| Although the huge Cabinet overhaul has slashed the number
of
ministries in half, the new government will keep a lot of old faces and
could well remain as bloated as the previous one, Prime Minister Mikhail
Fradkov said Wednesday.
"Staff could end up being cut, but this is not the goal,"
Fradkov said
at a news conference held under tight security at the government's seat,
the
White House.
Rather than letting go some of the 1 million civil servants working
at
all levels of the government, the shakeup aims to make the government
more
transparent and efficient without increasing the number of staff, Fradkov
said.
The new government, which President Vladimir Putin presented Tuesday,
will be strictly divided into three levels -- ministries, services and
agencies. Ministries, which were cut from 30 to 17, will be in charge
of
policymaking and general strategy. Services will be responsible for state
services provided to society, while agencies will check compliance with
the
relevant laws and regulations.
"There will be a kind of pyramid of the ministries at the top,"
Fradkov said.
He said he decided to have only one deputy prime minister to give more
responsibility to the ministries and "reduce the pressure from above
that
used to come from deputy prime ministers."
But as the government regroups, quite a few dismissed top officials
are returning to their jobs, albeit with different titles. Former Press
Minister Mikhail Lesin and former Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi will
take deputy ministerial posts in the newly created Culture and Press
Ministry run by Alexander Sokolov. Former Communications Minister Leonid
Reiman and former Transportation Minister Sergei Frank will become deputies
to Transportation and Communications Minister Igor Levitin. Former Deputy
Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin will head the Federal Industry Agency, which
answers to the new Energy and Industry Ministry.
A new face brought into the government was senior Yabloko official
Igor Artemyev, who was
appointed as the head of the new Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, which
reports to Fradkov.
Fradkov said the appointments will be official once the paperwork is
completed to build the new government. He said the process will take two
months.
Fradkov said many ministers were retained because of a need for their
skills and experience. "And we are grateful to these people for their
willingness to put up with lower ranks for the sake of a greater goal,"
he
said.
The reshuffle in the hierarchy is likely to affect the lower echelons
of the government. Fradkov, however, said special effort will be made
to
ensure that bureaucrats do not suffer financially. Instead, he said, he
wants to see better pay and more respect for civil servants.
Fradkov's remarks on the new structure of the government and the
retention of dismissed ministers disappointed some observers and analysts.
"It is a disappointment that supposed deadwood is going to be
back in
the government," said Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance
Capital.
"This was a technical decision," Yabloko leader Grigory
Yavlinsky said. "All the key positions have been kept by the
old people."
He said the only change is "that the government is now fully
controlled by the presidential administration."
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