Governments of Russia’s Federal Subjects Lack Funds to Hire and Hold Even Key Officials, Kalechev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 21 – Many of the increasingly hard-pressed governments of Russia’s federal subjects lack the funds to hire and hold even key officials, Konstantin Kalachev says, losing out in the competition for such people to businesses and thus increasingly unable to perform either their own mandated responsibilities or tasks Moscow assigns them.

            The head of the Political Experts Group focuses on the situation in Tatarstan, in fact one of the regions  that is relatively better off, to point out the fact that even Kazan can’t offer salaries to attract and then retain the staff it needs (regcomment.ru/regions/rossiya/tatarstan-kak-zerkalo-kadrovyj-defitsit-stal-federalnoj-problemoj/).

            “The shortage of qualified personnel in the public service there is really creating risks to the quality and efficiency of management, makes it more likely that deadlines won’t be met, and can be accompanied by an increase in the threat of corruption,” Kalachev continues. As such, it “is not only a republic problem but also a federal one.”

            According to the specialist on regional affairs, this problem requires “not only an increase in the level of wages to competitive values but also a comprehensive improvement in working conditions, incentive mechanisms, a reduction in the burdens on the bureaucracy, a change in management culture, and expanded career opportunities.”

            In the short term at least, shortages of key officials in the regions means that Moscow has to intervene even more often than would otherwise be the case because it can’t count on the regional bureaucracies to carry out its will – or alternatively, the center must be willing to see a decay in governance across much of the country.