Russia Justice Ministry offers stimulation programme for officials

MOSCOW, June 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Ministry of Justice has worked
out a large-scale programme to make officials more honest and prompt, the
Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote on Wednesday.
Authors of the idea suggest stimulating officials by "success
ratings", "best specialist" contests, programmes for individual progress
and benefits for long employment.
Experts drafted a presidential order to start the experiment, which
will be organized during the current yea, and in 2012 they expect to work
out suggestions on implementation of the stimuli. Some initiatives are
being tested now among bailiffs, the service subordinate to the justice
ministry.
A special topic is corruption. Experts suggest organizing specialized
educational anti-corruption programmes for officials. Scientists have
designed anti-corruption standards for state and municipal services, which
incorporate a system of bans, restrictions and responsibilities.
Authors of the initiative suggest organizing tutorship, and the
experiment is due to begin during the current year in local divisions of
the justice ministry.
Another idea of the project is suggesting mechanisms to stimulate
officials "for raising quality of state services." Scientists spotted that
the law does not contain a "quality of state service" notion, and that is
why it is not clear what to consider good work of an authority or its
staff. Science believes that public opinion should be a criterion to
evaluate the work, the newspaper wrote.