Take out a certificate and turn gray: Russia's digital economy crashes on the thresholds of the offices

Today, even the sovereign's people admit that the project has failed.

Julia Suntsova

According to the passport of the Digital Economy national program on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation, it was planned to spend almost 1.7 trillion rubles for 2019-2024. The costs of developing the digital economy were supposed to reach a share of 5.1% of the country's GDP by 2024 - that is, three times more compared to 2017.

How does a beautiful theory about the digital economy look like in reality - in the everyday life of Russians? Grigory Telnov, a resident of Moscow, told Novy Izvestia about his experience of interacting with state structures that have switched to digital rails.

Grigory's mother got married three years ago in Spain, and now she needs to collect a number of certificates in Russia to apply for a residence permit.

She cannot come home because of the closed borders with Europe during the pandemic, so she wrote out a power of attorney to represent interests, with which Gregory went to state institutions.

- In recent months, I had to deal closely with public services. In March, in Izhevsk, at the place of my mother's old registration, I received a police clearance certificate. Then he apostilled it in Moscow. Prior to that, the Russian consulate in Barcelona wrote a power of attorney for me to receive this certificate in Russia [note, the territory of the consulate is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation ]. I tried to get three pieces of paper - and all in one place. Each time it was fraught with difficulties, dreary, disorganized. I'm not saying that every service is rendered this way, but in my case, three calls in a row went crookedly, - says the interlocutor.

You can order a Russian police clearance certificate through the State Services portal. When filing, the applicant indicates the type in which he wishes to receive this certificate. To do this, put a tick in front of the electronic or paper format. The electronic form suits employers in Russia, but in the case of Grigory's mother, a paper format was required, since the certificate still needed to be apostilled and exported abroad.

"I did everything right. Filled out the application form for State Services, indicated the place of receipt of the certificate - Izhevsk, type - paper. After the number of days allotted for the preparation of the document, I was smart enough to call in advance to find out if the paper certificate was ready. They answer me: “The certificate is ready. Do you really need a paper one? " Don't you see there a check mark opposite the paper format? There was deep confusion on the other end of the line: “Oh, yes? Well, okay, then I'm not ready. "If I had not specifically double-checked and flew to Izhevsk for a couple of planned days, they would probably have answered me: "Oh, sorry, we did not notice the tick, come back in a week", - says Grigory.

In the end, a paper certificate was issued to him. The trip to the department was overshadowed by a dialogue with a living representative of the Udmurt Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"There was such a displeased aunt. Middle-aged and of medium build. Long dyed nails. Her face clearly read: "And why are you all rushing here?" Such a typical scoop. I say - here, such a certificate is needed, here is a power of attorney to receive. She asks: "Where did you register?" I answer: "Here, with you". She told me: "Then you must have an inventory". I told her: “What is the inventory? I filled out an application with the issue in your subdivision, through the State Services website (Gosuslugi - editor's note)". And then she shouts: "So tell me that on the website of the State Services." At this point, I broke down - if you want to know how I made out the certificate, just ask - HOW I did it, HOW I did it, and not WHERE... That is, the employee, from the point of view of the Russian language, does not formulate questions very correctly and at the same time rolls a barrel at the visitor... In the end, she issued a certificate, but her culture of communication is, of course, a separate story.

After this episode, Grigory flew to Moscow to apostille a certificate issued in Izhevsk (an apostille is a stamp, a standardized certification of the legality of a document issued in one country for presentation in other countries). This service is provided by the Main Information and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on Novocheremushkinskaya Street in Moscow.

"Information about the upcoming procedures is not that much on the Internet, but it is there. On the website of the Main Information and Analysis Center, visitors were asked "due to the difficult epidemiological situation" to make an appointment in advance. To find Main Information and Analysis Center in the wilds of State services, too, I will not say that it would be quite simple. In general, it was necessary to try hard. There was a requirement to pay the state duty - 2.5 thousand rubles. Details can be found on the website of the State Services (Пщыгыдгпш). On the page of the Main Information and Analysis Center itself, by the way, there were no details. One hand was already reaching out to pay this amount on the account, which was indicated on the State Services. And again, I was smart enough to call this Main Information and Analysis Center. They answer: "Oh, but you don't pay for those details, everything changed here in January. It was February, they did not have time to update the details", - says Grigory.

On the website of the Main Information and Analysis Center and the State Services, the dates and hours of reception of visitors were indicated: the first and third Saturday of the month. Working Saturdays are convenient! Our hero chose the first Saturday - March 6th. He received a NOTIFICATION confirming the entry.

"I shoveled the Internet, because the information on the sites was not exhaustive. I did everything according to the instructions. Pre-registered. Just in case, he called to make sure they were expecting me. They answered - we are waiting. We wait every first and third Saturday of every month. As a respectable citizen, I did everything right. With a coupon, during working hours, I pinned myself to Novocheremushkinskaya. The door is on the stick. Everything is closed, no announcements. Imagine my indignation. I knock - the watchman looks out. I shake the record. He replies: "Pre-holiday, nobody is there". Then I boiled, of course", - says Grigory.

Arriving home, he wrote complaints to the Main Information and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

I had to re-record for a different date.

The website of the Main Information and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs says that preliminary registration is required. On the spot, it turns out that this is not absolutely necessary, and the issued numbers do not rest anywhere. At the entrance to the institution, as in banks, there is an automatic machine for issuing other numbers, they are accepted on a first come, first served basis using coupons printed on the spot.

