Transcript of the conversation:

Vladimir Putin: Every year, 110 million people apply to agencies subordinate to you. Probably, every Russian family one way or another has some contact with your agency. One hundred and ten million people! We talk a lot about the need to de-bureaucratise this service to facilitate public applications to these organisations and to introduce modern service processes. We are talk about organising so-called single portal, electronic service. What has been done recently to achieve these goals?

Sergei Vasilyev: Mr Putin, in June last year the government approved the concept of a unified accounting system of registration of rights in the Russian Federation. In December, it was approved and since then we have started to implement it. The main set of issues concerns the reorganisation of Rosreyestr's territorial bodies. Earlier, each constituent entity of the Russian Federation had two departments, and three departments where there was surveying and mapping, it was a cumbersome and unmanageable system. The government tasked us to complete this reorganisation by January 1, 2011. I am ready to report to you that we completed this work before September 1, in other words, a few months earlier.

How does this benefit the public and what have we gained? We got a single, manageable, straight forward system with a single Rosreyestr department in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The public now has fewer departments and bureaucrats to visit with less time required to process documents. I can cite a simple example. A person needs to register a land plot or other property. He first had to go to the Federal Real Estate Cadastre Agency (Rosnedvizhimost). He went there to obtain a cadastral title. That is, he went there once. Then 20 days later, according to the cadastre law, he had to be issued a cadastral title. He had to come back to get it. After this, he would take the documents for registration at Rosregistratsiya. He had to come back once more to receive a certificate of ownership. In other words, he had to visit different institutions on four occasions which took two months - as required by law - and sometimes more. Today, he visits one single agency - Rosreyestr. This is either in his respective constituent entity or his district, or his city. Now he only has to visit the agency twice - first to submit documents and then to receive them. We've cut down on the waiting period - registration rights are issued in a month at the longest. Of course, this is not all. We have significantly mitigated the problem of queues. Not entirely, of course... Today, the problem remains, and this is, I think, the most important criterion by which citizens judge our work and public authorities in general, including the federal government. We have developed a range of measures to reduce this problem almost completely.

First. Of course, we are expanding the number of intake offices. Today, no other federal agency has as many offices as we have - more than 6,300. Only Sberbank is little bigger, but it is a completely different system. Here, we also have constituent entities of the Russian Federation (heads of constituent entities) and municipalities and we are  working together. We use MPCs (multi-purpose centres for organisation of public and municipal services) at full capacity. We are present everywhere and operate today - whether at the municipal or constituent level. Often we initiate this presence, and the governors willingly meet us halfway. They understand that we offer the most popular services under one roof, and as you said - a lot of people are interested in these services.

We have installed webcams in high-traffic offices - those with more than 100 visitors per day. Today, any member of the public, head of the department, minister, me, you, can visit the website and look at a particular department online, and actually see what is happening in the reception hall. First, it disciplines the staff themselves - department heads, managers. And secondly, we see what is happening there - whether someone is taking unfair advantage of the queues. It's no secret, and we know there are those who try to manipulate these queues, including for remuneration. The problem exists, we are dealing with it, and this is one way.

We have introduced hall administrators in every office. They receive people, advise on how to properly file documents, provide consultation and at the same time watch what happens in the queues.

Also, just a couple of months ago we started to introduce a measure to deal with these middle men - we set up information kiosks in our offices. What does this mean? In accordance with the civil law, a large number of contracts involve a simple written form. In other words, two people make a deal, sign it and submit it for registration - no one else is needed. These middle men exploit this. We have analysed the market situation that has developed around our service - around Rosreyestr. The costs vary depending on the constituent entity. In the Volga and Southern districts, for example, the cost of these realtor services is now about 9,000-12,000 roubles, a considerable amount, and around Moscow and St Petersburg it is 15,000-20,000. Imagine that, the government fee is 1,000 roubles, and the cost of realtor services is 10 times higher or more!

What have we done? We have developed about 12 model contracts that members of the public can legally use. And we place them in the kiosks. A member of the public can only - or two of them come together if they need to register - they come up to our kiosk, pick the form, fill in their details - passport information, full name, etc. - print out the form and submit it for registration.

Of course, we have caused a flurry of discontent among the realtors, because we are depriving them of income. A simple measure, but it was so effective that the public has not, well, "snowed us under," but has sent us a lot of positive feedback through the website.

In addition, we have organised a system of external monitoring for what is happening on-site. Internal monitoring was certainly intact, but it has some subjective aspects. Today we have agreements with large public institutions, which have extensive branch networks - the Chamber of Commerce, the Russian Bar Association, the very same Sberbank and the Higher  School of Economics. And they instruct their field offices to monitor us... including, sociological surveys (exit polls)  outside of our offices.

We started this two to three months ago. It's already having a positive effect - people already have a very positive attitude to what is happening. Re-organisation is in progress, and it has given us an opportunity to determine the "hot spots." To date, we have compiled a list for the country of about 180 of them out of more than 6,000, in eight to ten constituent entities. And today we are directing all of our major efforts to reverse the situation in those hot spots - providing more interior space, creating more comfortable conditions for people and increasing the number of staff at some of them, more funding etc. In other words, we know of these problems, we have identified and are currently working on them.

I would also like to say one more thing. Of course, all these measures and the problem of queues, and accessibility, and quality of services cannot be resolved completely. We understand that. We are unable to increase the number of offices to infinity, because they would need additional funding and additional staffing. So, one of our most important priorities is providing online services. In terms of the federal government, we of course, are actively involved.

