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Unit 5. The influence of international organisations on public administration

Topics	Key Structure
Administrative reform in Russia. European Commission and World Bank participation in reform implementation.	Modal Verbs

Public administration reform in russia

The state of affairs and the aims of the reform.

Contemporary administrative reform in Russia - in line with reform endeavours in other transition countries and following the example of many mature market economies - seeks to root out inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and non-responsiveness in the public sector. Its guiding concerns are twofold: firstly, economic growth cannot be maintained if economic activity is hampered by an inefficient state. Subsequently, poverty cannot be reduced, if the administration on different state levels does not have the capacities to implement reform measures. Secondly, the public is or might become dissatisfied with the Russian Government because of insufficient supply of public goods and state services. Benefit delivered is perceived by the public as excessive cost per unit of delivered services (inefficiency}; some activities fail to generate much benefit at all (ineffectiveness); and Government bureaucracies resist the customization of policy to address specific circumstances and constituent preferences (non-responsiveness). The expected results of administrative reform in Russia are summarized in the federal target programme "Administrative Reform (2005-2010)”. The main premises of the programme are:

• The investment climate shall be improved;

• Living standards shall improve;

• The competitiveness of the Russian economy shall increase;

• The efficiency of Government spending shall increase;

• Social consensus shall be facilitated;

• The state shall be better manageable.

Common to most public sector reform programmes, in Russia and elsewhere, is the aim that the government becomes more accountable. Therefore, emphasis is placed on outcome criteria - efficiency, effectiveness and public satisfaction - which shall complement “input criteria” such as process consistency, rule-adherence, and detailed hierarchical control. In Russia, performance-orientation is stressed in the "mid-term performance oriented budgeting approach" which is currently implemented in the Russian executive. Performance orientation is also reflected in the ongoing process of state budget reform, and in defining indicators to measure performance of state institutions, civil servants and the delivery of state services.

Administrative Regulations

The Russian Federation is still suffering from under-developed legislative procedures and processes that govern the functioning and performance of executive authorities. Functions and objectives of state organs are not optimized, i.e. tasks and functions of individual institutions, directorates of departments are not aligned to each other. The legal regulations guiding the procedural aspects of the activities of the executive authorities are not systematic and often contradict each other. The process currently in use is not immune to arbitrariness and actors involved in the process are distributed across the country, which makes coordination among the individual institutions issuing regulations difficult.

In order to remedy these shortcomings, the Government is currently developing a federal law "On administrative regulations in the executive organs of state power in the RF”. The law shall contribute to optimizing procedural norms and administrative performance, and provide a framework for the development and applications of administrative regulations in the executive bodies of the Government. It aims at establishing uniform regulatory requirements to tie execution of Government functions.

The law is intended to regulate the relations arising in the development, adoption, application, modification and repudiation of the administrative regulations and in the course of control of their implementation. It also institutes liability for failure to comply with the regulations. It spells out the administrative regulation concept, lists the types of activities and functions requiring administrative regulation, and describes the different types of administrative regulations: the administrative regulations of Government functions (including functions related to the provision of state services); the administrative regulations of the executive Government authorities; and administrative regulations of interactions between executive authorities. The law points out the requirements to administrative regulation and describes its basic components (i.e. technicalities).

The law will also regulate organisational procedures and presents a close link to true law on standardisation of performance of Government interactions between executive authorities. The law points out the requirements to functions. Furthermore, the requirements to administrative regulations such as electronic administrative regulations are described. The law deals with procedures for development, adoption, and application of administrative regulations, provides for procedures to guide challenges of the decisions and actions of executive bodies and foresees a transitional period for the preparation and adoption of administrative regulations of Government functions, including the electronic administrative regulations.

Standards for State Service

It is generally acknowledged that the Russian public services (the services themselves and their delivery) are of low quality. Services are difficult to access, and obstacles to obtaining state services range from omni-present queues to artificial administrative barriers. In the course of administration statutory provisions are complemented by new non-statutory requirements and burdens which affect civil service users. In performing their duties to exercise state functions state organizations, institutions and their officials impose various paid services on individuals and entities which are perceived by, and often sold to users as lawful civil services. Standards of state services, i.e. a systematic compilation of requirements for the order of delivery of state services by state institutions, are missing. Equally, the standards which should apply to service delivery, such as being independent from individual services, general rules regarding the co-operation between state and citizen, and general applicability to the state organs and institutions, are absent.

