PRESS RELEASE*
The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the Government Presidium meeting on June 28, 2011:
1. Progress in the implementation of measures to create an integrated system of interagency electronic communication
Materials on the issue have been submitted by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.
The materials contain a report on the results of the creation of an integrated system of interagency electronic communication as of early June 2011, a project that is being implemented pursuant to the Federal Law On the Organisation of the Delivery of State and Municipal Services and in general within the framework of the Strategy of the Development of the Information Society in Russia.
The discussion is aimed at monitoring the implementation of the provisions of the Federal Law On the Organisation of the Delivery of State and Municipal Services Concerning the Creation of an Integrated System of Interagency Electronic Interaction.
Based on the results of the discussion it is proposed to include in the government meeting agenda in the third quarter of 2011 an item On the Preliminary Results of the Use of Integrated System of Interagency Electronic Interaction, which will ensure monitoring of the progress in implementing the measures to put in place an integrated system of interagency electronic communication.
2. Implementing measures to coordinate activities relating to the use of information and communication technologies in the activities of state agencies
Materials on the issue have been submitted by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.
The materials contain a report on the results of work carried out to implement the provisions of the government resolution On the Coordination of Measures to Use Information and Communication Technologies in the Activities of State Agencies and proposals on improving measures aimed at coordinating activities in the use of information and communication technologies.
To ensure more effective use of information and communication technologies by the state executive bodies and more effective spending of the money allocated for information and communication technologies, the government adopted a resolution On the Coordination of Activities in the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in the Activities of State Executive Bodies.
Pursuant to the above resolution the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media is conducting an expert review of the plans of informatisation of federal executive bodies and state off-budget funds, draft federal targeted programmes, departmental targeted programmes, strategies, concepts and (or) other documents that set long-term priorities, goals and tasks as well as draft decisions on the creation of federal state information systems.
An important finding that emerged from the expert assessment of informatisation plans is the heterogeneity of software and hardware solutions of the departmental infrastructure as well as different levels of automation of basic technological processes.
An expert assessment of documents on informatisation has also revealed some systemic problems that prevent the conduct of such work with maximum efficiency:
● there is no interconnection between the process of preparation of the Federal Budget and the pattern of shaping informatisation plans of state executive bodies;
● informatisation plans are not tied in with the plan of procurement and the register of state contracts;
● the low status of departmental specialists in charge of making informatisation plans;
● there is no consolidated record of the results of the work at different stages of the life cycle of creating state and departmental information systems as well as the information and communication technology infrastructure.
The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media proposes to develop uniform requirements and standards of informatisation of state bodies, to improve the procedure of expert evaluation of documents concerning informatisation, to ensure centralised record of informatisation activities with separate record of the outlays on information and communication technologies in the structure of the Federal Budget and to ensure interconnection of the process of preparation, discussion and approval of departmental informatisation plans with the process of the preparation of the Federal Budget. It is also proposed to create a system of accounting of information systems (including the information and communications technology infrastructure required for their functioning) being developed and acquired with Federal Budget money or the money of state off-budget funds and the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
3. Draft Federal Laws On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law On Protecting Competition and certain other legislative acts of the Russian Federation and On Introducing Amendments to the Code on Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation
The draft federal laws have been submitted by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
The proposed amendments to the Federal Law On Protecting Competition are based on the law enforcement practice and introduce adjustments to antimonopoly requirements, including:
● establishment of more precisely defined and transparent rules of declaring prices to be excessive as a result of monopoly, in particular forbidding high prices formed as a result of exchange trading to be declared excessively high;
● reduction of the list of bans on agreements and coordinated actions of economic entities and, accordingly, of the grounds for declaring such agreements to be cartel agreements;
● additional guarantees to persons being prosecuted on the grounds of violating anti-monopoly laws, including by fixing the minimum required period for the analysis of the commodity market (not less than one year);
● monitoring of economic concentration with respect to foreigners only if such persons deliver goods to the territory of the Russian Federation in an amount not less than one billion roubles during the course of the year, preceding the date when the transaction was effected;
● keeping a register of individuals against whom administrative proceedings have been launched to preclude ungrounded criminal charges being brought for a single instance of abuse of dominant position in the market;
● elaboration of the procedures of initiating and processing cases on violation of antimonopoly legislation.
