Issue 2014 no1 contents:

A new administrative reform was launched 10 years ago. It developed in a few main directions. First, the whole block of functions of the Federal and Regional bodies of the executive power was subject to revision. The task to do away with the excessive and duplicate functions both of the executive power bodies and their subordinate organizations was set and partially realized. Second, the procedure of performing the functions, that were acknowledged to be necessary, have been improved and regulated. This made it possible to simplify and to reduce the difficulties of interaction of the citizens and business with the public administration to some extent Third, performance management technologies which include program targeted tools and estimates of the administration’s work are being actively inculcated. Thus, new conditions have been created for the transition to budgeting the performance management of the public administration, and to forming the budget according to the program principle. Fourth, the executive power has become more open from the information point of view and prepared to interact with civil society. The open government has been set up, standards of an "open ministry" and "open region" have been worked out, open data are being actively formed.

Analysis of numerous investigations showed a certain positive result of all these measures. Pussia’s rates on using new technologies by the public administration have increased. However, business climate has not noticeably improved, and the rates of the economic growth have decreased. The slowing down might have been higher but for the realized reforms.

The current situation depends significantly on the fact, that the principles proclaimed at the beginning of the administrative reform have not been completely realized. It refers first of all to the elimination of the excessive state functions, which can especially be seen in the field of control and supervision. The inculcated procedures of estimating the regulation impact of the standard acts projects have not become a real barrier for ineffective excessive regulations. The adopted administrative regulations have made bureaucracy more transparent and specified the measure of its responsibility, but the potential of simplification of the administrative procedures has not been fully realized in especially interdepartmental relations. As for the performance management tools, they have not been coordinated so far and often misguide public administration of the Federal, regional and municipal levels. Citizens’ participation in public administration, the feed-back system is not effective enough.

Many of the deficiencies considered above are brought about by the natural problems of innovations development and inculcation, which need approving and adjusting. However, in many cases insufficient look into the reform, bad coordination, inconsistency and imbalance of the steps in reforming of the administrative system may give a negative result.

The subject matter of the article is the measures taken by the public administration bodies and municipal authorities to improve the quality of public and municipal services. The goal of the article is to assess the government’s efforts to increase the quality, accessibility of public services and the results of 10 years of the administrative reform in the Russian Federation. Conclusions are drawn on the results of sociological polls. The article systematizes the main steps, goals, expectations and efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services that the bodies of public administration and self governance have made during 10 years of the administrative reform.

The data of the sociological poll on the results of this work held by the Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation in 2011– 2013 and headed by the author of the article, are analyzed and presented here.

A positive result of the system efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services can be ascertained on the basis of the research conclusions. It, in the long run, reveals itself in the growing satisfaction of recipients of the services both at the start and in the last years of the reform. Research of 2013 showed that 77.7% of the respondents estimated the quality of the services provided for them as satisfactory (74.6% in 2011; 75.5% in 2012).

Conclusions: a) during 10 years of the administrative reform in the Russian Federation system and goal-oriented efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services have been undertaken by the bodies of public administration and of local self – governance; b) these efforts, despite some problems that still exist, give tangible positive results, thus increasing the level of citizens’ satisfaction with the services they receive; c) to achieve the set ambitious satisfaction level goal of 90% by 2018, it is necessary to continue working hard within the framework of the administrative reform, including additional measures to achieve the goals.

This experience suggests that analogous system efforts could be useful for making better other services, including social services, provided by the public and municipal administration bodies either under their control or with their direct participation. Such efforts could be useful for making citizens more satisfied with the performance of the public and local administration bodies as well.