Time for local self-government

On October 24, during his press-conference at the international airport "Kazan", M.Shaimiev commented upon the results of his participation in session of the State Council of the Russian Federation devoted to the problem of reforming of the local self-government.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at the session, reform of local self-government should result in "further and essential decentralization of authority in the country". I take part in the discussion from the very beginning - from the moment of development of the concept of differentiation of powers between the levels of authority, M.Shaimiev reminded the journalists. The State Council approved a bill "On common principles of organization of local self-government" which has already been directed to the State Duma and, I think, will be approved by it and the Federation Council in the coming months, and thus we "legalize the first stage of work on differentiation of powers of the lower level of authority". If this bill is adopted, it will come into force since January 1, 2005. We wish, said M.Shaimiev, it happen sooner (there are governors who are even ready to start this process earlier as experiment), but it is not so easy. Institutions of the local government should be self-sufficient - both with regard to legal aspects and financial maintenance. It is necessary to provide them with grants from the federal budget and budgets of subjects. It needs time, meanwhile we shall carry out the preparation for transition to local self-government.

In M.Shaimiev's opinion, the offered bill is very interesting and rather democratic, it stipulates for interesting mechanisms of elections of local authorities, their administrative and executive bodies, their heads. The most important thing is that it provides a clear differentiation of powers and responsibilities - what means, incomes, and answers the local authorities have. The process of reforming will result in a change of the ratio of tax allocation to the federal, regional and local budgets. If today the federal budget gets on average 60%, according to the offered bill, this share in future should make about 40%. The residue should be used for the needs of local self-government.