"Vedomosti": "NO NATIONAL PROJECTS"
Reform and staff cuts
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is completing the reform of the Government Staff. The National Projects Department has been shut down and the staff will be cut by 10%.
On Friday Mr Putin signed an order that shuts down the National Projects Department and creates a Department for Industry and Infrastructure (in succession to the Sectoral Development Department). The structure, staff organisation and the competence of the new department have yet to be approved, the Prime Minister's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has said, adding that the department's powers may be expanded.
At present the Sectoral Development Department includes the divisions on industry, energy, communications, construction and transport.
The head of the Industry Department will be Alexander Misharin, Deputy Minister of Transport and member of the United Russia General Council. He told Vedomosti that it was an interesting proposal and noted that he did not consider his new appointment to be a promotion. The former director of the Sectoral Development Department, Olga Pushkareva, a government member for over 10 years (she headed the Energy Department until 2004) is retiring (she is now 54).
Mr Putin dismissed the head of the National Projects Department, Boris Kovalchuk, back in January. Now the department itself is being shut down and its functions are distributed among specialised departments: Agriculture, Industry, Education and Social Development. Each of these departments will have a deputy chief in charge of the National Project, says Mr Peskov. National projects will no longer be widely publicised because no more political mileage can be derived from them, says political analyst Alexei Makarkin.
Mr Putin has transformed the Department of Economic Mobilisation and Formation of the State Defense Order into a Department in Support of the Military-Industrial Commission.
The Government Staff has been cut. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin has ordered to reduce the staff by 158 people "to cut government spending". The streamlining of the staff has been completed, says Mr Peskov. It has been cut by about 10%. Most of the job cuts were vacancies, he claims. The streamlining will save 50 million roubles, government management expert Pavel Kudyukin has calculated.
The reform of the Government Staff has been going on for a year. Since he became Prime Minister Mr Putin has replaced the heads of almost all the key departments: Economic, Social, Legal, Government Decision Monitoring and the Press Service.
Mr Putin has not carried out any drastic reforms, Mr Makarkin notes. The former members of the staff were mainly replaced by ministerial officials: Two Deputy Ministers of Economic Development have joined the Cabinet. They are: Kirill Androsov, who is now deputy head of the Government Staff, and Andrei Belousov, who heads the Economics Department. Deputy Minister of Regional Development Anastasia Rakova will head the Legal Department.
Nadezhda Dagayeva
