NEWSWATCH: “KPIs For The Public Service Sector: A Fig Leaf Of A Real Change.” – Moscow Times/Oleg Buklemishev
… It has been announced that … Putin would himself be heading a special commission on government reform …. his commission, initially the idea of … Medvedev, will be tasked with developing new work approaches and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Russian public sector. … in 2004, the authorities also tried to eliminate inefficiencies in the work of state agencies, develop performance benchmarks, and redistribute powers between federal, state and local levels. … This so-called government reform had two main effects quite apart from those intended: a purge of certain government officials and an arbitrary shuffling of jurisdictions from one ministry to another. * * * Projects based on approaches and KPIs are unlikely to change much in Russia. For the time being they are a fig leaf, designed to hide the lack of will to do anything. The ruling elite is not ready to assume the risks associated with real change. …