Any state is an extensive network of authorities. Municipalities, prefectures, state oversight - everywhere you need competent people who are able to issue orders, process citizens' complaints, and arrange inspections. Such people are called officials. It is customary for people to scold officials, but in reality, few people know what they are doing.
The essence of the work of an official
To begin with, you need to define the concepts. Officials in accordance with the Table of Ranks were called all those who held positions in the civil service. Well, after the October Revolution, the institution of bureaucracy was abolished.
Now everyone who holds positions in various departments is officially called civil servants. These include not only employees of city halls, municipalities or tax authorities, but also judges, prosecutors, police officers and even the military.
An official is now the common name for the profession of people who work in the state apparatus. What officials are doing now, it is impossible to describe in a nutshell - this specialty is too heterogeneous.
In short, each official is responsible for the implementation of various orders of higher authorities. It is officials of various levels who implement the plans of the government of the country and the President personally. They manage the budget, monitor the spending of funds, collect taxes, participate in the planning of various events.
The duties of an official, therefore, largely depend on what position he occupies and in what authority he works. Some officials manage public procurement, others oversee the housing and communal services sector, and others are involved in statistics and planning.
The hierarchy and levels of public service are much more clearly represented. It is customary to single out:
- heads of departments and their deputies;
Assistants (advisers) to managers;
Specialists and heads of departments - the most numerous layer of officials in any department;
Providing specialists - numerous personnel who are responsible for paperwork, receiving applications from the public and other routine work in the department.
How to get a job as an official
Due to the too wide range of responsibilities, there is no single criterion for the selection of officials. Public service requires a variety of people, with different education and competence. However, each employee has a set of legal restrictions:
an official is prohibited from doing business or being in the service of several institutions at once. He has the right only to teach, or to engage in scientific work;
an official cannot be involved in politics, be a member of any parties or religious organizations, help them, using his official position;
an official is also prohibited from receiving gifts and rewards for his work;
for any civil servant, citizenship of the Russian Federation and knowledge of the Russian language is mandatory;
An official cannot be a subordinate or immediate superior of his close relatives.
In addition, there are professional standards for municipal employees, however, in general, there are no uniform criteria for selecting a civil servant.
In general, we can say that higher education is welcome in the field of public administration - preferably if it is legal or economic.
Getting a job as an official is quite difficult, although of course, it all depends on the position for which the applicant is applying. Any department periodically holds competitions for filling vacancies. You need to apply and send your resume, just like any other job.
You will also need to collect a package of documents:
certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the absence of a criminal record;
certificate of income from the tax service;
a copy of the diploma of education and passport;
two photos.
The second stage will be the competition itself - an interview and a written test. The test usually tests knowledge of the law and professional competence.
Where to study for an official
In fact, there are no clear criteria for education for working as an official - it all depends on the specific position held. An ordinary specialist may limit himself to secondary vocational education in the direction of "State and municipal management".
However, for career growth in the public service, it is still more promising to get a higher education. Approximately half of today's officials in Russia, including the cabinet of ministers, have a law degree.
In general, numerous institutes and faculties of public administration (for example, the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov) are the source of personnel for bureaucracy. The training takes four to six years.
Career prospects for officials
One of the features of the civil servant profession is the possibility of continuous career growth throughout life. There are many stories among top managers of how they started as an ordinary employee, and then rose to the head of the ministry.
Nevertheless, much in a career depends not only on length of service, but also on the personal qualities of an official. The authorities are required from him first of all:
performance;
performance;
the ability to take reasonable initiative;
impeccable knowledge of laws and regulations;
analytic skills.
Demand for officials, average salary
According to statistics, the average salary of officials in Russia is 53,000 rubles. At the same time, federal authorities traditionally earn more than municipal ones.
In itself, the salary of an official consists of several factors:
Salary (it is usually small - just above the subsistence level);
Supplement for class and position;
Seniority bonus (approximately 30% of total salary).
In general, ordinary specialists-experts, clerks, accountants, etc. receive extremely little money - up to 25 thousand rubles. At the same time, all public authorities are in need of them.
