Medvedev calls for cuts in Russia's bureaucracy

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government on Tuesday to draw up plans to cut the number of Russia's officials by 20 percent in an apparent bid to reduce bloated state expenditure and curb endemic corruption.

The number of state officials, who often enjoy more lucrative perks than their private sector counterparts, have grown by almost 50 percent to 1.67 million since Russia's economy took off in 2000, according to official statistics.

Activists say Russia's bureaucrats curb economic development by demanding hefty bribes and weighing businesses down with complex paperwork.

"I ask you to prepare proposals on this and report on them to me," Medvedev told senior officials on Tuesday.

"This is definitely quite a tough measure that could help solve a whole range of problems... At the same time such decisions should not be made... only for financial considerations."

In December, Medvedev ordered a 20 percent reduction in the 1.4 million-strong Interior Ministry, which handles the police, after a string of scandals. At the time, Medvedev called the cut "the beginning of a serious reform."

Disciplinary problems and law-breaking by police officers had provoked widespread public concerns and were undermining the authority of the state, making the reform essential, he said at the time.

Half-way through his four-year presidential term, Medvedev has repeatedly promised to tackle graft and increase openness in society, although Kremlin critics say little has changed so far.

The Kremlin chief did not give a reason for the proposed cut to the country's bloated bureaucracy, though analysts have said Russia's endemic corruption is fuelled by having too many officials.

While the proposed cuts are ambitious, putting them into practice may present challenges, said Elena Panfilova, head of Transparency International in Russia, which campaigns for Russia to reduce the pressure on businesses from corrupt bureaucrats.

"The idea is correct and justified ... but applying laws and reforms on practice can be quite unpredictable in this country," she told Reuters.

"It could simply result in the laying off of 'dead souls'," she said, using a term introduced by Russian author Nikolai Gogol in his great nineteenth century masterpiece that referred to imaginary people who only exist on paper.

(Editing by Charles Dick)

(Writing by Alexei Anishchuk)

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