Kommersant (Moscow): Putin fulfils President's order
And it suddenly became clear who is failing to fulfil such orders.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fulfilled the president's order yesterday and penalised six deputy ministers for insufficiently controlling the execution of presidential instructions. The phrase "improper control" refers to the failure to meet deadlines. For now, it remains unclear how exactly they were punished.
Putin inflicted penalties on Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Azbukin, Deputy Industry and Commerce Minister Andrey Dementyev, Secretary of State and Deputy Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Minister Natalia Parshikova, Deputy Economic Development Minister Olga Savelyeva, Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Deputy Regional Development Minister Sergei Yurpalov.
They were not mentioned in the presidential instructions directly; all of them are set to the government represented by Vladimir Putin. Specific persons responsible for their execution are appointed within the government when the instructions are delegated to the level of ministerial departments and units. At this stage Deputy Ministers may be charged to control the task execution. However, they have to be liable for the negligence of their subordinates.
It has not yet been declared how the officials were disciplined and what for. Under Article 57 of the Law "On the Civil Service" undue execution of official duties by an official may result in the following penalties: reproof, reprimand, notification of an incomplete adequacy for the job, removal from office and discharge from civil service.
Article 37 of the same law states that one of the numerous grounds for discharge includes a "single gross violation by a civil servant ... in the 'executive' category of his official duties," which resulted in damage to state authority or the breach of Russian law.
As Kommersant reported earlier, President Dmitry Medvedev called for disciplinary measures for persons guilty of disrupting the execution of these tasks, and even their dismissal, at meetings on the issue on March 16 and June 21.
Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the Presidential Control Department, reported on March 16 that the lowest standards of performance were observed in the Energy, Defence and Regional Development ministries. He announced more specific figures on June 21, and told the President that every fifth task was performed in a timely manner over the first five months of this year, compared to only every sixth task in 2009.
Chuichenko placed special emphasis on tasks aimed at executing the presidential messages for 2009-2010 to the Federal Assembly.
He reported that "out of 17 tasks set by the message for 2009 (the message was based on 2009 results and sets tasks for 2010) ten were fulfilled and seven were under control." He said it takes so long to fulfill them because the drafted laws are sophisticated and bulky, and require extensive preparations and analysis. In the message for 2010, only eight out of 28 tasks set have been fulfilled so far. He also admitted that the execution of only three tasks is still within deadline, while the deadlines for nine tasks have been extended, and the Control Department deemed the requests for their extension valid.
Therefore, it's quite clear that seven tasks were overdue in 2009 and eight in 2010. Consequently, there are ample grounds for the penalties here alone. Kommersant was unable to receive a list of the unfulfilled tasks yesterday in its effort to better understand why the officials are being disciplined. Neither the government nor the Presidential Administration were "ready" to provide such information.
Irina Granik