Some of the general principles which should ideally apply to the service delivery of the Russian state to the citizens are:

- greater accessibility (time and location)

- receptiveness and transparency,

- public accountability;

- more readable and simpler official documents;

- direct application of a number of statutory duties;

- better information and training of civil servants;

- simplification and codification of the law.

A key impediment to the enhancement of State performance for the benefit of individuals and their groupings consists in the lack of sufficient legal regulations and traditions. This situation is further exacerbated by a lack or perhaps, obvious shortage of clear-cut statutory standards of civil services. There are no generally accepted civil service quality and accessibility standards that would be applicable to the entire nation, including federal and local authorities, individuals and their groupings, and the awareness of individuals and entities of their rights in this sphere is low. Officials are not liable for a failure to render a service, nor can they be brought to liability for a lack of timeliness, accessibility, quality or excessive burden in the rendering of civil services. Similarly, the inability of individuals and their groupings to challenge excessive administrative civil service requirements or burdens or poor civil service quality paves the way for corruption, improper administrative charges, violation of human rights, excessive burdens and all types of expenditures for individuals and entities.

The role of international organizations

Various international institutions take part in assisting transitional states to implement reforms aimed at improving performance of state institutions, efficiency of civil servants and the delivery of state services. The European Community, represented by the Commission of the European Communities, for and on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation initiated a number of projects to support the civil service reform process.

TACIS projects.

In the absence of substantial technical assistance on administrative reform, MEDT (Ministry of Economic Development and Trade), which was the initial driving force of the administrative reform process, has initiated in autumn 2001 а ТACIS (Technical Assistance to Community of Independent States) policy advice project to draft regulations on preventing conflicts of interest and improving the conduct of civil servants. This European Expertise Service (EES) policy advice project was later followed by a TACIS Bistro project. The use of TACIS funding to research effective mechanisms for the implementation of these regulations has played a crucial part in ensuring that they produce concrete results. TACIS experts have contributed with targeted policy advice to the development of the Code of Conduct, which was enacted by Presidential Decree and has been closely involved in the drafting of a new Civil Service Law.

In addition, under the TACIS Policy Advice Programme a project was implemented in 2003 on "Access to Information”. This policy advice project supported the Russian authorities in creating a unified code that will guarantee citizens^’ free access to public information across all Government agencies, and operated under guidelines that are dear to civil servants and the public

The project "Administrative Reform I” is the first of two main TACIS projects to support the civil reform process. The first project supports the Presidential Administration and the Russian Government in the area of civil service reform and assists in the implementation of the Civil Service Law adopted in July 2004. Its objective is to improve the institutional capacity of the Government of Russia in order to implement a coherent strategy for public sector reform as outlined in the Government strategy for civil service reform. In coordination with other donors' programmes, the project aims to lay foundations for a merit-based, transparent, service-oriented and accountable public administration and to address the need for innovation, risk-taking and the display of initiative on the part of civil servants. For this purpose the project will assist the Presidential Administration and stakeholders in areas such as policy and legal advice, and capacity building through on-the-job training of core groups of officials.

The project “Administrative Reform II”(Civil Service Reform) is the second TACIS project to further support the civil service reform process. The project supports the Presidential Administration and the Russian Government in the area of civil service reform and focuses on training, curricula development, core group work and legal and policy advice. Its focus is laid on training, advising training institutions and the development of training methodologies for civil servants. It works in close cooperation with the presidential administration, the major training institutions and the MEDT for its work in the Russian regions.

Public expenditure management also plays an important role in the administrative reform process. In 2002 the RF Ministry of Finance developed a programme to reform the state budget strategy and budgetary institutions, which also includes the introduction of performance-based management The TACIS project “State Budget Reform” supports the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to introduce mid-term performance-oriented budget planning. In this respect the introduction of performance-based budgeting complements the introduction of performance-based management. The project will be succeeded by a second project which will focus on improving Public Expenditure Management.