two strategies for how higher education institutions can cooperate
At the end of October a meeting was held in Budapest of representatives of organisations forming part of NISPAсее — the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration of Central and Eastern Europe. Russia was represented at the meeting by the department for public and municipal management of the Higher School of Economics. Comment by dean of the faculty Alexei BARABASHEV.
In support of the innovative development of CIS countries
On 18 October in St Petersburg, the Council of the Heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States adopted the intergovernmental programme for innovative collaboration until 2020, elaborated by the HSE. Deputy Director of the Institute for Public and Municipal Management Vladimir KOROLEV talks about the essence and the principal objectives of the programme.
Ministry for Economic Development defines the departments that are most amicable to both business and civilians
The Ministry for Economic Development has published the first rating of departments in terms of their reduction of administrative obstacles. The Central Bank, the Federal Customs Service, the Ministry of Defence and the Federal Antimonopoly Service lead the way, having successfully completed all planned measures. Those that lag behind include the Ministry for Emergency Situations and the Finance Ministry; the Ministry for Economic Development itself is in the middle of the list.
From 27 October to 24 November, the International Centre for Public Administration Research and Retraining (ICPARR) is running a survey entitled 'Choosing the optimum model for the additional vocational education of public servants'
On 27 October 2011, as part of research into improvements for the additional vocational training system for public servants, the International Centre for Public Administration Research and Retraining (ICPARR) of the Institute for Public and Municipal Management, in collaboration with the Russian Ministry for Health and Social Development, organised a round table meeting on ‘Choosing the optimum model for the additional vocational education of public servants'.
The meeting considered important aspects of improvements to the system for enhancing the qualification of public servants, and specifically the following: mechanisms for selecting educational programmes for the system to enhance public servants' qualifications, alternative means of financing training, new means of accrediting additional vocational training, ways to stimulate professional development of public servants and others.
Civil servants from federal and regional executive agencies and representatives of educational establishments were involved in discussion of these matters.
IPAMM experts speak at the meeting of the Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for Telecommunications and Information Technology
On 1 November, the Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for Telecommunications and Information Technologies held its latest meeting. The meeting considered the creation of a legal mechanism for assessing the influence of legislative initiatives on business and interim results of the operations of the Committee's working group on preparing proposals for reviewing the requirements for structuring and transmission of traffic in the public telephone network.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, the Russian Ministry for Economic Development, the Institute for Public Administration and Municipal Management of NRU HSE, the Russian Chamber for Commerce and Industry and leading Russian mobile and landline operators. IPAMM NRU HSE was represented at the meeting by the Institute's director Andrei KLIMENKO and director of the Centre for Regulatory Impact Assessment Daniil TSYGANKOV.