| The State Duma on Wednesday approved a Kremlin-sponsored
plan to rank civil service workers the same way military officers
are ranked in the army. But promotions will be tied to how long
the bureaucrats have worked in the government, not to their job
performance.
"We have made a mistake. We have created a bureaucratic
police state," Boris Nadezhdin, deputy head of the Union
of Rights Forces, told reporters.
His faction, Yabloko and the Communist Party had pushed to amend
the bill Wednesday but were outvoted by pro-Kremlin factions led
by Unity. Deputies passed the bill 243-148 in a second reading.
There were two abstentions.
The draft law on the system of government service, which would
replace a 1995 law, is part of a Kremlin effort to streamline
bureaucracy and shed thousands of jobs.
The legislation spells out the rules of employment in Russia's
bloated army of bureaucrats. It allows vacancies to be filled
on a competitive basis but effectively allows bureaucrats serving
in state agencies to stay on until they reach retirement age regardless
of their performance, opponents said.
The new legislation identifies three types of state workers --
bureaucrats, military personnel and law enforcers -- who are hired
under contract.
Civil servants will be awarded ranks like in the military and
police, making it easy for those in the army and police to find
jobs as bureaucrats when they retire and for regional officials
to find federal jobs, said Fatherland-All Russia Deputy Viktor
Grishin, who heads the Duma's regional policy committee.
Other deputies complained that while the bill is designed to
slash the number of notoriously corrupt bureaucrats and make their
work more transparent, the end result might be that the remaining
workers aren't properly qualified for their jobs.
Nadezhdin said the bill completely overlooks professionalism
and competence in deciding who gets promoted.
"I guess we will end up with State Fisheries Committee or
Culture Ministry officials wearing epaulets," he said.
Union of Rights Forces Deputy Vladimir Yuzhakov, who with Nadezhdin
submitted dozens of amendments to the bill, called the version
passed Tuesday a lost opportunity.
"We could have created a basis for reforming government
service with this bill but instead have created the brakes for
the reform," he said.
The Communists also lashed out at the legislation, saying it
will create a caste of bureaucrats.
"The bill places them above the law," Deputy Nikolai
Kolomeitsev said.
Minutes before the vote Tuesday, deputies took out a clause that
bureaucrats could not be affiliated with a political party.
The bill still needs to be passed in a final reading before it
can be sent to the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin
for their approval.
See also:
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