Pros and cons of being an official
career prospects;
salary growth;
official employment and benefits.
high personal responsibility, up to criminal;
difficult to get a job.
irregular working hours;
Everyone has heard that people scold officials, no one is surprised anymore. It hurts something else. Not every citizen is able to clearly explain whom he criticizes. For many officials - it's all who make decisions. Is it so? Who is a real official, and to whom this term cannot be applied? Let's figure it out.
Let's define the concept
Digging in dictionaries, you can find a completely unambiguous definition. Officials are That is, an official is not just a person with power. He is a person who manages on behalf of the state. It turns out that officials are employees whose competence includes the implementation of the goals and objectives of the country. Important people!
There is another interpretation, not so official, but more common. According to him, officials are those who are indifferent to their work, formalists, bureaucrats. This meaning is no longer due to the functional content of the position, but to the people's perception of a particular segment of the population belonging to this category. I must say that such a definition did not arise yesterday. Officials in Russia have long been treated with hostility, scolded.
A bit of history
Considering the issue in more detail, you will inevitably become interested in where the term came from, when it began to be used and why. Approximately in the XVIII century. Russia entered the "world arena". Still in quotation marks. But certain ties with neighbors have become closer and more dynamic. In such conditions, people were needed who were engaged in all kinds of activities related to streamlining the actions of the state. Peter the Great, following the example of the European powers, decided to streamline the activities of the people who served him. The Table of Ranks was adopted, which actually gave rise to officials. We can say that January 24, 1722 (the date of signing the document) was the birthday of this class. Thus, the officials of Russia owe their existence to Peter the Great. The origin of the word itself is also not difficult to understand. Any person acting on behalf of the state, receiving support from it, received a rank. The last circumstance is one of the most important.
Eliminating confusion
It is generally accepted among the people that an official is a deputy. Fundamentally wrong statement. You shouldn't repeat it if you don't want to be branded Let's sort it out "on the fingers" so that the meaning comes. The official performs He - his hands, eyes and brain.
The state, in principle, takes care of its people. Let's assume that this is the case. And how does the state know what the people want? For this, there is a deputy, a people's choice. He is basically a statistic. Its task is to find out the will of the people and convey it to the state. The process itself takes place in the form of the issuance of laws. It turns out that an official and a deputy are two sides of the same coin. To some extent, they balance each other in the complex life of the state. But one should not be confused with the other!
Where to look for officials
Based on the definition, these gentlemen live in state institutions. Since there are many such organizations, they are born and die every now and then, and therefore it makes no sense to list them. For thoughtful people, it is proposed to proceed from the definition of the functions of the state in order to understand who an official is. What it is? We are talking about legislatively approved duties assumed by an entity called the state. For example, it is obliged to take care of all citizens, creating conditions for the realization of their rights. This is social policy. It turns out that officials sit in all organizations that serve citizens on behalf of the state. There is also a political function. The officials who regulate it ensure the observance of the freedoms of citizens in the field of influence on the work of the state, suffrage. And the country has external functions. Here we are talking about any representative of which - a government official. This gives him the right to make decisions on behalf of the state, naturally, within the framework of his competence.
The difficult life of an officer
There is one more thing that you need to know in order to fully understand the essence of this class, which is not particularly loved by the people. Since the official is supported by the state, he has to obey the will of the latter. That is, he earns wages not only by his activities, but also by certain restrictions established by law. There are many things that everyone can do, but officials cannot. For example, they are required to report their income. They are forbidden to earn extra money on the side (there are exceptions). The activities of these persons are regulated by law at almost every step. He said a rude word - they can punish. He made the wrong decision - on trial. Etc. Of course, officials are also different. Not everyone has such a high level of responsibility that they can go to jail for a mistake. On the other hand, each of them is, figuratively speaking, "the arbiter of fate." Therefore, a great responsibility rests on their shoulders.
