The draft order of the Ministry of Economy raised questions among participants in the public discussion of regulations

Amendments to the ministry’s operating regulations published by the Ministry of Economy outraged participants in the public discussion of regulations, who considered this a violation of the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) procedure. The draft order, published on regulation.gov.ru, obliges its employees to coordinate with the press service of the ministry the publication of both the draft regulatory legal acts (NLA) themselves and negative opinions on them. This directly contradicts both the RIA rules approved by government decree and the very ideology of public discussion. The ministry, however, says that instead of “coordinating” the publications of legal acts and their assessments, it was planned to inform the press service in advance so that its employees would have time to prepare explanations.

The regulatory reform community has found that draft order Ministry of Economy “On Amendments to the Regulations of the Ministry…” several formulations that directly contradict both the spirit and the letter of the written rules of RIA. Doubts about both the legal and ideological adequacy of the text of the document were expressed by the authors of the Telegram channels “Regulatory Shark” and “Regulatory Commission”.

In particular, the draft requires that draft regulatory legal acts to be published on the regulation.gov.ru portal be sent “for approval to the structural unit entrusted with the functions of organizing interaction with the media (hereinafter referred to as the press service).” In addition, the document contains a rule according to which “the publication of negative conclusions on the assessment of regulatory impact is subject to agreement with the press service within 2 weeks from the date of submission to the press service.”

Let us note that the RIA rules were approved by government decree and even technically cannot be “corrected” by order of the ministry, so attention was paid to its wording only at the end of the period for its public discussion.

The Ministry of Economy explains the wording of the draft order with the need to provide information support for rule-making. The press service of the ministry stated that this is a matter of routine informing by industry units of the press service department of the ministry to coordinate and support the publication of this document.

“The press service of our department, like any other, simply does not have the authority to give or not give permission to post draft regulations on the portal regulation.gov.ru. I would like to remind you that censoring this activity contradicts the federal law “On the general principles of organizing public power in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” noted a representative of the press service of the Ministry of Economy.

“Often, the posting of negative regulations attracts the attention of the press simply due to the fact that the publication of material that one department gives comments on the initiative of another federal executive authority receives more views and readings. It is normal practice within any commercial company or government body to warn the PR service about decisions that may attract the attention of the press, so that those responsible for communications are prepared for this,” the federal official noted.

The ministry clarified that in general the text of the document may still change, since it was posted for public discussion

Oleg Sapozhkov, Venera Petrova