Sergei Sobyanin cuts Government Staff for the second time in six months.
Yesterday it was five years since the introduction of the three-tiered federal executive power structure: ministries-agencies-services. The then President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on March 9, 2004 (On the Systems and Structure of Federal Bodies of Executive Authority), which divided powers between the levels of the executive vertical power structure in the following way: The ministries work out government policy and regulations, the agencies implement government policy and deliver government services, and the services monitor and supervise compliance with the laws in the relevant sectors. Simultaneously it was decided to cut the Government Staff by 10-15%. Another move to save on civil servants (by practically the same percentage) had to be made this year under the pressure of the global crisis.
DREAM REFORMED
The architect of the Government reform, Dmitry Kozak, who is currently Deputy Prime Minister and who was the Chief of the Government Staff in the spring and summer 2004, hoped the reform would "enhance the effectiveness (above all by expediting decision-making and cutting corruption) of the executive branch".
Mr Kozak saw only part of his plans fulfilled. First, the agencies and services were independent of the ministries only on paper. When he moved from the Kremlin to the White House in May 2008, Mr Putin officially put the agencies and services under the tutelage of the ministries. At the same time more Government structures continued to be created which were vested with the full authority to control certain sectors (Rosalcohol was the latest example).
Secondly, although some ministries and agencies saw Staff cuts in 2004, on the whole the number of bureaucrats increased. The number of people engaged in government, military security and social security increased from 3.2 million in 2004 to 3.5 million in 2006, according to Rosstat.
SAVING ON BUREAUCRATS
The economic situation made the idea of downsizing the civil service relevant again. The Kremlin and the White House are setting the example by cutting their own staff. . On February 19, Chief of the Kremlin Executive Office, Sergei Naryshkin, signed a cut of the Kremlin Executive Office by 100 persons (or 6.6%). The executive order issued by Deputy Prime Minister and the Chief of the Government Staff , Sergei Sobyanin, titled On Reducing the Staff of the Structural Units of the Government Apparatus of the Russian Federation by 158, was posted on the Government website on March 6.
The Government Staff will undergo a sweeping reorganisation. In addition to certain positions which have become redundant and were abolished, two departments, that of Sectoral Development and of Priority National Projects, have been dissolved. They have been replaced by the Department of Industry and Infrastructure, to be headed up by Alexander Misharin, who was previously Deputy Minister of Transport.
In fact, the new department will supersede the Sectoral Development Department because its powers in connection with the national projects will be divided up along sectoral lines: The newly formed Department of Industry and Infrastructure will be in charge of the Affordable Housing Project, the Department of the Agro-Industrial Complex will be in charge of the Development of Agriculture project, the Department of Culture and Education will be in charge of the Education Project, and the Department of Social Development and Environmental Protection will be in charge of the Public Health Project. The Economic Mobilisation and the Formation of the State Defence Order Department has been transformed into the Department in Support of the Government's Military-Industrial Commission.
Staff cuts were taking place at the White House as early as the autumn of last year: Employment contracts of some retirement age officials were not extended. According to our data, about 150 civil servants retired. Thus, the Government Staff will be cut by a total of 300 persons. However, considering that since Mr Putin was appointed Prime Minister, the Government Staff had increased from 1100 to 1400, the latest cuts will merely bring back the size of the Government Staff to the 2007-early 2008 level.
After the cuts in the Kremlin and the White House, the federal ministries and agencies, as well as the Federal Assembly and the regional authorities, had no option but to follow suit. The Defence Ministry has announced a 15% spending cut. A spokesman for a civilian ministry told this newspaper that his agency was cutting its own operating costs by 15%. "We are not firing people yet, but we are saving on the rent, travel expenses, etc.," he explained. No staff cuts have taken place at the Finance Ministry. "However, we are not hiring any new employees," a Finance Ministry official admits. The Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that it would save 20% of the money earmarked for the upkeep of its staff this year. The Federation Council cut spending by 30% this year, and the State Duma, by 5.7% (the target is 12%).
Expenditure is being reduced at the regional level as well. Tatarstan, the Samara, Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions and the Altai Territory have announced a 10% cut of the staffs of local administrations and Governments. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is also cutting the costs of the running the city administration. True, he is not planning to dismiss any of his subordinates yet.
The massive savings on the cost of the civil service will slow down the growth of the federal and regional budget deficits. The latest version of the federal budget for 2009, under an item titled "General State Affairs" puts the cost of the civil service at 1.3 trillion roubles, including for "the functioning of the President of the Russian Federation" - 9.7 billion roubles, for "the functioning of the Government of the Russian Federation, top executive bodies of the regions and local administrations" -3.7 billion roubles . A 10-15% cut of that expenditure item will save the state between 130 billion and 196 billion roubles, or about 0.3-0.5 of GDP. It may be a substantial cut considering that the budget deficit amounts to 8% of the GDP.
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A CAREER RAILWAYMAN JOINS THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF
Alexander Misharin, whom Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has appointed head of the newly created Department of Industry and Infrastructure, was born in Sverdlovsk in 1959. He graduated from the Urals Railway Transport Engineering Electromechanical Institute (between 1994 and 1999, the Urals State Railway Academy) majoring in Electromechanics and Railway Engineering and in Economics and Management (railway transport).
Mr Misharin's entire career has been in transport. From 1981 until 2002 he worked for the Railways Ministry, rising to the position of Chief Engineer of the Sverdlovsk Railway and eventually to First Deputy Minister of Railways. In May 2002, he became Head of the Sverdlovsk Railway. In March 2004, after the Railways Ministry was reorganised into the Transport Ministry, he became the new Ministry's Deputy Head (although he was tipped to become the Minister). He held this post until he joined the Government Staff.
For Mr Misharin moving to the Government House on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment is a promotion. He will be in charge not only of roads, but of the entire infrastructure. Indeed, his department will be in charge of industrial policy in general. Mr Misharin will report directly to the Deputy Chief of the Government Staff, Kirill Androsov, who was deputy Minister of Economic Development before being transferred to the White House.
Maxim Tovkailo