Issue 2012 no1 contents:

The article is devoted to the improvement of the activities of state bodies in the course of implementing their authority in the designated areas. The article designates the place of re-engineering administrative and management processes among the priority trends for improving governance that are fixed in public program documents; the main measures taken and realized in 2010-2011 to optimize the mechanism of public regulation are presented in this article; the article gives a factual base which is used for making decisions about the necessity to streamline administrative processes. It considers the basic approaches to improve individual processes for the provision of public services, performance of state functions, re-engineering of complex spheres of public regulation.

Results: Re-engineering of public services is an activity directed at the major overhaul of current practices in the provision of public services. A unified methodology of the re-engineering of processes for the provision of public services and optimization of control and survey, permitting activities are not currently incorporated into normative and methodological documents.

Conclusions and recommendations: the creation of the mechanism of re-engineering administrative processes in the modern system of public management in Russia is not yet complete. Ongoing activities for the re-engineering public services and integrated industries are   rare and are often not coordinated. To achieve the greatest effect   it requires a complex approach involving: process optimization of public services; areas of public regulation; a legal support for removing legal conflicts and creating a regulatory environment for the process optimization; a regular monitoring and control of the implementation of decisions; registration of the results of the monitoring of the quality and accessibility of public services when making decisions on the need to streamline government processes.

The article discussed compliance of the current classification of budgets’ expenditures with the task of transition to the program expenditures structure of the Federal budget; analyzed the composition of costs of some state programs and projects of state programs. The author considers the code components of budgets’ expenditures; outlines directions of the adjustment of   the principles for determining both inventories of keys, sub-keys, task items, and major administrators of budget funds.

Results: the code of the target costs can be overridden to reflect program expenditures, while the currently disclosed information cannot be replaced, can be preserved (at the level of the targeted expenditures or any other level of the classification of expenditures – at the level of sub-divisions or kinds of costs). Classification of operations of the public management sector has a number of features as compared to other components of classification of budget expenditures: 1) classification is a unified presentation of costs, revenues and sources of financing budgets’ deficits; 2) operations are neutral regarding the scope and the subject of the expenditure; 3) articles of classification are approved by the Budget Code of the RF ( not by the order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia) and therefore cannot be operationally adjusted; 4) codes for the operations of the public management sector related to budgets’ expenditures, are not included in the expenditures code which is approved by the Law on the Federal Budget ( agency’s structure of expenditures of the Federal Law). These features indicate that operations codes of the sector of public management which relate to the expenditures of budgets are not essential in the formation of the “program” structure of budget expenditures.

Russian legislation prescribes some cases of compulsory tendering in certain areas. Tender regulation is divided into two groups – the tender regulation for «sale» and tender regulation for «buy». The first group includes those types of compulsory tenders, where the state authorities, local authorities, other organizers of the tenders are the seller of the property (privatization, «land tenders», «forest tenders», tenders for sale of confiscated property and other types of compulsory tenders (total of at least 10 types of tenders). The second group of tenders are those tenders where the buyer acts as purchaser of products (government procurement). Federal law of December 6, 2011 № 401-FZ (the third package of antitrust regulation) has begun the process of unification of regulation of the first group of tenders. The law provides for an uniform procedure for appeals and uniform requirements for publishing information on tenders.

The article presents a review of arrangements for tenders on the use of the state and municipal property in the system of other types of tenders.

The article is devoted to the problem of introducing, changing and trajectories of further development of the higher education state standard in public and municipal governance (bachelor and 5-year specialist programs). The basic reasons for transition from 5-year program towards bachelor one have been discovered. Division of bachelor degree programs in public and municipal governance and management is argued on the basis of their competences difference. Further preserving of the state standard for the bachelor degree in public and municipal governance and unified development of the bachelor curricula in different Russian universities are not found possible. Likely trends of their divergence have been traced. The complicated way of formation of the public administration bachelor program in the Higher School of Economics has been presented as an example.

The article analyses vocational adaptation problems that arise in the process of formation and development of municipal service in modern Russia. The analysis is based on the data of sociological research on current issues of functioning and development of local self-government.

Results: the experience of various municipal authorities shows, that the use of the complex of professional and psychological adaptation of a new specialist appears to be more efficient and economical, than the failed probationary period and search for new candidates for the vacated jobs. However, special adaptation programs for managers simply do not exist in many municipalities.

Conclusions and recommendations: basing on the opinions of the participants in the study, it must be emphasized that professional adaptation helps reduce turnover in the staff of the municipal service and consolidates its new staff – 32.9 % of the respondents are of this opinion; 50.1 % respondents consider that it contributes in some way; only 8.8 % of the respondents consider that it is not conductive to; (8.2 % were unable to answer). Thus, the professional adaptation is also a social technology of the staff retention in the municipal service. In order to develop and to improve the adaptation work in municipal authorities in practice, it needs a scientific support - both theoretical and methodological. It is also necessary that the problem of adaptation of municipal personnel in modern Russia’s conditions, including the applicability of foreign experience in forming adaptation systems in the bodies of public and municipal management, should be studied.