Types of officials
Employees performing the functions of the state are divided into several categories. This refers not only to the difference between dignitaries and officials. No. For an ordinary person, it is important that these employees sit both in state institutions and in municipal ones. That is, realizing that the deputies are not officials, you should not treat those workers who organize activities in the same way. They treat officials just as the state entrusted them with one of the areas of their work. Yes, and they receive a salary from the treasury.
Dealing with the issue of officials, it is necessary to proceed from what a person does. If he acts on behalf of the state, then classify him in this class. And if he works for (a corporation), then the term "official" is applicable to him only in a figurative sense.
Only in the public service you learn the truth. Kozma Prutkov Government service is the last refuge of a slob. Boyce Penrose A civil servant is one who hires others to do the job for which he has been hired. Herbert Proknow ... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
Cm … Synonym dictionary
OFFICIAL, official, husband. 1. Civil servant (pre-rev., Zagr.). Major official. Small official. “The landowners, the zemstvo chiefs and all sorts of officials commanded the peasants enough!” Lenin. 2. trans. A person who cares about his work... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov
Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
OFFICIAL, a, husband. 1. A civil servant (in Russia until 1917, he must have one of the official categories of the table of ranks). Government H. Military, police officials. Large, small part 2. trans. The person who conducts his work ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
OFFICIAL, in the 18th early 20th centuries. civil servant who had a certain class rank according to the Table of Ranks. Senior officials (usually 4th 1st classes) were unofficially called dignitaries. In a broad sense, the name of the lower state ... ... Russian history
In Russia, until 1917, a civil servant who had a certain class rank according to the Table of Ranks. Senior officials (usually 4th 1st classes) were unofficially called dignitaries. In a broad sense, the name of the lower civil servants who did not have ... Political science. Vocabulary.
Official- ■ Inspires respect regardless of the duties performed ... Lexicon of Common Truths
Request "Officer" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Wiktionary has an entry for "official"
official- a, m. 1) In pre-revolutionary Russia and some other countries: a civil servant who had a rank and was in the civil service. These officials are our mob; the mob of yesterday and today: not to know and not common people ... (Block). ... ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language
Books
- , Alexander Golubtsov. Containing quite diverse material for the history of ancient Novgorod in general and local church ritual practice in particular, the Official of the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral from a long time ago ...
- Official of the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral, Alexander Golubtsov. Containing quite diverse material for the history of ancient Novgorod in general and local church ritual practice in particular, the Official of the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral from a long time ago ...
I don’t know about you, but I got the impression that in the public mind an official is certainly a thief, a corrupt official and a lazy person. In short, a parasite sitting on the neck of an honest worker. My grandmother, when she sees an official on TV, comments:
- Face, what a face you ate, God forgive me!
In this article, I want to understand what they are, Russian officials, and how they live.
Are there many officials in Russia?
To begin with, let's figure out who we will consider officials. All officials can be divided into three groups: federal, regional and municipal. Federals are the most diverse group. This includes employees of Rospotrebnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor and other "supervisions", employees of the State Duma, the presidential administration and government employees. Regional bureaucracy is the administration of the republics, territories and regions. Municipal employees include employees of the administrations of cities, villages, towns, villages, etc.
Let's start by counting everyone. According to 2012-2013 data, there are 48 different ministries, civil services and agencies operating in the country. They employ 38,200 people. Let's add here 760 thousand officials of regional administrations and 340 thousand municipal employees. Plus countless village chiefs and bosses. According to Rosstat, That's 1.6 million people. A complete picture of all state employees who are fed by the state can be seen in the picture below:
Is it a lot or a little? Looking from which side. If we consider officials as parasites, then the less, the better. If we consider an official as an intermediary that provides interaction between a citizen and the state, then the more intermediaries, the faster and more effective the interaction. At least that's how it should be. How it works in practice is another question.
