Alexey Egorov, General Director of AVVA RUS, on the government's plans to reduce the number of inspections for business

As stated by Mikhail Abyzov, Minister for Open Government Affairs, the number of scheduled and unscheduled business inspections will be lower next year and is expected to decrease even more significantly in the future. He noted that the priority program for reforming state control envisages a halving of the ineffective administrative burden on businesses by 2024, writes Finmarket.

"Following the review of applications from supervisory agencies for scheduled inspections in 2018, there is a reduction of approximately 10% in planned inspections, depending on the type of control. At the same time, 70% of inspections in 2018 are already concentrated on the highest-risk facilities," said M. Abyzov.

However, he noted that a paradoxical situation has developed in Russia: the number of scheduled inspections is 450 thousand, while unscheduled ones amount to 1 million. Therefore, the main emphasis should be on reducing unscheduled inspections.

According to Mikhail Abyzov, the number of unscheduled inspections already decreased by 15% overall in 2017, and the reduction will continue next year through their transition to a risk-based approach. This possibility is provided for in the new law on state control.

"Another problem is the increase in the number of inspections at the municipal level against the backdrop of a reduction at the federal and regional levels. Municipal control is often used to fill the budget through fines," the Minister emphasized. He added that targeted work with governors is needed on this issue.

The number of control functions by the state in Russia has always been excessive, and currently, there are more than 140 types of state control and about 40 control and supervisory authorities, many of which often duplicate each other. This leads to serious administrative pressure on businesses, expressed in two million inspections annually, says Andrey Koptelov, Director of the Center for Economic Research at Synergy University.

According to various estimates, the system of control and supervisory activities costs Russia about 5% of GDP, and therefore, to ensure economic growth, it needs to be transformed as soon as possible, the expert is convinced. As part of the reform of control and supervisory activities, a transition to risk-based control and supervision is being carried out. As a result, for 12 types of supervision, 60% of the companies subject to inspection are classified as low-risk activities, and scheduled inspections should not be conducted for them in 2018. Only hazardous and particularly hazardous facilities with high risks, which constitute only 1.8% of the average number of inspected entities, should be inspected under the standard regime.

Andrey Koptelov says that we can expect the transition to risk-based control and supervision to reduce the number of inspections by 40%, cut the number of inspectors by a third, and consequently reduce state expenditures. Such a reduction in the number of inspections in 2018 will have a favorable impact on businesses. At the same time, there is no need to fear a decrease in the quality of work by commercial companies, since, in most cases, the remarks made during inspections were formal, and only in 10% of cases were the violations found related to an immediate threat of harm.

The main task now is to monitor the implementation of the decisions to reduce the number of inspections at all levels of the control and supervisory bloc, because previous decisions to reduce scheduled inspections only led to unscheduled inspections becoming twice as numerous as planned ones.

The fact that the authorities are concerned with this issue, and moreover, have outlined specific steps and set standards, is a positive vector for business, believes Alexey Egorov, General Director of the pharmaceutical company AVVA RUS. It is also undeniable that an order to conduct an inspection, when signed by the head of the inspecting authority, must be verified and justified. The introduction of a risk-based approach and the possibility of remote interaction with organizations to correct potential violations are good initiatives by the authorities; it remains to implement them.

"And yet, the authorities should pay attention to the weak links between inspecting organizations and the piles of documents that businesses must prepare and submit to inspecting authorities during any inspection, while often 80% of these documents are already in the possession of the inspecting party. One gets the impression that we are working for manufacturers of copying equipment and paper," says the business representative.

For now, businesspeople joke that three things are endless to watch: fire, water, and the authorities' promises to reduce the number of inspections, points out Irina Kapitanova, a member of the presidium of Opora Russia. There have been quite a few such promises in my memory, from the times of the sacrosanct expression 'enough of harassing business' by one president of the Russian Federation to yesterday's press conference by another.

"Therefore, making predictions about whether Abyzov's promise will come true is a thankless task. And, frankly, completely unnecessary," she is sure.

Because, the expert explains, it's not about the quantity of inspections, but their quality. The problem is that there is no clear algorithm for these inspections. "You can really nitpick everything if the inspector desires." This, believes Irina Kapitanova, is what the government should work on. If an entrepreneur runs their business honestly, then they should not fear any inspections, but only on the condition that both parties – the inspected and the inspector – play by the same rules. And if an inspection is conducted just for the sake of inspection or to find something, then such inspections are indeed unnecessary.