Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, June 16

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Russia introduces fines for red tape \ Small businesses get used to corruption, struggle with personnel shortage \ Coup attempt in South Ossetia?

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Russia introduces fines for red tape

Fines will be imposed on unhelpful state officials in line with a new bill that Russia’s Economic Development Ministry will soon bring before parliament.

The bill will amend the Administrative Code, placing a priority on complaints from victims of red tape and other mala fide actions by municipal or federal officials.

An official’s failure to follow required procedure in public duties will be qualified as an offense and punished with a 3,000-5,000 ruble ($110-$180) fine unless lawmakers in parliament’s lower house decide on a higher one.

To bring an official to justice, the wronged individual will have to lodge an administrative complaint, which will be considered separately from the vast flow of other kinds of complaints.

Ideally, the new bill will get officials out of the habit of “bouncing” applicants and complainants from office to office. At the moment, officials bear no responsibility for giving pro forma responses or ignoring requests.

Dmitry Gorovtsov, an expert with the lower house’s anti-corruption legislation commission, told NG that complaints against officials may include denial or delay of service, the requirement to present unnecessary documents, and demanding payment for services that should be delivered free of charge.

“I have not seen this bill and therefore cannot comment,” said Alexei Volkov, the head of the anti-corruption legislation commission. Upper house representatives could not comment either.

Volkov told the Utro Rossii TV program on Wednesday that he was engaged in a different anti-corruption effort. In his words, the Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office have set up a joint group to “improve legislation” in light of the possible ratification of Article 20 of the U.N. Convention against Corruption. Until it is ratified, Russian officials whose spending seriously exceeds their official incomes cannot be punished.

Neither the Prosecutor General’s Office nor the Justice Ministry confirmed the group’s existence to NG.

“This group is not in parliament,” Volkov insisted. “It is working at the Prosecutor General’s Office. It is not drafting any bills. It is preparing for the possible ratification of Article 20.” He failed to provide more details about the group’s work.

“I have been included only recently and have not attended a group meeting yet,” he said.

Gorovtsov believes there is no such group.

“Volkov is trying to mislead you,” the expert explained. “The ratification of Article 20 does not require any improvement of the legislation. All that has to be done is a few changes to the Criminal Code.”


Vedomosti

Small businesses get used to corruption, struggle with personnel shortage

Small businesses believe their operations are more hindered by a lack of qualified personnel than by unfriendly state agencies or corruption, according to a business climate report.

The Opora Rossii small business association and the Strategy Partners consultancy firm surveyed over 6,000 respondents in 40 regions at companies employing less than 250 people.

“The result is discouraging,” said Sergei Borisov, head of Opora Rossii. “Russian regions cannot meet businesses demand for a friendly environment.”

SMEs in Russia employ 20 percent of the workforce and account for 20 percent of GDP, while in developed economies the ratio is 60-70 percent and 40-50 percent.

“We are rowing up stream, and aren’t getting anywhere,” Borisov said.

Funding was a major problem cited by the respondents. A total of 42 percent said that they had problems raising short-term loans (below 12 months), and half said securing a loan for three years or more was practically impossible. Over 60 percent complained of exorbitant electricity bills and 25 percent of expensive Internet services.

Meanwhile, most companies do not believe business is seriously affected by administrative barriers.

Curiously, these barriers are viewed as “local specifics they can adapt to,” the report states. The same holds true for corruption. Additional costs such as bribes do not seriously affect the company’s competitiveness. Only 13 percent of respondents mentioned corruption as their main problem.

“They got used to it,” Borisov said.

The shortage of personnel with required qualifications is a greater problem, as over 60 percent of SME leaders said that they have experienced recruiting problems in the past few years (compared to only 35 percent in Europe). The Moscow Region is the best place to recruit qualified workers who have failed to find jobs in Moscow. In fact, the Moscow Region was ranked the friendliest region for small businesses.

“It provides all the same benefits that Moscow does, only cheaper,” the report adds.

The top five regions by business climate also include the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, and the Chelyabinsk and Samara regions. Moscow and St. Petersburg rank 17 and 25, respectively, and the business climate in Russia’s two biggest cities was evaluated as “below average.”

Among the 11 cities with a million-plus population, the friendliest environments for small businesses were Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and Samara. Rostov-on-Don was worst.

As many as 43 percent of respondents said that the shortage of qualified personnel was the main obstacle for business development. Taxes were not on the checklist.

This not just about a deficit of workers, but about a lack of resources, said Vera Yeliseyeva, development director at Svyaznoy Group. Small businesses cannot offer high salaries or good career prospects, she said.

Personnel shortage is also a problem for big businesses, said Igor Yurgens, Vice President of Russia’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. It is difficult to find qualified workers because university graduates have inflated expectations, while their educational level is low compared with graduates 20 of years ago. In fact, they are essentially on a level with vocational training, he said.


Moskovsky Komsomolets

Coup attempt in South Ossetia?

Alarming news emerged from Tskhinval, the capital of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetian, on Wednesday. Almost 200 officers from the republic’s State Security Service and Defense Ministry stormed the country’s parliament mid-session and demanded the deputies amend the constitution to allow incumbent President Eduard Kokoity to run for a third term.

When the deputies refused, the officers blockaded them in the parliament building. The officers were led by Deputy Defense Ministers Ibragim Gasseyev and Igor Alborov, and head of the State Security Service Gennady Kokoyev.

A Moskovsky Komsomolets reporter managed to get through to Yury Dzitstsoity, deputy speaker of South Ossetia’s parliament, over the phone. He said: “We were in a routine session, the law about a third term was not even on our agenda. These young guys, including the two deputy defense ministers and the head of the State Security Service, walked right into parliament. They said they had an announcement to make. We asked them to wait until we had dealt with all the items on our agenda. At first, it was all calm. Once we had concluded, we invited them to speak. They told us to rush through constitutional changes to allow the president to stand for a third term. We explained that this was not the way to go about it, that there was a special procedure for such motions. First the proposal is prepared, then it is examined by committees, then put before parliament. All that takes time. They replied that they could not wait. We continued to refuse.  Then they began forcing deputies to sign the documents. They prevented us from leaving the building, forced us to set up a group to work on the matter. Some deputies, like first deputy speaker Zurab Kokoyev, were forced to sign, but I refused, and instead signed my resignation. Several other deputies followed suit. I consider this an attempted coup d’état.”

Now the military and security officers have left the building and stationed themselves outside it.

Deputy Defense Minister Ibragim Gasseyev launched an initiative to hold a referendum on allowing the incumbent president to run for a third term. On June 14, the country’s Supreme Court rejected it. At the same time, Chairman of the court Atsamaz Bichenov conceded that the parliament could look into amending the corresponding article of the constitution.

RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.

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