The State Duma proposes to establish a system for evaluating the KPI of deputies, mayors and governors through the “Gosuslugi”

The Russians were offered the opportunity to annually evaluate deputies of all levels, mayors and governors (there is a government KPI system for them) using the Gosuslugi portal. Such a bill (Vedomosti got acquainted with it) on Wednesday, March 15, is planned to be submitted to the State Duma by the New People faction. The deputies propose to amend the law on the status of a senator and deputy of the State Duma, the law on the general principles of organizing public authority in the subjects and the law on local self-government.

Due to the lack of a feedback mechanism, the influence of citizens on the process of making state and municipal decisions is falling, and socio-economic tension is also increasing, the explanatory note says. “New people” believe that the adoption of the bill “will improve the efficiency of governance at all levels of government through the introduction of a mechanism for the annual receipt of feedback from citizens.”

People are left with fewer and fewer opportunities to show their attitude to the authorities, Aleksey Nechaev, head of the New People faction, told Vedomosti: “One of these opportunities was the direct election of the mayor.” They were recently canceled “even in Novosibirsk,” he says: “Without feedback, the system cannot work adequately: many local officials forget that their main employer is the people.”

Therefore, the faction proposed to give an opportunity to evaluate the work of mayors, governors and deputies through the State Services, he says: “Elections are held every few years, and the Internet allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of managers in real time. We suggest doing this once a year to keep the government in good shape.”

In his opinion, such a feedback system will help officials to quickly adjust their work and approaches. “A persistently low assessment of work can be a reason for resignation. At the initial stage, we offer a fairly simple rating scale,” the deputy says. Today, there is simply no such single assessment tool, Sardana Avksentieva, deputy chairman of the faction, said.

For a party trying to work with an urban voter who actively uses digital services and asks questions about the effectiveness of officials, this is a reasonable proposal, says Konstantin Kostin, head of the Civil Society Development Fund.

“But now in many large cities it is possible to evaluate the work of regional authorities through various services with a feedback system,” he says. The deputies’ assessment, most likely, will coincide with their ratings in the inter-election period, says Kostin: “Still, there are elections in which deputies receive the main assessment of voters – you simply can not vote for them. Therefore, the initiative is media-populist, but it is unlikely to bring any additional electoral points.”