“Komsomolskaya Pravda”: “Vladimir Putin: «Most business audits are “commissioned” or dodgy»"
Vladimir Putin served a stern reminder on ministers that it is high time for them to deliver on their promises, at a government meeting yesterday.
"Obviously, diversification and sustained development of the economy are only possible if government does not interfere with business," he reminded Cabinet members.
It is six months since the notification-based procedure for starting a businesses has been in force (that is, to start a business you merely have to file a notification). True, so far the simplified scheme applies only to retail, catering, transport and services. Unscheduled audits of businesses without authorisation from the Prosecutor's Office have also been banned. "The Prosecutor's Office has received 27,000 applications for unscheduled audits. Almost half of them were turned down," Putin stressed. It became evident that most of these audits had no serious grounds. At best they were carried out to "tick a box." At worst, they are dodgy or commissioned audits. Another niggling problem is the rendering of government services. The Prosecutor General's Office recently carried out an inspection of that sphere. As a result, ten agencies have been told to sort out irregularities, officials at thirteen agencies have been disciplined and six agencies simply sacked some officials.
"But I would like to know who specifically has been dismissed and on what grounds," the Prime Minister demanded. "Who knows, perhaps somebody has resigned on maternity grounds, and the report says that the person has been fired for misdeeds."
Putin then moved on to future plans. The first goal, in the Prime Minister's opinion, is to make government more transparent. For example, by publishing the plans of audits of enterprises and the procedure for rendering government services on the Internet.
"A closed list of services rendered for a charge required to obtain legal documents has been prepared," Putin said. "It has been cut by more than half to 19 paid for services. Commercial firms are not allowed to offer mediation services." He was referring to firms which process documents for a fee. For example, you come to the tax inspection office and you want to close or renew the registration of your firm, and find that you have to queue for a week. And, by coincidence, a mediator promises to carry out all the formalities for you - for a fee.
"It is expressly forbidden to demand documents not stipulated under the rules from citizens and entrepreneurs," the Prime Minister said. "Officials will be disciplined for violating that rule. By the way, I would like to remind you that all the expert examinations as part of supervisory activities are free of charge. Demanding that the businessmen being audited pay for this is arrogant and absurd. This violation should carry serious penalties."
The ministers put in a hard day's work yesterday: they discussed the licensing of entrepreneurial activities, downsizing of the civil service, approved the Customs Code for the newly created Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus and adopted a privatisation plan for 2010.
"The draft documents will go through a fast-track procedure bypassing interagency approvals. As it is, getting all the approvals for some of the issues we are now considering took two years," Putin said furiously. "How can one work in this situation?"
Nigina Beroyeva
