| Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the YABLOKO faction of the State Duma
of the Russian Federation:
In general state property is governed by the Presidential Administration.
Therefore, no one knows how much property we have today, who owns
it, who receives incomesfrom this property, which share of the
property is governed by the Presidential Administration and which
is owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; which part is under
the jurisdiction of the Government and which is under the Defence
Ministry. In other words, management of the state property is
organised in such a way, that there is no clarity at all.
Any clarification of this issue requires publication of the data
on how much state property we have, its assessment, who uses it
and what income it yields. Government of the state propery should
proceed from the goals that our country has to solve at this stage,
as it is our property. If one asked you: what is the most efficient
way of managing your dacha, what would you answer? This depends
on what you need this dacha for: either for gardening and horticulture,
the recreation of your children or for sale. The same holds true
for our property, everything depends on the tasks set by the state.
And the state may appoint different tasks. At present the state
does not pursue any specific goals. It only wants everything to
be quiet and calm, to witness high ratings for the top officials
and ensure a stable position for the Government. It seems that
it is not bad at all, but the problem here is that we are facing
a widening gap - we are increasingly lagging behind the countries
that are our competitors.
The principle of efficient management of state property implies
transparency, accountability and clarity of the tasks set for
the Government. The Government has to be involved in everything.
For example, if Russia aims to exercise wide-scale foreign policies:
state property should be used to create opportunities to implement
such active foreign policy in certain areas. If Russia's task
is to concentrate its domestic affairs, it can clear part of the
debt at the expense of its property. If Russia aims to conduct
foreign policy in certain directions, the structure of state property
should be carefully examined. For example, we should know what
our foreign trade representatives do abroad, why do we need them
there, why dwe need foreign trade departments and whether they
can be used to resolve certain tasks. But the first question,
as Vladimir Lenin put it, is "accounting and control".
If there is clarity with accounting and control, we will be able
to think about what should be done next.
See also:
Valery Leonov "Igor Artemyev
compensated for the dollars lost on oil deals with a single tax
on concessions." Commersant, March 1, 2002.
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