Stop for mandatory requirements – Newspaper Kommersant No. 42 (7487) of 03/14/2023

Despite the introduction of a risk-based approach, the potential for the reform of control and supervision activities (CND) has not yet been fully realized, experts from the RSPP and the Higher School of Economics (HSE) stated in their annual report, the problems of inventorying mandatory requirements have not yet been resolved and a risk management system has not been deployed, and the shift in emphasis to the prevention of violations is ensured by a temporary moratorium on inspections. At the same time, the very digitalization of the CND sphere, while maintaining excessive requirements, can become a challenge – it will increase the density of control and cause an increase in regulatory costs for businesses, the authors of the report fear. The government, meanwhile, yesterday expanded the possibilities of revising mandatory requirements that did not fall under the “regulatory guillotine”, but only in favor of business and on its initiative.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the draft annual report of the profile committee of the RSPP and the Higher School of Economics “Control, supervision and licensing activities in the Russian Federation” – it will be discussed today as part of Russian Business Weeks. The authors note a record decline in CND volumes in 2022 due to anti-crisis measures and a temporary moratorium on inspections. The number of control and supervisory activities decreased by 40% by 2020 (then a moratorium was also introduced), they were carried out in relation to 178 thousand companies. The moratorium also made it possible to shift the focus to risk prevention: such measures affected 897.4 thousand companies in the Russian Federation.

The pause in inspections, as the authors note, made it possible to experimentally introduce “smart” state control mechanisms into CND: to check only objects of high and extremely high risk, to introduce a ban on issuing instructions based on the results of inspections without interacting with a controlled person, etc. At the same time, measures to liberalize control activities did not lead to significant negative consequences, ”said Valery Kazikaev, head of the RSPP Committee on Permitting and Control and Supervisory Activities.

On the whole, according to the authors of the report, the CND reform has not been fully implemented and needs to be adjusted.

So, the task of inventorying requirements has not been solved – in the registry they are fragmented, not interconnected, duplicated, and some are outdated. The risk management system, which directly affects the scope of inspections, is not applied to 40% of types of federal control. In addition, it is necessary to create systems for recording harm for all types of control and move to the management of KND, depending on the indicators of its effectiveness, the authors believe.

The office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko explained to Kommersant that the formation of a register of requirements in terms of federal supervision will be completed this year – within two years, information on mandatory requirements verified as part of the most massive types of control was entered into it. The risk-based approach, on the other hand, “is proving its effectiveness: the number of inspections is decreasing annually, in 2022 a record low number of inspections was carried out.” “In 2023, the main focus of the work of the supervisory authorities is on improving the risk system. This will allow inspections to be carried out solely on the basis of this system, ”says the White House.

However, RSPP and HSE see the digitalization of CND as a new challenge for business — it “increases the likelihood of verification of all formally valid requirements, which means it increases the real density of control and leads to an increase in regulatory unproductive costs.”

This is how the authors of the report explain the need for an accelerated reduction in the array of mandatory requirements. The office of Mr. Grigorenko confirms that such work is already going on: “Even after the completion of the work of the guillotine, the requirements, together with the business, are continuously checked for relevance and effectiveness.”

Yesterday, the government lifted the ban on changing mandatory requirements that did not fall under the “regulatory guillotine”. State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Economy Aleksey Khersontsev recalls that it was forbidden to make changes to departmental acts from the “white list” of the guillotine – they needed to be completely reissued in order to eliminate chaotic editing. But “there are a number of examples when it is required to promptly make an “improving” change, eliminate redundant, outdated requirements,” the official notes. Now business will be able to initiate point changes in departmental acts and not wait for a complete reissue of the document, but it is necessary that they do not introduce new prohibitions and restrictions, but improve the business situation and reduce its costs. Adjustments will be possible after the Ministry of Economy assesses their regulatory impact.

More systemic measures are required to solve the problems of licensing activities: a moratorium on it is impossible due to the variety of licensing regimes, the lack of a clear definition of “permission” and the rule-making of ministries and departments – the same authorities that exercise pressure take indulgences, the authors write. The solution could be a unified system of accounting for permitting activities and a mechanism for assessing its impact, but this would require the adoption of a new law.

Diana Galieva