News Release
21.01.2010
MW. In our last broadcast we started a conversation about the reform of the Ministry of Interior. After the broadcast we received quite a lot of letters and responses. And today, together with our visitor, the Minister of Interior of Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliev we continue elaborating this issue we touched upon two weeks ago.
- Rashid Gumarovich, has stirred up the society remarkably. We have received quite a number of responses from listeners both with words of support and with some criticism. Deputies, human rights defenders and public figures expressed their opinions on the issue about the preparation of the new Law "About militia"...
Minister. Yes, I've seen many comments in this respect. And first of all, I would like to thank our radio listeners for their responses they sent us.
This proves we pursue a correct path, preserving a correct development vector. The citizens are not indifferent towards what militia will be like. This is also the main essence of the transformations we have undertaken: any competent reform performed by professionals should be based on the public opinion.
By the way, coming back to our last program, I would like to avoid idle talks and make it clear that it is the concept of a new Law "About militia" which is now under development. And this document will be published at the official website of the Ministry of Interior in the near future so that citizens can discuss it. Also, not only employees of the Ministry of Interior, but also senators, deputies, representatives of public organizations, human rights defenders will work on the new Law.
MW. Speaking of the human rights defenders... On March 19, the Public chamber presented a project of the reform concept of the Ministry of Interior. Will these offers be taken into consideration when reforming the department?
Minister. I looked into the initiatives suggested. I could not tell I agree with all the offers. Yes, they are based on foreign experience. But it is impossible to project everything that is in the West and in other countries onto our country. And still, certainly, these initiatives will be considered when we implement the reform. In any case, I appreciate the authors' efforts and their indifference toward the issue.
MW. The work to be done is enormous and planned till 2012. One would be certainly eager to know what improvements and changes the Russian militia will face in the most recent future? For, as far as I understand, the reform is in full swing...
Minister. You are right, we started to work on it since first days. As for the terms, there is not that much time at all till 2012. Today, we are building up a new structural system of law enforcement bodies. A central administrative board of the Ministry of Interior of Russia in the North Caucasian district is created. From the existing 20 Internal Affairs Directorates for railway, water and air transportation, 8 transport managements will be established according to the number of the federal districts within their regular staff number.
Internal affairs departments in restricted access administrative territories and at especially important objects will be subordinate to the respective law enforcement bodies in constituents of the Russian Federation in whose territory they are located. Besides, we are optimizing the structure and number of employees of the central office of the Ministry and units directly subordinated to it.
MW. Rashid Gumarovich, many letters touch upon the personnel reduction issue. In what way will this be done
Minister. First of all, we will take advantage of the natural outflow. Also, some employees and workers of the Ministry who have reached their service age limit will be dismissed.
I would like to emphasize that we will not decide on dismissals of such employees spontaneously, nobody is going to act in the heat of the moment. This will be done only after an all-round estimation of their professional, moral and psychological qualities and the state of health.
If an employee performs his or her functions excellently, we will consider a possibility of prolonging the contract with them. After all, it is the continuity of generations which counts in our job, among other things.
MW. And what changes could we expect in the personnel policy of the Ministry?
Minister. We started improving the personnel component as early as the last year's summer. A number of essentially new decisions and approaches concerning the staff management is accepted.
According to the Decree of the President "About measures for counteraction to corruption" an essentially new system of selecting candidates for service, their training and education has been developed. The order of the Ministry of Interior "About the procedure of qualifying citizens for service (work) in law enforcement bodies of the Russian Federation" has been signed. A multi-stage procedure including an interview, a medical examination, tests, special psycho-physiological researches is created.
Besides, there is a personal guarantee system which obliges professional, skilled, respected heads to bear personal responsibility for candidates they promote to any supervising posts. Members of the administrative board are also rotated.
Finally, we are implementing a range of additional anticorruption measures aimed at more purity of our staff and the legality of decisions we make. From this year employees of law enforcement bodies will be to provide data on their income and income of their family members.
MW. Rashid Gumarovich, can you say what other functions, other than those specified in President's Decree no. 208 will the Ministry of Interior will relieved of in the near future?
Minister. First of all, I will remind of the functions which will be abolished by the decree of the head of the state. These are:
- the administrative exclusion of foreign citizens and persons without citizenship out of the Russian Federation;
- Maintenance of activity of medical sobriety departments;
- Technical checkup of motor vehicles.
However, as you certainly know, militia bodies have a range of other missions on their shoulders which have nothing to do with the counteraction to criminality and the maintenance of the public order. For example, this concerns the delivery of notices under commissions of military commissariats, the power support of judicial police officers, convoying persons who are in custody in institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service. There are also rather exotic functions such as searching for owners for neglected animals, for instance.
I do not think that the law enforcement bodies should be actually engaged in solving these problems. Therefore, a number of functions will be corrected and partially transferred to other ministries and departments.
MW. Well, time for us to put a full stop here. Thank you, Rashid Gumarovich, for the exhaustive conversation. Both personally from myself, and from all our listeners I wish you success in the hard mission of reforming the department, for people usually do that for their own benefit.
Minister. Thank you very much. Ultimately I assure all our listeners once again that the Ministry of Interior will be reformed as openly as possible.
For these purposes there is a special section at our website mvd.ru containing the latest news about the course of changes. Also, we got a feedback field working last week at the website for the citizens to send their suggestions and ideas on the reform. I think this is very important now that the Ministry of Interior has always stood and now stands for the rights and freedoms of the people.
Program "Conversation with the Minister" at radio broadcasting company "Militia wave"
www.mvd.ru