Kommersant: "Vladimir Putin tackles the crisis"
The heads of public reception offices to be given instructions for 2009
The Chairman of United Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting with the heads of all his public reception offices in early December, according to Kommersant's information. It will recognize the best workers who handle citizens' problems and set the tasks for 2009 in relation to their work in the crisis period.
Prime Minister Putin is to meet with all the heads of his public reception offices, who have been working with people's complaints since the beginning of autumn under the aegis of the United Russia Party, Kommersant has learned. It will be the first general meeting between Mr Putin and those who receive applicants on his behalf. The conference will review the results of the first three months of the work of the offices and the complaint statistics.
In preparation for the event, United Russia conducted a contest among the reception offices. It went through two rounds: the first identified the best-organized reception offices and the second, the most effective ones. The latter task involved evaluating their performance according to twelve criteria: the general look and equipment of the premises, the quality of monthly reports, the work of deputies' centres, the links with reception offices in municipalities, and the number of complaints positively resolved. Each reception office submitted a video on its work. From these, seven winners and the two best reception offices were named in each federal district. The winners will be presented with diplomas and gifts at the conference with Mr Putin.
The main task of the conference, however, will be to set the objectives for 2009. Addressing the United Russia Congress, Mr Putin identified a range of measures to combat the economic crisis, but his main theses were not addressed to the grassroots. Now, the leader will be able to give the heads of public reception offices more detailed recommendations on how to defuse social tensions. "We are on the frontline and we will be the first to face the blow, so it is important that we have the leader supporting our position", the head of one reception office told Kommersant.
The head of the St Petersburg public reception office, Irina Sokolova, who is Boris Gryzlov's aide, told Kommersant that she would arrive in Moscow to attend the meeting of the heads of public reception offices on December 4, but made no further comments. The head of the Moscow public reception office, State Duma Deputy Nikolai Gonchar, had this to say: "I have people waiting in my reception room. A queue. I have a labour veteran facing me across the table, and you want me to give comments for the press? Only after midnight, once we have received everyone."
The head of United Russia's commission for Mr Putin's public reception offices, Mikhail Babich, has confirmed that an event that would gather the heads of public reception offices at all levels was possible, but he did not give the exact date. Mr Babich also confirmed that the contest between reception offices has been completed. However, the Prime Minister will have the final say on which reception offices will be recognized as the best. Mr Babich said that the reception offices have already handled more than 80,000 complaints, of which 23-25% have been resolved positively, about as many have "positive dynamics", and 20% have prompted the drafting of new regulations.
Earlier, the Prime Minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant that Mr Putin's televised meeting with his public reception rooms would be held in the first ten days of December, the exact date to be determined in accordance with the Prime Minister's schedule (from Kommersant's information, both the TV programme and the conference with the heads of reception offices will be held on the same day).
The chairman of the Duma legislative committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, who was in charge of Dmitry Medvedev's reception offices during his presidential election campaign, believes that the existing network of reception offices "could do with a little more publicity".
"If the media gave more coverage of how this or that complaint is handled, it would help solve similar problems. It could set a precedent for citizens and for those who may be violating their rights," he said. In Mr Krasheninnikov's opinion, the reception offices, in addition to their social function, perform another important mission: they provide an invaluable cross-section of the problems that do not always tally into the official statistics that land on the desks of the country's leaders, and demonstrate the contrast between regional specificities and national trends.
Irina Nagornykh, Anna Pushkarskaya
