Putin demands review of criteria to assess local govt performance
MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed reviewing the criteria for assessing the performance of local administrations.
Measures aimed at seriously increasing household income include a "review of the criteria for evaluating the performance of executive power bodies in the constituents of the [Russian] Federation," he said at a State Council session in Moscow on Tuesday.
"This system is certainly functioning, but not as efficiently as we planned," Putin said.
"Situations where a region deserves a place on an honors board based on the majority of criteria but, at the same time, receives poor assessments from citizens are not rare. Reports on paper and people's social sentiments should not be separated by such a large gap. It is all the more important in situations with direct elections of regional heads. Their results are certainly the most objective assessment," the president said.
"The evaluation system cannot be abolished. I ordered the government to prepare a draft decree containing a total of 11 criteria. It is important for the federal center to know how the regions are getting along. And we will certainly monitor and analyze the situation," Putin said.
It is necessary to "consider the possibility of increasing grants issued to the regions based on their investment appeal indicators," he said.
The head of state also proposed "considering the creation of a system that would make different regions compete with each other."
"It often happens that neighboring regions with an almost even playing field differ radically," Putin said.
"One region opens enterprises, creates new jobs, and incomes grow there, but in another region business has to survive and residents grow poor, forcing the federal center to constantly raise its subsidies," he said.
"Most strikingly, the team ruling the region that lags behind its neighbors refuses to change its attitude to the cause and continues working as usual," he said.
"As we see, the seemingly logical principle of competitiveness is not working there. It means that we need a special, really effective system that would encourage the regions to compete with each other. The State Council could discuss and analyze this issue and could formulate suggestions for it as an individual topic," the president said.
Another problem that deserves great attention is that "the use of land resources is not effective enough," he said.
"We have vast land resources. Thank God, we remain the largest country in the world in terms of territory. There are many people willing to develop it. But people planning to register their ownership of a land plot or rent it come across multiple barriers and hurdles, which are frequently unsurpassable," Putin said.