Compare Russia with other countries. Is there a relationship between the number of officials and the level of economic development of the country? In America, for example, there are almost twice as many officials - two and a half million people. On the neck of a simple American sits twice as much parasites than the Russian. According to 2011 data, there are 350 officials for every 10,000 Americans. There are 400 per 10,000 French people. In Germany and Norway, about 300. In Romania, 250. In Russia, 67. The lowest figure in China is 50 officials per 10,000 Chinese. In developed Norway, France and Germany there are almost 6 times more officials than in Russia. There are also many officials in Romania (almost 4 times more than ours), but at the same time, the Romanian economy is lame on both legs. Huge China is developing at an unprecedented pace and manages with a record low number of bureaucrats. These data cannot be considered completely accurate and indicative. In each country, slightly different groups of civil servants are considered officials. However, I did not find a direct connection between the number of officials and the level of development of the country. It doesn't matter how many officials you have. What matters is how they work.
One thing is clear: the dominance of officials in Russia is a myth.
Does the political regime affect the number of officials? Royal Russia. I took data from the book by Nikolai Rubakin “Russia in Figures. The country. People. Estates. Classes”, which was published in 1912 in St. Petersburg.
Distribution by profession:
The ratio of the peasantry and the service class:
And here is the comparative data by country:
In the USSR of the Brezhnev period, there were 750 thousand nomenclature workers.
And here is how the ratio of officials in the Russian Federation changed from 2000 to 2012:
As you can see, Rubakin was right. Russia, as it was, and remains a country of relatively "little ranks". And it suffers not from quantitative but qualitative bureaucracy.
In crisis situations, the number of officials is growing. In difficult periods, the state seeks to increase the manageability of the country. This is noticeable by the jump in 2008-2009. But the government's efforts to reduce the supposedly bloated bureaucracy are not producing any results. Officials magically multiply, regardless of any reforms, optimizations, instructions and concepts.
Now let's see how much it costs the state (that is, us) to maintain the bureaucracy. Here are the data from the Ministry of Finance:
Customs officers, financiers, tax specialists, diplomats and courts cost us the most. We spend relatively little on the legislature. In 2012, we spent 1.4 trillion rubles on the organization of civil servants. This is 6% of all expenses. Suppose you receive 30 thousand rubles a month. According to the budget calculator from RIA Novosti, 12.6 thousand of your salary goes to the maintenance of civil servants. For comparison: 14 thousand rubles are spent on defense.
Here's what it looks like in dynamics:
As you can see, not only the number of officials is growing, but also their cost. Here, for example, is the estimate for 2010. 138.4 billion rubles are needed for the upkeep of the ministries, 4.1 billion for the State Duma. The upkeep of the lower house in 2010 cost 5.248 billion rubles. Of these, a little more than a billion went to the salaries of deputies. Approximately the same amount - for transportation costs. Contributions to inter-parliamentary organizations (OSCE, etc.) - 32.9 million rubles. For the receptions of foreign delegations, the cultural program of the meeting and seeing off - 16.2 million rubles.
How does an official live in Russia?
The salaries of Russian officials are uneven. Let's start with regional officials . It turns out that their salaries directly depend on the region they govern.
Northern officials and civil servants of St. Petersburg receive the most. The general director of the All-Russian Center for Living Standards, Vyacheslav Bobkov, explains this difference in income as follows. Official salaries are set according to the size of the regional budget and responsibility. The oil and gas regions are the country's strategic “things”. Managing them requires more strength and skill. In the end, they simply can afford to pay their managers a large salary. And there are subsidized regions, consumer regions, for example, Dagestan. There the salary is lower. The high earnings of Petersburgers, most likely, are explained by the cunning of the Petersburgers themselves. Apparently, they managed to lobby for big salaries. Oddly enough, Moscow occupies the last place in the ranking of “separation from the people”. A Moscow official earns only 7% more than ordinary residents of the capital.
