By Vestnik Kavkaza
Since May Russian ministries and agencies will be actually suspended from formation of their public councils. 75% of the members of public councils will be proposed by the Public Chamber, 25% - by expert advice of the government. The minister of the Russian Federation responsible for the organization of the government commission for the coordination of open government, Mikhail Abyzov, says that the general problem of the revitalization of the community councils was postponed to May by presidential decree. The Public Chamber, together with other public organizations prepared a law on the basis of social control. Abyzov spoke about innovations in the work of public councils.
The first innovation is the need for the formation of public councils
“Up until now, the regulatory legislation was not directly secured in absolutely obligatory formation of public councils at the ministries and departments of the government of the Russian Federation. And we with the Public Chamber faced a situation when some of the federal authorities did not consider it necessary to form public councils, and in fact, this kind of work was not carried out in these departments. To date, the need to be bound by the formation of public councils at the appropriate handling of the Public Chamber will be determined. In this regard, the key role will be mainly of the Public Chamber to initiate the formation of a public council. Not all departments and ministries need public councils, but those that are engaged in developing public decision making, public policy, of course, must have community councils,” Abyzov said.
The second innovation is the means of formation
“75% of the members of public councils will be proposed by the Public Chamber, 25% - by expert advice of the government of the Russian Federation. In general, this principle is defined, because the public councils operate with the function of social control, and the function of experts to support our ministries and departments. This means we need to provide a correct, reasonable balance of representation of public organizations for the functioning of public councils and experts, which should help to develop effective government solutions. Directly competitive procedures and procedures for the selection of representative offices of public organizations will be held on the basis of the Public Chamber, the relevant working groups on the board, and subsequently approved by the Government,” Abyzov explained.
The third innovation is chairmen
“Only the Public Chamber and the advisory council will have the authority to propose the chairmen of public councils. This will ensure the requirement of the presidential decree on the formation of public councils on the principles of independence and the corresponding objective function at the executive branch, in some parts including healthy opposition to the proposals and the decisions that are developed through the work of our ministries and departments,” the minister stated.
He stressed that the main role in the formation of public councils would be given to social and non-profit organizations. These bodies will have the powers to delegate and offer candidates, who will later select the Public Chamber. Thus, greater involvement of public organizations and associations will be provided in the functioning of the Public Chamber and our ministries, and in this way qualitative features of social control will be presented.
