Only president can evaluate efficiency of ministers – Medvedev
NOVOZAPOLYARNY, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. Jan 15 (Interfax) – Evaluation of the government efficiency is an exclusive area of the Russian president, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes.
“In the opinion of Medvedev, the only person eligible to evaluate the efficiency of certain ministers and the government is the president,” the prime minister’s press secretary Natalia Timakova said. She thus commented on the Izvestia article quoting anonymous members of the Presidential Administration and experts who give performance ratings of ministers.
“Speaking of high-ranking members of the (Presidential) Administration, if they are real and not invented by journalists, who did not disclose any names of their sources in the article, their duties are clear – they are bound to support the activity of the chief of state,” Timakova said.
The Izvestia daily described five Russian ministers as “inefficient” in a poll of high-ranking members of the Presidential Administration held by Izvestia.
“Five cabinet members – Far East Development Minister Viktor Ishayev, Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov, Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and Labor Minister Maxim Topilin – had the lowest score,” the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper said it polled presidential advisors and assistants, department heads and chiefs of certain divisions of the Presidential Administration.
The respondents unanimously lauded Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov, Izvestia said.
They also had a high opinion of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
The respondents described as “stable” and “good” the performance of Minister for Liaison with the Open Government Mikhail Abyzov, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov, Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Sergei Donskoy, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova and Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov.
“There are certain shortcomings, flaws in their performance but it is improving. Obviously, their predecessors were weaker,” a Kremlin source told the newspaper
Commenting on the report presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the opinion of certain members of the Presidential Administration about government workers is subjective.
“The published results of a poll of certain members of the Presidential Administration are actually subjective. There is no official formula for the evaluation of efficiency of government members so far. It is being created. That would be a new practice in our country,” Peskov told Interfax on Tuesday in commenting on the report of the newspaper Izvestia.