11.08.08

"For all the multitude of officials everywhere, we have nobody to do the actual work," Dmitry Medvedev said at the recent conference where formation of the presidential personnel pool was discussed. As far as the president is concerned, the powers-that- be need adequate and competent personnel at all absolutely levels but lack the reserves to dip into.

It is not as if Medvedev was painting it black. His assessment of the situation in state structures was quite correct.
The existing system of promotion to positions of power in Russia bears a strong resemblance to the proverbial personnel selection i.e. the rules by which the Soviet nomenclature was formed. With the only difference the president himself emphasized: personnel departments these days are not nearly as efficient.

It is safe to assume that shortage of competition is one of the reasons behind personnel stagnation in the corridors of power.
The notion of "labor market" does not apply to civil service for some reason. Selection in keeping with free enterprise rules has never replaced the hierarchic preferences that actually come down to a mere reshuffling. Even administrative reforms resemble the same old Soviet practice whose gist is widely known: reorganization only takes place whenever there is some top brass to be reassigned (when someone has to be demoted or altogether discharged, and someone else elevated). Little if anything changed. Everything depends on personalities, just the way it has always depended - on the correlation of forces "upstairs", power struggle, someone's resolve to secure his positions.

Medvedev wants civil service made into an attractive and therefore coveted employment - including for the personnel from private structures. By and large, the powers-that-be and businesses in Russia exist side by side. There is nothing unusual about people abandoning parliaments to become businessmen. Or for businessmen to go in for politics and become lawmakers. There are lots of lawmakers who represent major corporations in both houses of the parliament. They accounted for 26% of the Federation Council in 2002. They account for 32% these days. A look at regional parliaments in Lipetsk or Astrakhan shows that more than every second lawmaker there is a businessman. In Chuvashia, the ratio is up to 60%. Aware of the necessity to secure their own future, businesses perceive no better ways of ensuring it than penetration of power structures. Once there, however, they tackle their own problems and promote their own interests so that they have little time left (or desire) to grapple with the tasks of civil service. In other words, their presence in civil service does not really mean anything. The president would not have been so seriously upset otherwise.

Shortage of personnel is particularly noticeable at the regional level. No use looking for the secret of some regional leaders' longevity in the voters' relative prosperity and contentment. It is administrative redoubts first of all that protect governors and presidents. Powers-that-be in the regions are strongly personified. Also importantly, local leaders do not usually go to the trouble of raising successors. Their personnel strategy is centered around preservation of the status quo. Some hopes were pinned on abolition of gubernatorial elections which was expected to stimulate personnel rotation in the regions. Alas, it never happened. Most governors retained their positions.

How come the federal center never encouraged a radical renewal of the gubernatorial corps? First, because all leaders whose loyalty was so much as doubted were replaced long ago.

Second, because changing the regional authorities on the eve of elections was considered risky. Political survivors guaranteed stability. And personified stability, for that matter. Official Moscow displayed interest in replacement of a regional leader only when some strategically important and wealthy province had to be taken over. Like Yakutia. Or Krasnodar.

In a word, the regional authorities have mostly depleted their resources. Medvedev and Vladimir Putin know that the local elites should be rejuvenated. But if personal loyalty is no longer the criterion of gubernatorial success, what is? On what grounds will personnel decisions regarding regional leaders be made?

Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak promises some sort of system of regional rating as the solution to the problem.
      Replacement of personnel at all levels of state power is inevitable and necessary. Who will come and who will go is going to be quite revealing in terms of the Kremlin's future staff strategy.

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Source: "Rossiiskaya Gazeta"