The Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a decree “On evaluating the effectiveness of local self-government bodies in urban districts and municipal regions”.
The decree has been signed in order to implement the provisions of Federal Law 131 “On the general principles of organizing local self-government in Russia”. The assessment of municipal leaders will be conducted according to 30 criteria, including hospitals’ equipment status, the number of deaths of adults under the age of 65 and children under the age of 18, the proportion of children attending kindergarten, the number of students passing the Single State Exam, and the number of small businesses per 10,000 population. The assessment criteria will also include the condition of city highways, the total area of housing per capita, and even the land area available for construction. But, most important is the “population’s satisfaction” with medical care, the quality of preschool, general and supplementary education for children, and the informational openness of local self-government bodies.
True, how the assessment criteria will be ranked is not clear. The decree noted that the Russian government (that is, the Cabinet that Vladimir Putin will soon form) must develop and approve before 1st September this year the layout of the report, which will also contain the planned values for a three-year.
Since last year, the activities of the country’s governors have been assessed. Their work is assessed by 43 points. The first is a block of questions relating to “raising the standard of living”. It is assessed by such indicators as “the mortality rate”, “satisfaction with health care” and even “ambulance waiting times”.
The assessment of mayors’ work may face the following difficulties. First of all, local self-government bodies in Russia are outside the system of bodies of state power - they constitute an independent branch of government formally elected by the people. In this regard, it is not clear why it is necessary to duplicate the existing system for evaluating the effectiveness of mayors - popular elections. It also remains unclear whether an evaluation of a mayor will affect his stay in power.
Alexander Popov
Photo: SXC
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