In March, we opened a public services portal. It had a successful launch. It fully corresponds to the federal government public services portal. And I can report that we have begun to provide services online. To date, 262,000 people have been served online, in other words, they do not have to come into our offices.

Vladimir Putin: You need to purchase additional equipment for this. Are funds being allocated for this?

Sergei Vasilyev: Yes, we have a federal targeted programme for the establishment and development of the inventory. It, however, ends in 2012, but we plan to establish the system in 2011. In addition, we understand that this system has now become one of the largest, probably the largest in the world. It must be kept up-to-date. We need sizable financial investments for the server facilities, the replacement of obsolete computers and so on.

And today we are working on the transfer of authority of the Cadastral Chamber to our subordinate institutions, to enable them - and the federal government has discussed this - to charge fees for providing                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  information. Every year we give out 65 million pieces of information. You said "110 million"; this figure is the one. But people also come for this information; they come to get an extract from the register or cadastre. The procedure takes only five minutes, but they still have to queue. Today, 262,000 people have already received our information online. And I look at it every day, I go to our portal, and I see what happens. With each passing day, this figure increases by 1,500-2,000. But if the day before, on Thursday, it was 5,500, then yesterday, Friday, it is 7,000. And so it grows every day - 1,200-1,500 people use this service, and the numbers are growing.

Vladimir Putin: People have begun to get accustomed to this.

Sergei Vasilyev: It's working, and they do get used to it, of course. At first, mainly cadastral services used it, but now ordinary people use it. In IT-saavy, e-business republics such as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, you know, today, the percent of those using electronic services is already up to 25%. The process is in progress.

And I would like to report on one more issue, Mr Putin. Today, we are rolling out operations to follow through on your instructions to all federal agencies on a single tax. We know of two problems that we face in implementing this system. First of all, consider all that we have in the Russian Federation. Then assess it. Only then can we talk about tax. Just a while ago, at the end of the spring session, a law on appraisal activities was passed (Law No. 167-FZ "On Amending the Federal Law ‘On appraisal activities in the Russian Federation'"). It gave us the opportunity to begin our work. Along with the Economic Development Ministry we will, before October 1, finish work on the regulatory framework, the development of all instructions, and most importantly, the procedures. And while we are preparing tender documentation slightly in advance, we will announce tenders and transfer information online and we will further refine the evaluation process.

The only problem here for which I would like your support is this - no matter how banal it is, it's funding. Methods for calculating and appraising land were developed, when the Rosnedvizhimost (Russian Real Estate) federal targeted programme was formed - in 2004-2005. That is, the figures are outdated and all the data is obsolete. We now consult with appraisers, of course, and the amount currently allocated in the federal targeted programme is insufficient. We are now preparing a financial feasibility study, and we will be reporting to the Ministry. We have already reported once to Elvira Nabiullina (Economic Development Minister). We will hold a meeting, and then provide clear justification for the amount it will take to make a qualitative mass appraisal. According to our estimates - and I think they are 99% accurate - we currently have over 64,680,000 capital construction projects in the country that need to be accounted for and appraised. These are basically the main things that we are working on in the service, Mr Putin, our objectives and what has been done.

Vladimir Putin: Alright, Mr Vasilyev. You mentioned the video cameras and webcams installed in the offices, in order to monitor the queues, what is happening there. You know that we have instructed that cameras be installed at all construction sites, where we are working to rebuild burned housing after the wildfires. Work is in progress at many construction sites - the basic structures are practically already standing and some are already roofed. The issue of registering this housing comes up. By the way, you can see ... (Mr Putin shows Mr Vasilyev a webcast on the federal government's website from the construction sites of Russian regions, where new housing is being built for victims of the fire) Here, construction materials are being unloaded. They're already in place, you see, there. They are also there under the roof...

Sergei Vasilyev: They're already under the roof, yes. Roof sheathing, the roof...

Vladimir Putin: At the next construction site, workers are milling about. And here, at this building, work is in progress, they're raising the roof, they've already put the roof framing in.

Sergei Vasilyev: Construction is ongoing, at various stages - roofing in some place and erecting walls in others.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but the walls have been put up everywhere.

Sergei Vasilyev: Well, yes.

Vladimir Putin: This is the upper Vereya where I was in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Here the buildings are fully built, already roofed.

Sergei Vasilyev: With a roof, yes.

Vladimir Putin: That's perhaps not everything, but it's what the camera shows. What am I on about? The fact that they need to be registered. And then there will be even more buildings. Is everything ready?

Sergei Vasilyev: When the calamity hit, I reminded everyone to ensure that the necessary conditions were created. My staff consisted of all personnel and they were working in real time. The order was given, but they understand everything perfectly, especially in those places - the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Ryazan - they issued the documents. Some people applied and within hours they were issued the proper documents. There was the problem of a different order - by law, we charge money for this information. It is not right to charge money from people who were left with nothing. But we found and developed a scheme - the executive bodies turn to us, and information for them is free by law. And we issued all the information within an hour, and everybody had it - both the public and the municipalities.

Vladimir Putin: What is to be done about registration?

Sergei Vasilyev: We will do it in the shortest possible timeframe.

Vladimir Putin: Let's do it directly on-site, so that your people will be there.

Sergei Vasilyev: Alright.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.