The Russian government has not yet made a final decision to reduce the number of officials. This was announced by the press secretary of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Osipov.
“The statement of the Ministry of Finance of Russia to reduce the number of civil servants is premature, the government did not make a final decision,” Osipov said.
Earlier, First Deputy Minister of Finance Tatyana Nesterenko said that the Russian authorities intend to start a significant reduction in the number of civil servants in 2020. She stressed that this step will significantly increase the level of salaries for other officials.
“Saving is not an end in itself, obviously. But the funds released at the same time will be used to increase the remuneration of civil servants. If you do not carry out the planned reduction, you won’t achieve a competitive salary level in the civil service, ”Nesterenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
She explained that if the staff reduction is to be abandoned, the state will be able to raise salaries only by the level of inflation, or it will be necessary to allocate an additional 100 billion rubles annually from the budget.
The reduction itself, according to the deputy minister, will take place in two stages. So, in 2020, the number of officials will be reduced by 10% in federal structures and by 5% in territorial ones, and in 2021 in the regions the reduction will reach 15%, said Nesterenko. As she emphasized, this will happen "automatically."
At the second stage, it is planned to change the structure of the state apparatus, which in itself will lead to a reduction in the number of civil servants, said the deputy head of the Ministry of Finance. For example, the territorial divisions of ministries and departments will be enlarged and transformed into branches without a legal entity, Nesterenko said.
“That is, we plan to create compact front offices in which units will be abolished that deal with issues of organizational, informational, documentary, financial, economic, administrative and business support,” she explained.
Note that according to the results of 2018, according to Rosstat, the average salary of employees of federal authorities increased by 5.4% with an inflation rate of 4.2%. On average, in Russia, salaries increased over the same period by 9.9%.
"The number of civil servants"
According to Nesterenko, at the moment in Russia there are 2.4 million employees of state and municipal bodies, that is 163 per 10 thousand people. This is about 3.3% of all employed in the economy.
However, there are much fewer officials directly from this number.
“The total share of state civil and municipal employees in the employed population of Russia is now about 1.7%. As of July 1, the country has about 855 thousand state civil servants. Of these, 603 thousand people are federal civil servants, 252 thousand are civil servants of the regions. 395 thousand municipal employees work in local governments, ”she said.
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“Estimated competitive level”
Nesterenko at the beginning of the year - in March - already outlined the plan for reducing the number of officials. Then she said that this initiative was discussed in the relevant commissions both under the president and the government.
“We roughly estimated this competitive level (salary. - RT ) in the public service system, and discussed this both at the Presidential Commission on Public Administration and the government,” she said. - The main position of the reform of the system of remuneration of civil servants is to raise the constant part of remuneration so that it is 60% of the payroll fund (remuneration fund. - RT ) and only 40% is stimulating. Now this "pyramid" is turned upside down. "
The Finance Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov, in turn, noted that a reduction is planned from 2020.
“We are already realizing your promise. Next year we will reduce it, ”Siluanov emphasized.
At the same time, the head of Sberbank German Gref expressed the hope that we are talking about changing the model of the state apparatus, and not about simply reducing the number of employees.
“We need to change the model, then the car will be efficient and able to do amazing things. We need other officials, officials of a different quality, ”Gref said.
It is worth noting that work is underway to improve the public administration system. So, in late July, the government approved the roadmap proposed by the Ministry of Labor on the development of the civil service system in Russia.
“The plan includes 14 positions, which, in particular, provides for improving the procedure for appointing public civil service posts, encouraging civil servants to increase the efficiency of their professional activities, developing a system of state guarantees for civil servants,” the explanatory note to the document says.
“To reduce administrative pressure”
The initiative Nesterenko spoke about is relevant for Russia, said Vladimir Gutenev, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on economic policy, industry, innovative development and entrepreneurship.
“The fact is that with a clear frequency there are ideas both regional and at the federal level - to optimize the number of officials in order not only to increase salaries, preserving the wage fund, but also to reduce administrative pressure, various barriers,” he said RT.
The deputy stressed that Russia has repeatedly reduced the number of officials, but this is a certain cycle - after reducing the number of civil servants due to inefficient employees or unnecessary posts, after some time, there was a need to hire new or organize new, popular professions.
“I believe that without such a cycle the bureaucratic apparatus will grow to an incredible degree, and now the time has come for a new cycle when it will be possible to“ get rid ”of those ineffective officials, who have firmly fixed themselves and feel comfortable with bureaucratic tricks,” explained Gutenev.
The expert community also appreciates this initiative. Head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology G.V. Plekhanova Andrei Koshkin in a conversation with RT noted that this would open up opportunities for new approaches to the modernization of the state apparatus.
“It seems to me that the direction was chosen in a timely manner,” he said. - This does not mean that the entire management system suddenly suddenly starts working at 100% efficiency - the search for new methods that would allow us to improve our management system will continue. The beginning, in my opinion, will be very optimistic, and besides today, innovative ideas related to management, they, of course, will to some extent remove the social tension that today arises from, in my opinion, excessive attacks on officials and employees of the apparatus. ”