At the outset of the reform process, the Ministry of Finance expected to save more.
At a Government Presidium meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the progress of the government staff reform. Redundancies are in full swing but it has turned out that the reform will save much less than was initially anticipated.
In September 2010, the Ministry of Finance announced that 100,000 government jobs would be cut, saving 43 billion roubles. Now Kudrin is saying about 93,300 jobs and 33 billion roubles in savings. The ministry explained to Izvestia: "The minister was speaking about civilian federal government officials and employees of executive bodies subordinate to the government. Streamlining their numbers by 2013 will help save 33 billion roubles." Estimates of 100,000 jobs and savings of 43 billion roubles referred to all public officials, including employees of the Presidential Executive Office.
The Ministry of Finance has already planned what to spend the saved funds on.
"Half of that amount, about 16 billion roubles, will go to bonuses for the remaining staff, and the rest will be used to fund various social and economic programmes as part of the effort to optimise budget spending," Kudrin said.
The minister gave assurances that more money would be saved because alongside cutting jobs ministries and government agencies would increase efficiency, streamline document processing and switch to electronic forms of providing public services where possible.
So far, 23,300 government jobs have been cut and the same number is to be cut this year. The most massive redundancies are to take place in 2012 when 46,000 government employees will lose their jobs.
The Government Presidium meeting also discussed amendments to the federal law, On the Continental Shelf, another important issue. Companies will only be allowed to develop fields on the continental shelf if they guarantee to fully pay for damages in the event of oil spills.
"The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year is still fresh in our memory. We remember the toll it took on the surrounding environment and on people," the prime minister said. "Therefore, I propose to adopt a law listing all the requirements and responsibilities of those companies engaged in upstream and downstream operations on continental shelves."
Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Yury Trutnev explained to Izvestia that companies would have to set up reserve funds based on their own risk assessment. These funds could run into tens of millions of US dollars. According to Trutnev, an ad hoc commission and the public will scrutinise all related proposals from businesses.
Anastasia Novikova