Draft rules for forming community councils

In
accordance with the presidential decree on the basic directions which the
process of improving the system of state governance is to take, the rules for
creating community councils associated with both federal and regional level
authorities and relating to the performance of their functions, should be
formulated by 1 September.

 

Participants
in the working group tasked with this exercise discussed various issues at a
meeting attended by the Russian Federation’s Minister for Relations with Open
Government, Mikhail Abyzov. Membership of the group includes Viktor
Pleskachevsky, vice-president of the National Association of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs, Victor Panin, chair of the National Society for the Protection
of the Rights of Consumers of Educational Services, Elena Topoleva, the
director of ASI and member of the Federal Public Chamber, Andrei Klimenko,
director of the Institute of State and Municipal Governance at the Higher
School of Economics, and lawyer Petr Kucherenko.

 

People
who are well versed in the subject think that the role of the councils should
be to exercise public oversight, create reciprocal links between the
authorities and the public, and subject documents prepared by the appropriate
governmental agencies to critical examination. Mr Abyzov promised that the
functions of the councils would not cut across those of the federal public
chamber. The chamber scrutinises legislation while the councils are to be
concerned with regulations made by a particular authority. He added that the
chamber needed revision.

 

It
is proposed that the federal and regional chambers should be consulted when the
composition of the councils is being determined. At the same time departmental
heads should be allocated a quota for nominating candidates. Ms Topoleva took
the view that each council’s members should include representatives of
business, academia, NGOs and local opinion formers.

 

Mr
Abyzov said that the state should make finance available to create and support
a system of crowd-sourcing. Ms Topoleva thinks that finance for the councils
should be placed on a systematic basis and subject to public oversight. In turn
they should have the opportunity to influence the approach of the authorities
to staffing and to express lack of confidence in functionaries if there are
grounds for doing so.

 

However,
uncertainty surrounds the fate of the councils that were created previously
e.g. in association with the federal ministry of education and science. Elena
Topoleva proposed that the functions of the previous councils be revised.

 

http://www.asi.org.ru/ASI3/rws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/948370E563A37C5044257A5600498B86Rus

Принять участие

Share This