29.07.09

More than 1,200,000 people - that’s how many government officials there are in Russia according to the Federal Agency of State Statistics, Rosstat. In the last 10 years, number of government officials nearly doubled, and their positions became some of the most stable in the country.

Rosstat recorded the growing number of government officials in Russia, but the figures are based off of October 2008 monitoring data. Sensing the beginning of a crisis, many departments were forced to make cutbacks, and these numbers are not yet reflected in Rosstat’s figures. Yaroslavskaya Oblast reported government staff cutbacks of 16%, Ulyanovskaya Oblast 20% and Nizhny Novgorod 10%. The governor of Saratov, meanwhile has promised by the end of 2009 to reduce the regional government staff by 25% -- that’s 1,000 people.

Multiplying by dividing

1,200,000 people, however, is far from the limit. In 2004, the number of government officials was more than 1,300,000 people. In the past five years, Russian executive and legislative branches “slimmed” down by 50,000 and 60,000 people respectively. On the other hand, legislative branches and apparatus officials increased by 3,000 people. However, the number of those serving on all levels of government is still enormous.

The growing number of government officials has long been a problem for Russia. One of many rounds of bureaucracy began under Putin, and is directly related to the construction of vertical power. In 2000 the newly elected president created plenipotentiary offices that were meant to unite the “spreading” regions. State representative offices appeared in seven districts; each one had 200-500 government officials.

Then a local self-government law passed in 2003 which says that government bodies must be present in any village, even the smallest one. In 2004 administrative reform begun, and it continues to this day. It was assumed that if government authorities were divided between governmental departments, services and agencies, and if a part of their duties was, at the same time, transferred to the local authorities, then that would reduce the number of government officials, simplify the fight against corruption and bring the government closer to the people.

But everything did not go according to plan. Sixteen governmental offices became 18, and they actively increased their staff. Agencies reunited, and their staffs continued to grow.

“In the past three years, our structure changed three or four times,” said Anastasia, a supervisory department specialist in Samara. “Sometimes, we ourselves confuse our name. At first, the Administration for the Protection of Monuments of Culture merged with a media supervising agency, then communication personnel were added. Rossvyazkomnadzor, Roskomnadzor, Rossvyazohrankultury... This spring the Russian Federal Surveillance Service for Mass Communications, Communications and Cultural Heritage Protection was created.”

In August 2008, Putin officially permitted the minister of finance to have seven deputies instead of five. In addition, Dmitri Medvedev added an eighth deputy for the minister of defense. Deputies were added for the minister of telecom and mass communications as well; instead of four, he now has six deputies. Even the prime minister was given two new vice-premiers; he now has seven. And in April, the Ministry of Finance grew even more: three more departments were created, to a total of 16. Then in July, one of them was divided into two parts.

Government employee salaries

Contrary to the popular belief, while government employee salaries are stable, they are not so high.

“It’s better to be a government employee on the oblast level rather than federal level,” said Senior Specialist Yevgeny.

“Federal employee salary isn’t high - about 3,400 rubles. But it automatically doubles and 90% of the total salary is added for civil service allowance. Then there are various increases for irregular working hours (although not many civil servants can complain about such schedules) and responsibility. People choose to work for the government for stability and benefits, and not for the income. Government employees get more vacation days: for each year of service, a day is added to the 30 vacation days; five more days may be added for successful performance. Special medical clinics with high level of medical service exist for oblast-level officials. Those with 10 years of service receive 60% of their salary as pension, and those with 15 years of service 100%.”

“None the less, we have a high turnover rate,” said Valentina, an employee at the former Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communication (Roskomnadzor) in Novosibirskaya Oblast. “A great number of lawyers leave because, for them, 20,000 a month is not serious.”

According to Valentina, there is a lot of work, and it keeps increasing - but the majority of it is meaningless, “I don’t see the point of the instructions coming from Moscow,” she said. “For example, in 10 days, monitor radio stations for compliance with the law. With the help from communication personnel I can verify what frequency they are broadcasting from. I can easily hear who their network partner is - “Chanson” or “Russian Radio”, for example. But I cannot figure out how long their broadcast is and how long the purchased airtime is, because under this type of inspection, I cannot request their playlist. The only other choice is to listen to the radio 24 hours a day. But how could I listen to 30 radio stations a week?”

And yet government jobs are becoming more and more popular in Russia. According to a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, 16% of young people see themselves as future government officials. Competition for the faculty of Public Administration at the Moscow State University positions is one of the highest.

“Girls aged 21 to 23 years are more inclined to work for municipal and state offices,” said Larissa Pautova, leader of the Public Opinion Foundation’s Generation XXI Project.

Stable salary and growth opportunities remain the principal advantages of a civil service career.

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Source: "Trud"