Failure of national projects will not remain unpunished

As you know, the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev yesterday criticized national projects, stating numerous, mostly corruption-related violations during their implementation: “The bulk of the offenses are related to corruption, non-compliance with the organization of public procurement, payment of actually outstanding or poor-quality work and supply of products, falsification of reporting indicators ... "

He also said that in the Volga Federal District, out of almost 12 thousand contracts concluded as part of national projects, more than 3 thousand are at risk, and the amount under these contracts is almost 146 billion rubles. Thus, Putin's national projects have once again proved to be good soil for corruption schemes, and not for socio-economic development.

The main concerns of Patrushev are the state of affairs in the following national projects: “Housing and urban environment”, “Safe roads”, “Demography”, “Education”, “Culture” and “Healthcare”. At the same time, Patrushev made a reservation that “a pandemic is not a reason for not fulfilling the tasks set by the president of Russia”.

Analysts actively comment on the speech of the Secretary of the Security Council. So, the popular channel “Manual” writes:

“No matter how you call it, the fact remains that the national projects are morally outdated and have decently exhausted the president’s patience. Just think about it - Putin has been carrying targeted programs (or on himself) for 14 years. Since 2006, the time of favoritism of the then vice-premier Medvedev, for whom "Priority National Projects of Russia 2006 "Health","Education","Housing" became a publicity springboard for the 2008 elections.

Since then, national projects have been redirected twice, the first time in 2012 as the May Decrees, the second in 2018, re-distributing programs in three areas: Human Capital, Comfortable Living Environment and Economic Growth. But it was not possible to get rid of the main ideological vice, which was laid down 15 years ago - any project should be final, that is, have a clear result achieved, according to which you can beautifully report from the bottom up and to the people. But the same national project "Health" as a repair that cannot be completed, but can only be stopped. Unfortunately, people will never stop getting sick.

So it would be logical, under the plausible pretext of non-scholastic times and a change of government, to “bury” a bunch of national projects along with the legacy of the previous prime minister and come up with a digestible super-project-improver throughout the economy. Of course, the main problem and obstacle is financing. One of the significant “advantages” of national projects is the reduction of bureaucratization of expenses, which ultimately led to the emergence in Russia of a management system parallel to ministries - getting a budget “under the national project” has become much easier than getting a reaction from a specific department. But if you approach the matter wisely, and most importantly, with the desire not to “do something”, but to improve, it will be possible to resolve budget problems.

But as today's meeting showed, leaving the same agriculture unattended, depending both on seasonality and weather, and on the economic situation, is impossible. So the president noted that although Russia exports $ 25 billion in agricultural products (which is twice as much as from arms exports), it also buys $ 30 billion (here the president again compared the figure with weapons, only now for the internal needs of the Ministry of Defense). Moreover, Dmitry Nikolayevich Patrushev, the son of the Secretary of the Security Council, personally sits on agriculture. The main thing is not to end on collective farms..."

Analyst Roman Alekhine believes that in these national projects, the officials do not see the main thing - a man.

“The problem is not that national projects do not have a controlled final result, but that officials perceive the final result in the form of cash execution of the project and it is precisely for non-fulfillment of the“ box office ”that officials punish them higher. Pay attention to open meetings in the regions on the implementation of national projects - all reports revolve around how much money is "bargained", how many acts are signed and how much has already been transferred to the supplier. There are no people and help to them, as Vladimir Putin repeatedly pointed out, and the Auditor of the Accounts Chamber told about this not so long ago in an interview, read it - everything is there.

In this case, an understandable and controlled KPI and the tough responsibility of governors and ministers who do not fulfill the indicators, but if describing and consolidating the KPI would not be so difficult, would help to monitor the performance of the indicators in a system that creates absolutely any beautiful report that would be gladly accepted higher structures, impossible. As our responsibility is limited to public “pay attention”, “speed up”, “it is important”, “report back tomorrow”, but so far no one has seen that they removed the governor for not fulfilling the national project.

Under such conditions, having signed that state administration is completely disorganized, that is, an extreme degree of mess, in which it is not clear who is responsible for what, and therefore no one is to punish anyone, national projects, like the May decrees, should be closed under specious pretexts which are abundant now. There will be not many minuses, as well as pluses, but at least one huge feeding trough for corrupt officials will become less..."

Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov, for his part, considers Patrushev’s speech a prelude to the next purge of the state apparatus:

“Secretary of the Security Council Patrushev told yesterday about the numerous violations that he discovered while sorting out national projects. Here, and overpricing, and payment of outstanding work, and falsification of statements, and so on and so forth. In short, "theft" and "corruption."

In fact, many of these things are pulled for serious periods. Can you imagine that in a normally functioning state such a statement would do without consequences? So that no one is punished, and not put on trial? Here it must be understood that in the hierarchy of bureaucratic priorities, national projects are at the very top. This is the main tool with which the president was going to organize the notorious breakthrough promised to the Russians during the last election campaign. And here - in the holy of holies - discovered massive corruption, but the authorities are silent and will not do anything? Will they tolerate this further? Do you believe that? I - not really. Putin wants to look like the leader of a strong, capable state, not an African failed state.

And here we come to the most important thing. Was Patrushev's speech his own initiative or did he coordinate it with the president? If the first is true, then what has happened makes sense as an application by a power corporation for a sharp increase in its political influence. It is obvious, after all, that the theft and squandering of money allocated for the construction of a brighter future cannot be left without consequences. So, we must punish, we must imprison.

If Patrushev did not coordinate his speech with Putin, then it turns out that the security forces, in fact, pinned the latter to the wall. Either react and give us a mandate for mass landings, or you will look like an impotent African king, whose subjects plunder the country right under his nose.

No, I don’t really believe in that. The president, of course, is losing its political influence and is gradually becoming increasingly dependent on law enforcement agencies, but still not so much that they can afford it. In the future they can, but not yet. So I am inclined to the version that Putin himself gave the go-ahead for this statement.

So, there is a cleaning. That she begs, I already wrote. The ongoing “coronavirus federalization” allows the regional authorities to pump up administrative muscles - they are gaining more authority and managing more and more resources. The consequence is their political strengthening. Governors are becoming more popular than the president - you can look at the data of the Levada Center on this subject. For the personalist regime, this is unthinkable. If the regional elites are not besieged now, then there is not a long way to the sovereignty parade. The president, who made centralization twenty years ago his main political ridge, cannot help but feel this.

In addition, it's time to look for the extreme. The degree of discontent is growing, and if you do not now shift the responsibility for what is happening to someone else, it will fall on you.

In general, I interpret yesterday’s speech by the Security Council Secretary as yet another confirmation that preparations for the purges in the governor’s corps are in full swing..."