Countrywide the difference between the salaries of regional officials and the average regional salary is shrinking. In 2010, this difference was 65%, and in 2012 it dropped to 56%. This is due to the overall growth of Russian salaries. By a May 2012 presidential decree, the salaries of all state employees were increased, especially teachers and doctors who are fed from regional budgets. The growth of earnings of citizens working in the extrabudgetary sector also continued. Here is how the salaries of workers and departmental officials differ:
The richest officials are the feds : employees of the government, the White House and the Federation Council. In the presidential administration (1.7 thousand people) they receive an average of 166 thousand rubles, in the cabinet of ministers (1.3 thousand people) - 163 thousand rubles, in the Federation Council (about 900 people) - 77 thousand rubles. The average income of an employee of the State Duma is 55-67 thousand rubles. Income is highly dependent on the ministry. The highest salaries are from officials of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - 92 thousand rubles, the Federal Agency for the Supply of Arms, Military, Special Equipment and Materials - 97 thousand rubles. and the Ministry for the Development of the Far East - 92 thousand rubles. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Supreme and Constitutional Courts receive 75 thousand, in the Accounts Chamber - 80.7 thousand. Compared to these salaries, employees of less influential ministries receive ridiculous money: employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Ministry of CIS Affairs - 37 thousand, employees of the State Courier Service services - only 35 thousand people.
But this is not the limit. By 2018, the salary of federal officials should increase by 2.6 times and exceed the average salary in the country by 1.7 times. 135 billion rubles to increase the salaries of civil servants is already included in the budget for 2014-2016. Here the Ministry of Finance went to a little trick. The fact is that the main part of bureaucratic income is bonuses. The salary is only 17.8% of earnings. 135 billion will go exactly to the bonuses that will be received by the most hardworking and diligent. Thus, the Ministry of Finance wants to encourage good officials, and force parasites to quit. Here is such a financial sieve.
Official salary figures pale in comparison to real income. Many low-ranking officials have their own businesses. For example, a simple State Duma deputy Viktor Anikeev owns a meat processing company. His income is 1.11 billion rubles. The former co-owner of the Lebedyansky companies, now also a simple State Duma deputy, Nikolai Bortsov alone earns 970 million rubles, the total family income is in the billions - 1.16 billion rubles. Presidential aide Yuri Trutnev earns 210 million rubles. The richest senator is Dmitry Ananiev, a member of the Federation Council from the Yamalo-Nenets District. His fortune is estimated at 1.7 billion dollars. Member of the Forbes rating.
In addition, Russian officials bad liabilities. Here is a map of foreign real estate of civil servants:
And here is what our officials drive:
Yes, an official in Russia receives a lot of money. But it is impossible to call them the richest people in Russia. Many doctors, professors, top managers and businessmen receive many times more. The fortune of the largest figure in Russian business, Vladimir Lisin, is $24 billion. Prokhorov has 22 billion, Alisher Usmanov a little less - 20 billion.
How corrupt are our officials?
Generous salaries are usually explained by two reasons. First: an official, especially at the federal level, is, as a rule, a high-class professional. He has a huge responsibility. In the market, such a person is very expensive. So if the state wants to be run by professionals, they need to be paid accordingly . As Alexander III said a cheap official costs the state dearly". Second: the fight against corruption. High income, as planned, should make the official forget about bribes. However, this law, unfortunately, only works for poor countries. In developing and rich countries, the level of official salaries, alas, has little effect on the level of corruption. In wealthy states, corruption is considered the second biggest problem after unemployment. Apparently, the saying “money is never enough” works here. No matter how much you pay an official, everything will not be enough for him.
Here is a 2013 global corruption map compiled by Transparency International:
Surprisingly, world leaders such as the United States or Germany did not get to the first places. Denmark and New Zealand are in the lead. Wealthy Germany ranks 12th on average, behind Australia, which is 9th. The United States is also average, 19th out of 177 possible. In Russia, the situation has remained stable for many years. We firmly hold a place in the tail - 127-128 place. Our officials cannot be called the most corrupt, but, in principle, there is nothing to praise for. Most bribes are taken in law enforcement, medicine and education.
Of course, our officials are far from ideal. But not as bad as one would expect. This is what, in the opinion of the Presidium of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation, a good official should be.
What do you think? Are you satisfied with Russian officials? What, in your opinion, should be the ideal official?