Public reception offices of United Russia chairman fight overreporting.
In the first ten days of April, a commission of the United Russia party will complete the certification of Vladimir Putin's reception offices in the regions, and may subsequently fire some of their ineffective managers. Irina Nagornykh, a special correspondent of this newspaper, says the Prime Minister's reception office in Moscow is bustling with activity, with people willing to entrust their personal problems to Mr Putin.
The reception office is located on the same premises as the party's reception office in Kutuzovsky Prospect. At first they were not pleased with the correspondent's visit.
"This is lunch time," said Natalia Makarycheva, deputy head of the office. "The register? Yes, we have it, but it is an official document. We will not give it to you."
Seeing a modest old woman in the door, Makarycheva directed her to a stand giving the address of Vladimir Putin's central reception office in Prospekt Mira. Apparently, the visitor's problem was too large for this office.
"Darling, does Putin himself receive people?" the old woman asked me, hoping to find sympathy. When she learned that he did not, she explained: "But he should know what is going on!"
It turned out that her grandson played football, and his block team was close to winning a competition. But the arbiter was bribed, and they were robbed of their victory, the old woman claimed. "The boys wept."
"It's no use, all these reception offices!" a lively lady who called herself Alla joined in our conversation. "I have seen Gonchar and Platonov; they are working well. [Nikolai Gonchar is the head of Mr Putin's reception office in Moscow; Vladimir Platonov is Speaker of the Moscow City Duma]. But [Prosecutor General Yuri] Chaika refused to receive me."
Alla was chatting her heart out about her life. She looked like a reasonable person until she said he had been fighting for reemployment at the Ministry of the Meat and Dairy Industry, which had long been liquidated, since 1986.
One of the office girls standing behind Alla indicated that she was not all there. Some time later that girl told me that the office was the most difficult job in the party, "especially in spring, when ill people have problems."
"I'd say that 90% of our visitors are nutty, but we still register all of their requests and complaints, including those who speak with the Universe and those who have a chip implant in a tooth," she told me, and registered both the old woman and Alla.
I have talked with developer Natalia Perfilyeva, a developer who lost her job, who said the employment centre offered her non-existent vacancies.
Sarkis Sarkisyan, who had applied for Russian citizenship, said he was told to go back to Armenia.
I have also talked with Lidia Alekseyeva, who said she wanted to live separately from her neighbour with whom she shares a flat.
Mr Dneprov, chairman of a cell group of veterans, told me that he had complained about plans to liquidate their parking lot, but since August 2008 had not received any response from the reception office.
After I phoned Nikolai Gonchar on his mobile phone, the staff of the reception office agreed to talk. Leonid Mikhailenko, head of the United Russia reception office responsible for visitors in the absence of Mr Gonchar, showed me the registration book.
"There are very many unsolvable problems," he told me. For example, Lidia Alekseyeva has a good chance of having her problem settled, because her husband and she are both veterans. It is not clear if they will have a separate flat, but they will definitely receive a free legal consultation. In the opinion of Mr Mikhailenko, this amounts to solving their problem.
According to this newspaper's information, statistics is the stumbling block hindering the work of public reception offices. Since the number of solved problems is seen as the gauge of their operation, false reporting has become a major problem.
Mikhail Babich, head of the commission organising the work of Vladimir Putin's reception offices, said they were certifying regional offices. The share of solved problems is close to 100% in some of them and only 2%-3% in other offices. Both look suspect, Babich said.
"We may dismiss ineffective heads" of these offices, he said.
The inspections will end in the first ten days of April, after which the Presidium of United Russia's General Council will be offered new candidates for the posts of heads of public reception offices.
The party is satisfied with the work of the Moscow office, although there are some drawbacks, but they can be mended, they say.