This article examines the necessity of bottom-up planning and citizen inclusion in lieu of the top-down approach at the local level development and it explores the potentiality of attaining self-reliance and sustainability of local level initiatives through citizen participation. It looks into citizen inclusion with an assumption that local knowledge is a prerequisite of responsiveness in determining local priorities and pro-poor development through which local citizen could be self dependent and local initiatives could be sustained for a longer period. Before writing this article, a participatory initiative named the «Participatory Rural Development Project» (PRDP), implemented jointly by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the government of Bangladesh were studied. This article addresses two questions like- (1) why is citizen participation necessary? (2) What would be the role of citizen participation to make local people self-reliant and to ensure sustainability of the initiatives? In fact, six reasons were identifi ed: coverage, dignity, efficiency, effectiveness, self-reliance and sustainability behind opting for citizen inclusion in local level development. The study found that PRDP nearly failed to inculcate a sense of self-reliance among local citizens. The traditional mindset of local citizens, to be dependent on others, did not change to a required level and they were still possessed by a mood of dependency. Furthermore, the absence of self-reliance meant the sustainability was under threat. While efficiency, effectiveness, coverage and dignity were somewhat attained, PRDP could be described as having almost failed in the issue of self-reliance and sustainability.

Statistically-signifi cant tendencies of the regional heat supply system failures in Primorskiy Krai due to the condition of power, water and fuel supply systems and actions by subdivisions of «Heating Networks» have been revealed in this article. Assessments of the consequences, reflected by the increase of population-effecting heat supply failures ratio with the following turn-off time: «less than 1 hour», «1 to 6 hours», «6 to 10 hours» and «over 10 hours», are obtained thereto. In particular, the regional heat supply system may be characterized by the decrease of the number and severity of consequences of major breakdowns and increase of failures, resulting out of the chronically-poor condition of the heating system’s equipment, and improper interaction with the municipal power systems. According to the analysis results, the crisis of the central heating system can be characterized as administrative, which is contrary to the popular opinion on its physical nature. Preventive managerial measures aimed at increasing the reliability (quality and safety) of the heat supply are therefore highly recommended. Basing on the general principles of managing, the municipal power systems (including principles of calculation, expertise and approval of rates), it is proposed to apply the assessments, conclusions and recommendations to all  unicipal power supply systems.

The purpose of the article: identification of problematic aspects of the implementation of the local government authority in the regulation of labor and management of work. The study of the norms of Federal Act 131-FL allows to highlight: 1) local issues; 2) separate state powers delegated to local bodies of public administration; 3) points not related to issues of local importance, but the right of making decisions on them is granted to the local government.

Results: the analysis of the relevant provisions of the Labor Codex (LC) of RF and a number of regional normative acts containing rules of labor law, shows, that in empowering local governments with some state powers in the legal labor area, these conditions are not fully respected. The functions of control over the content of collective agreements, and especially over their implementation, fit very remotely the goals and objectives of self-government.

Conclusions and recommendations: 1) the transfer of authority in the sphere of labor regulation, defining the scope of competence of local authorities, should meet the requirements of expedience and reasonableness; 2) uncertainty and fuzziness of the legal regulation on the labor competence of local authorities; the presence of uncertain legal norms, even with the systematic interpretation of them; legal conflicts between the LC RF and law 131-FL about the powers of local authorities in the field of labor, make it difficult to solve the goals and objectives  that are set  at the present stage of the administrative reform.

The article deals with the historical background of the formation of public spaces (PS). It defines PS, presents an analysis of the formation of public spaces on the example of Santo Domingo square in Madrid.

Main results: a limited pool of staff with the necessary managerial expertise, clash of interests of different groups can be attributed to the reasons for an ineffective use of territories. Key players in addressing public spaces are typically architects-urban planners, local administration and active citizens.  Professionalism of each of them, as well as an external expert opinion, can often   appear decisive.

Conclusions and proposals: these examples clearly illustrate the extent to which the role of public spaces depends on the policy of the local authority, its priorities, amount of allocated resources and activity of local citizens. The importance of public spaces is determined by their need for the local community, though separated in the conditions of large agglomerations, since public spaces are a part of the city’s social life, the centre of attraction. Unfortunately, it must be said, that the Administration, without considering the public spaces as a source of replenishment of the budget, has hardly ever paid due attention to their qualitative organization and effective management.  It appears that to develop public spaces and to avoid their desolation and destruction, the Administration should build relations of a voluntary cooperation and a constructive dialogue with the authorities of the municipality, architects, urban planners, local residents,  make decisions with bearing in mind social, technical, environmental, architectural, economic and many other factors.