The draft law also proposes amendments to the Criminal Code to exclude criminal liability for coordinated actions and vertical agreements between economic entities. Only activities presenting the biggest danger for competition, i.e. cartels, will be criminally actionable.
In addition, the draft law envisages amendments to the federal laws On the Power Industry, On Natural Monopolies, On the Subsoil Resources, The Land, Urban Development, Water and Housing Codes of the Russian Federation as well as certain other legislative acts.
The proposed amendments to the Code on Administrative Offences would differentiate the liability of business entities for violating anti-monopoly legislation, including a fixed fine in the amount of up to one million roubles for the abuse of the dominant position that infringes upon the interests of partners, but does not limit competition in the market.
4. Draft Federal Law On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law On the Public Civil Service in the Russian Federation
The draft law is aimed at regulating the mechanism of a special procedure for the remuneration of civil servants depending on the results of professional service activities fixed in the termed employment contract.
The draft law proposes a structure of remuneration and the principles of establishing professional performance indicators of civil servants whose remuneration is subject to a special procedure.
The provisions that make it mandatory for the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to establish generalised indicators of efficiency and results common to all the state executive bodies and civil servants (Part 14) are to be stricken out of Article 50 of the Federal Law On the Public Civil Service in the Russian Federation. Under the draft law the performance indicators for civil servants are to be established in a termed employment contract with due account of the tasks and functions of the corresponding state executive body.
Under the draft law, the regulatory legal acts of the government and the regulatory legal acts of the constituent entities of Russia set the rules of determining and the methods of assessing the results of the activities of the civil servants whose remuneration is subject to a special procedure; the rules of calculating the remuneration of the said civil servants; the ceiling for the amount that can be drawn from the wage fund by state executive bodies to pay remuneration to the civil servants whose remuneration is subject to a special procedure.
A special remuneration procedure may be established by the chief executive of the state body for various positions in the civil service, for the "executive" and "specialist" categories of the top and main groups of positions whose list is approved by a legal act of the corresponding state body. A regulatory legal act of the state body also approves the procedure of determining and assessing the performance of civil servants whose remuneration is subject to a special procedure.
An employment contract with civil servants whose remuneration is subject to a special procedure is signed for a term of between one and four years.
The draft law sets the deadlines for phasing in a special remuneration procedure for the public civil service:
● January 1, 2012 for federal executive bodies and executive bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the top category of positions;
● January 1, 2014 for the above mentioned executive bodies for the main group of positions and at the rest state bodies.
5. Draft Federal Law On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law on Political Parties
The draft federal law has been prepared as a result of the monitoring of the enforcement of regulatory legal acts that regulate the legal position, the procedure of the creation, the activities, reorganisation and disbanding of political parties.
The draft law proposes amendments to section 6, Article 15 of the federal law On Political Parties that would empower an authorised federal executive body to declare a state registration document to be null and void.
The draft law proposes amendments to Articles 16 and 17 of the Federal Law On Political Parties that would make it mandatory to submit three copies of constituent documents to the authorised agency, which is in line with the provisions of federal laws On Public Associations and On Non-Profit Organisations and has been prompted by the special procedure of state registration of non-profit organisations by two state bodies, the authorised body and the registration body.
The federal law On Political Parties also establishes the duties of a political party, including the provision of information to the authorised bodies. It is proposed to introduce amendments to Article 27 of the Federal Law On Political Parties that specify the procedure of providing information to the federal authorised body and its territorial branches.
Amendments are proposed to Article 45 of the Federal Law On Political Parties that are in harmony with the corresponding provisions of the federal law On Public Associations. The procedure of making entries on dropping a political party, its regional branches and other registered structural units from the single state register of legal entities is also to be reviewed.
6. Draft Federal Law On Introducing an Amendment to Article 260 of the Civil Procedural Code of the Russian Federation
The draft law has been submitted by the Ministry of Justice.
