INTERVIEW: Russia works on code to make business checks reasonable

MOSCOW, Mar 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian government is working on the first full-scale code of control over business, which will be based on a risk-oriented approach to checks, Deputy Director of the Central Office of the Government Yury Lyubimov told PRIME in an interview released on Tuesday.

"There is a research, which says that we lose up to 8% of growth each year because of a wrong system of control and oversight,” he said.

“This means that we could grow like the most dynamic countries of the world if we had a normal system of control and oversight.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to cancel the current requirements, which will not undergo approval or changes, and check companies according to the new rules by February 2020.

Lyubimov’s team is to cancel thousands of old regulations and create new rules from scratch.

"Talking about the ideology of the controlling reform, easing control over business is not a goal in itself. It will be eased and eased significantly, but our goal is to make the controls rational,” Lyubimov said.

He said that Russia’s problem is that the controlling system often spins wheels, when a controlling official checks execution of the requirements, which -- he knows only too well, -- are unnecessary.

“Controlled entities often have to invest in senseless requirements, many of which are based on old technologies,” Lyubimov said.

“The businessman is ready to invest in new technologies, but he cannot do it, because he is checked against the technologies of the 70-80s, sometimes even older. This is a very heavy burden for the business community, and slows down growth a lot.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in January that Russia needs to revise its transportation, environmental protection, industrial security requirements to reduce pressure on business and achieve an economic breakthrough.

“We presume that we must create a full-scale code of control and oversight, which will be built on the basis of well established procedural codes,” Lyubimov said.

“Maybe, the controlling functions of some authorities will rise, their possibilities will increase, opportunities to resist the inspectors will fall but we need it to work for a manifold reduction of risks, which are very many today.”

He said that the code will define which measures the inspector can apply to prevent violations, how the sanctions and various preventive measures correlate. All inspector’s actions will be described – checks, test purchases, surprise inspections and all methods to contest inspector’s actions.

“Although our monitoring and oversight system is highly developed, with administrative control galore, we still have no act, describing all these issues,” he said. “I see the priority goal in placing reasonable demands.”

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