After overcoming the initial level with coupons, you switch to a new one: payment of state duty.

"Only on the spot you are given the details and you have to go to pay the fee to the bank. Not to say that the bank is close. You can, of course, pay through Sberbank-online, but someone may not have it. Next, you go to the Sberbank ATM to print out a receipt for payment of the duty. But! This is Sberbank. Sberbank's ATM does not really work, it does not issue a receipt! The employees at the windows, by the way, were quite friendly: "Well, to hell with him, then print it out and report it." In the instructions in the description of the provision of services, it is generally said that they should not require a check for payment of the duty - they allegedly have implemented internal interaction with the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance. But on the spot they say: “Oh, we don't see anything that you paid there. And the Treasury can confirm for so long that the provision of government services to you may take a long time". Again, the inconsistency of the declared with reality", - says the interlocutor.

The second certificate was prepared for Grigory on time. A curious incident caught up when he again came to Novocheremushkinskaya for extradition.

"He went to the window. I looked - there was a chocolate bar. “Oh, you have it lying here. Someone forgot? Bribe?" - I ask with irony. “Well, something like that”, - they admit, - Can you imagine a better pick up or throw out".

Well done, honest! In our country, in this sense, people still believe that, having received a service that is not even of the highest quality, having paid the state duty, the official must be thanked. Not to write a review, not to send comments, but to bring the very same chocolate bar - for not being rude, not harming. It's the same with doctors and teachers...

By the way, one cannot hide from the famous Soviet standards of service in Russian consulates abroad.

- I received the power of attorney to receive my mother's documents in Russia in Barcelona. Firstly, it is very difficult to sign up. "Numbers" need to be watched from the night, the demand is very high - many Russians live in Spain. On the appointed date, you arrive in Barcelona and again find yourself in the world of crooked mirrors. It turned out that we had to write and print the power of attorney ourselves in advance, and they only certify it, although nowhere is it written about it. How much I argued about the word "design". In my understanding, "registration" is when a document is not certified, but written and certified, well, like a notary. At the same time, when you receive a confirmation of the recording date, there is no indication of what exactly your package of documents should consist of. Gloves and masks - yes, they are needed. They are silent about everything else. What prevents you from specifying in detail the procedure for obtaining public services in a letter confirming the record? We're not alone. There is also little valuable information on the site. But you pay a considerable state fee - about 50 euros, I think.

While you are sitting in the waiting room, you see how people are suffering. The most common story among compatriots abroad is the expiration of the passport. To fly home, you need to get a certificate. People are coming. Defend the queue. Take the forms. Fill out the forms. Give the forms back out the window. And they are told: "Where are the photographs?" And when you issued the forms, could you not warn about it? Employees at the consulate in Barcelona talk "through the lips", are rude, the attitude towards visitors is inert, devil-may-care. There are mostly negative reviews in the Complaints Book. The Foreign Ministry is such a Foreign Ministry, the interlocutor sums up.

After each visit to the "windows", Grigory wrote long letters to officials. In the last reply, D.V. Gunenkov even admits that a preliminary appointment for an appointment was not displayed in the department's information system, and therefore it was not possible to notify about the absence of an appointment on the pre-holiday day. The clerk apologized for the inconvenience, promised to take note and analyze all comments and improve the quality of services.

"Surprisingly, a couple of days after the last complaint, an employee of the Main Information and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs called me. Apologized. I talked to him. Constructively, it seemed to me. He confirmed that the website of the State Services is not synchronized with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in any way. It struck me: they do not see where and when a person is recording there. I explained what I want. First, do not be misleading on the website and in the instructions regarding the mandatory appointment. Second: if the entry is canceled for some reason - well, call or write. The third is the requisites. The third month went after their shift. Comrades, what is stopping you from replacing them with new ones on your website and on the website of State Services? Is it really that hard? I can imagine how many people got into it. Why do you make you run and get nervous about this?.. Well, and the last thing, maybe in the 21st century it is still possible to provide apostille service in one go, and not travel twice: first bring an application and a certificate, then return...

While Gregory entered the role of waiting in the bureaucratic corridors, he saw several more situations with other visitors who were also ready to pull out their hair.

A young man, for example, came to put an apostille on his education diploma. “What diplomas? We only have certificates and no convictions”, - they answered sweetly.

- If you do not independently and deeply study the issue on the Internet, do not devote enough time to it, then it is not easy to understand how it all works. For essentially the same service - an apostille is sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then to the Ministry of Justice, then to the MFC. Everything is scattered. It's foggy. No visual, intelligible instructions can be found. Everything is not for people, as we say. I met many, many upset citizens in these corridors...

***

Last year, the Accounts Chamber called the Digital Economy national project an outsider among all other presidential national projects in terms of budget execution and stated that the curators failed to rectify the situation.

The failure of the national project was also acknowledged by the special representative of the President of Russia for digital and technological development Dmitry Peskov. A year ago, on April 8, at a press conference, he said that digital technologies of the Digital Economy national program do not work.

“The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media has failed its responsibility for the development of digital technologies at the moment. I hope that the new government will be able to get together and build an effective mechanism for the implementation of national objectives regarding the development of cross-cutting technologies", - he said.

Until the end of the state program for the construction of the digital economy in Russia - three years. Half of the term is over. There is only one hope - for a miracle...