The draft law has been developed pursuant to the Resolution of the Constitutional Court whereby the provisions of Article 260 of the Civil Procedural Code that set deadlines for consideration by the law court of appeals on the protection of electoral rights during the election campaign have been declared to be unconstitutional to the extent that these provisions, as they are construed in the course of law enforcement, prevent the court, upon the expiry of the fixed periods, from resolving the corresponding case in a substantive manner and provide grounds for dropping proceedings on the case.
The draft law would harmonise the provisions of the Civil Procedural Code with the above mentioned Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.
The draft federal law envisages, among other things, that the expiry of the terms fixed under part 6 of Article 260 of the Civil Procedural Code does not terminate the procedure initiated on the basis of a petition filed in accordance with the requirements of this article and do not prevent the courts, including appellate, cassation and supervisory instances, from solving the case in a substantive manner.
The implementation of the draft law will not require additional federal budget spending.
7. Draft Federal Law On Introducing an Amendment to Article 11 of the Law On the State Border of the Russian Federation
The draft federal law has been submitted by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Under part 5, Article 11 of the law On the State Border of the Russian Federation border control includes verification of grounds for allowing the passage of persons, transport means, cargoes, goods and animals across the border, inspection of transport means, cargoes and goods for the purpose of detecting and detaining those who violate the rules of crossing the state border, the cargoes, goods and animals that are not allowed into and out of the Russian Federation under applicable legislation.
At the same time part 6 of Article 11 of the law determines the authority of the government to determine the content, means and methods of inspection (including border inspection along with other types of state control) and the procedure of such inspection in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.
The above mentioned contradiction between the said parts of Article 11 of the law prevent full exercise of the government's right to improve the technology of border control, notably the use of the electronic document processing system during the course of such control.
The draft law proposes to drop from part 5 of Article 11 of the law the provisions concerning the content of border control.
In addition, the draft law proposes to delete from Part 5 of Article 11 of the Law the provision whereby the list of other types of control at state border crossing points is established by the government because the same part states that border, customs and other types of control are established by international treaties of the Russian Federation and the federal laws.
The draft law is aimed at improving the regulatory legal base, namely by eliminating certain contradictions and gaps in the legislation of the Russian Federation.
8. Signing an agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Mongolia on Temporary Work of the Citizens of One State on the Territory of the Other State
The draft law has been submitted by the Federal Migration Service.
The aims of the Agreement are as follows:
● effective regulation of the flow of labour migrants, to bring the size, directions and composition thereof in line with the social and economic development interests of the signatory states;
● to ensure favourable conditions for the movement of foreign workers in the territories of the signatory states with due account of their national interests.
The agreement envisages, among other things, that foreign workers can work in the host state if they have a work permit issued under the laws of the host state and in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement.
Under Article 8 of the Agreement, pay and other terms of the work of foreign workers may not be less favourable than those envisaged under the laws of the host state for the citizens of that state for similar work.
The Federal Migration Service of Russia notes that the signing of this Agreement will meet the long-term interests of Russia and will have a positive impact on the process of creating an effective system of managing migration processes.
9. Allocating to the Government of the Republic of Dagestan additional money from the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation for Prevention and Liquidation of Emergency Situations and the Aftermath of Natural Disasters for the payment of lump sum allowances to the citizens injured as a result of the terrorist attack in the city of Khasavyurt (the Republic of Dagestan) on January 14, 2011
10. Introducing amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Government of the Russian Federation
The draft resolution would seal in a government regulatory act the legal status of instructions and directives of the President of Russia.
The draft resolution envisages the right of executors to make proposals to the President on extending the term of executing the instructions and directives as well as adjustment of the terms of the execution of his instructions. The draft sets the rules concerning the timeframe of submitting such proposals to the government.
The implementation of this project will further enhance the discipline of the federal executive bodies in implementing the instructions and directives of the President and the corresponding instructions of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Moscow, June 27, 2011
* Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information are based on the materials submitted by the executive federal bodies for discussion by the Government Presidium.
