Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, within the framework of your instructions and the work the Government is doing to optimise the structure of federal executive bodies of power – ministries and agencies – on behalf of the Government, I would like to make two proposals for the President’s consideration that are directed at making the Government more compact, efficient and less costly.
One has to do with disbanding a structure called Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border Facilities (Rosgranitsa). It was set up some time ago to provide construction and transportation technologies for the state border. It has performed part of its functions, and actually, the Transport Ministry could perform the same functions without any loss in quality, and it can take over the functions of Rosgranitsa.
The second idea is to make the structure of financial control and supervisory bodies within the Finance Ministry more compact. The Federal Service for Fiscal and Budgetary Supervision and the Federal Treasury are part of the Finance Ministry.
According to the Ministry, and the view is supported by the Government, the two agencies could be merged by transferring the fiscal control and supervision functions to the Federal Treasury. They perform related tasks: overseeing fiscal discipline, budget implementation, treasury budget implementation and control over budget transfers. All this is related and can be handled within one structure.
Foreign currency receivables and currency control can be distributed between the Federal Taxation Service and the Federal Customs Service. This will also help us streamline bureaucracy, which is something we could do with in the current situation.
Vladimir Putin: I agree.
Obviously, the Finance Ministry knows best. The Minister knows how every gear-wheel turns in his rather large mechanism, so let us agree.
Why is it the Transport Ministry in the first proposal?
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, most of Rosgranitsa’s functions have to do with transport. Generally, industrial construction of this kind is closer to the Transport Ministry than to any other body. The distribution could be different, of course, but the Transport Ministry seems to be closest and we agreed on this as the most suitable way to organise this work in the future.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
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