Izvestia: "Citizens to evaluate governors' work"
Vladimir Putin held a video conference with the heads of regional governments on the first working day of the year. The prime minister announced that from now on the quality of their work will be evaluated by the public. Putin believes the existing system of evaluation, based on a variety of criteria, has proved ineffective, but it will not be completely forgotten. Some of the criteria will still be used to evaluate the work of the governors, but public opinion will play a bigger role.
Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin said that 329 criteria are currently used to evaluate the quality of the work performed by the regions. It was suggested they should be cut down to 223. The Ministry of Finance insists on bringing their number down to a minimum. Head of the Ministry Anton Siluanov thinks that there is little difference between the two figures and they only lead to disruption.
Even Basargin agreed that these criteria do not reflect the true situation in the regions. Each year they serve as the basis for the ratings, but they can paint a completely different picture depending on whether the evaluation is based on this year's figures or the previous year's performance. That is why these criteria will now make up only 50% of the evaluation, while public opinion will account for another 30%. The minister did not say what would happen with the remaining 20%.
Putin expressed the hope that after the long holidays the governors would quickly get back in the swing of things. However, out of 83 governors only 62 were present at the video conference.
Head of the Kirov Region Nikita Belyh was rebuked more than others for his absence. By an unhappy coincidence, Putin learned that despite his decision to delay the rise in household and utilities rates until summer, hot water rates had increased by 40% in one of the towns near Kirov.
Holding the local newspaper and water bills in his hands, the prime minister tried to contact Belykh, but had to make do with Belykh's deputy Alexei Kuznetsov instead. Kuznetsov said that he was not aware of the situation and promised to look into it.
"Where is Governor Belykh?" Putin demanded.
"He's on holiday," Kuznetsov replied.
Kuznetsov's replies angered the prime minister. He ordered Belykh to return to work immediately and admonished the governor's deputy for not being aware of such a serious incident.
"Alexei, you don't have this information, but those who pay for hot water do. Here are the bills for each month," Putin said. "And the governor is still on holiday. Please take control of this matter and pass the message on to the governor."
Belykh was surprised by the prime minister's critiсism. He told Izvestia that he was in Stockholm visiting museums with his children.
"I am officially on holiday. I was in the office from January 2-6 and from January 6 till tomorrow I am on holiday," Belykh explained. "I asked for my holiday long before this meeting was scheduled."
The governor said that according to current legislation, the procedure for requesting holiday leave, especially if you are going abroad, requires the approval of the authorised body and the presidential administration, including even the president himself. All these procedures were completed by Belykh back in December, and he also still has 130 days holiday entitlement left.
Anastasia Novikova
