State Duma on Putin's request fast-tracks the adoption of the oversight law on business activities in Russia
MOSCOW, Russia – Heeding the request of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the State Duma has fast-forwarded the date the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Corporations and Individual Entrepreneurs during Official Inspections by State Agencies from July 1, when the legislation was previously scheduled to take effect, to May 1. This law, which is long awaited by all entrepreneurs in Russia, is more popularly known in the local business community as the ‘law on the protection of companies from the arbitrariness’ of corrupt state officials, as it is expected to reduce the nearly insurmountable red tape on business oversight, and thus give private businesses a more breathing space in the country’s economy.
The acceleration of the traditional slow legislative process came exactly two weeks after the Russian prime minister, when presenting his Cabinet’s annual performance report on the Russian government’s activities in 2008 to the State Duma, specifically asked the legislators to speed up the adoption of this law, noting that it was not exactly clear to him why this particular legislation should come into force only on July 1, 2009, and not earlier. The State Duma leadership decided not to put the prime minister’s request on the shelf, and consequently adopted the bylaw that fast-forwarded the date the legislation, which will have far-reaching implications for both private businesses and the government inspection and oversight agencies in the country, by two months, from July 1 to May 1.
By this decisively monumental step, the State Duma has now, at least, on paper, removed Russian businesses from under the rigid, and sometimes, illegal pressure frequently exerted on companies by all sorts of corrupt government business inspection and oversight officials, as the new legislation clearly spells concrete measures that will provide real protection for the rights of businesses during officially sanctioned inspections of their operations and other related activities. Besides, the total number of such inspections, which one and the same company can be subjected to during a certain period of time, is now limited and sharply reduced, compared to past practices, while the order of carrying such inspections is now more precisely set out and rigidly regulated by the new law.
Specifically, the government business inspection and oversight officials are obliged to make annual plans of carrying out routine inspections of companies’ operations and activities, while all non-previously-scheduled inspections of businesses, which prior to the adoption of the new law, were frequently carried out by corrupt government agencies for self enrichment, will henceforth be executed only on an official approval by a state prosecutor. To this end, the General Prosecutor’s Office has already set up a special division that will ensure the implementation of this law and constantly monitor the legality of inspections of all companies, their activities and operations in the country.
All these and other measures stipulated in new legislation, and also their diligent implementation, are expected to put an end to what President Dmitry Medvedev has recently termed ‘the ugly practice of subjecting businesses to nightmares in Russia, and this, in turn, is expected to significantly make life much easier for all entrepreneurs, especially those operating in the small- and medium-scaled business sectors.
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