High-quality work with citizens' appeals. Methodology for analyzing work with citizens' appeals in government bodies. Similar works to - Practice and problems of organizing work with citizens' appeals in the Administration of Chelyabinsk

Aleshin A. E.

student of the Tambov branch of RANEPA

Tambov Trifonov Yu. N.

Candidate of Philosophy, Associate Professor Tambov Branch of RANEPA

Tambov

ORGANIZATION OF WORK WITH CITIZENS' APPEALS IN PUBLIC AUTHORITIES: ISSUES OF THEORY AND

PRACTICES

Abstract: The theoretical, organizational and legal aspects of working with citizens’ appeals in the authorities are analyzed state power. Existing problems have been identified and proposals have been made to improve the institution of citizen appeals.

Key words: citizen’s appeal, the right of citizens to appeal to authorities, organization of work with citizens’ appeals.

RANEPA Tambov Trifonov Yu. N.

Candidate of philosophical sciences, associate professor RANEPA Tambov

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK WITH APPEALS OF CITIZENS IN THE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract: It was analyzed the organizational, and legal aspects of the work with appeals of citizens in the public authorities. It was identified the existing problems and it was made a suggestions to improve the institution of appeals of citizens.

Keywords: an appeal of citizen, the right of citizens to appeal in the public authorities, the organization of the work with appeals of citizens.

The institution of citizens' appeals to government bodies, which is the oldest element of communication between the authorities and the people, still remains the most important tool for ensuring dialogue between them. The President of the Russian Federation V.V. drew attention to this issue. Putin in his next Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, calling on officials “... not to hide in their offices, not to be afraid of dialogue with people - to meet halfway, honestly and openly talk with people, support their initiatives, especially when it comes to issues such as landscaping cities and towns, preserving the historical appearance, and creating a modern living environment."

It is noteworthy that not only the President of the country, but also many regional leaders understand the importance of this work. So, A.V. Nikitin, while still acting head of the administration of the Tambov region, emphasized that “behind each appeal there is a specific person with his thoughts, problems and fate. Therefore, the authorities must be more attentive and responsible, and control not only the progress, but also the result of the implementation of the decision. Power really should find its place at arm's length from the population, and not be inaccessible. For this purpose, my direct dialogue with any resident of the region is open on the electronic page. The official is obliged to respond to the applicant not with beautiful words on official paper, but with a statement of the issue on the merits: if it has not been done, when will it be done.” Note that the website “Direct line of the head of the administration of the Tambov region A.V. Nikitin" is by far the most popular in the region.

It is clear that citizens turn to government authorities on various issues, the topics of which are very diverse. But at the same time we are talking about problems that really concern and worry them. According to the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the right of citizens to appeal allows them to express their attitude to the activities public authority,

their needs (both personal and public) for the effective organization of state and public life, acts as a means of implementing and protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, and at the same time - through identifying specific problems and opportunities for solving them - a way to optimize the activities of public authorities."

At the same time, the content and number of requests acts as a certain indicator of the needs, requests and sentiments of the population and, thus, indicates a certain public opinion on various issues. It should be recognized that the country has created and is developing the necessary organizational and legal basis for working with citizens’ appeals. Thus, appropriate structures have been formed at all levels of government, starting with the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for working with appeals from citizens and organizations, and ending with structural divisions of municipal administrations.

A special Federal Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation”) has been adopted and has been in force for more than 10 years. During this period, a number of changes and additions were made to it aimed at improving legal support work with citizens' appeals. This, in particular, affected the procedure for considering individual appeals (Article 11), the form of filing an appeal (Article 4), the extension of the law to the consideration of appeals from citizens’ associations, including legal entities (Article 1), the timing of consideration of appeals containing information about facts of possible violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of migration (Article 12), provision individual categories citizens have the right to a personal reception as a matter of priority (Article 13 of the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation”).

At the same time, current practice indicates that there are a number of problems and unresolved issues when working with citizens’ appeals.

questions. First of all, they require a solution theoretical issues related to the concept and classification of citizens' appeals. The fact is that, according to Part 1 of Art. 4 of the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation”, a citizen’s appeal - sent to a state body, authority local government or an official in writing or in the form of an electronic document, a proposal, statement or complaint, as well as an oral appeal of a citizen to a state body, local government body.

As you can see, the concept of “citizen’s appeal” is general, as it combines both proposals, statements, complaints sent in writing or in the form of an electronic document, and oral appeals of citizens to state authorities and local self-government. Thus, in the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation,” the term “citizen’s appeal” is formulated by listing its types. This approach, according to V.A. Meshcheryagin cannot be considered successful, since it does not contain the characteristic features of this legal phenomenon. Therefore, it is advisable to legally define the generic concept of “citizen’s appeal” in the same way as interpretations of its types are given - proposals, statements and complaints.

But, at the same time, we share the opinion that normative definitions of types of appeals cannot be called successful. This is expressed in the fact that in the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” there is a legal conflict between Part 3 of Article 4 and Part 5 of Article 5, where the latter actually regulates a separate subtype of applications, the characteristics of which do not coincide with the characteristics contained in norm-definition.

It raises many questions and gives rise to certain difficulties in practice in complying with the requirements for written appeals established in Art. 7 of the “Law on the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation.” In particular, the fate of the appeal in which

In practice, the consideration of collective appeals raises a number of questions, in particular regarding whether to send a written response to a collective appeal to all applicants or only to one of them. As you know, government agencies are carrying out certain analytical work regarding citizens’ appeals. We are talking about reports compiled over a certain period of time on work with citizens’ appeals, containing data on the number of received appeals, their topics, measures taken, compliance with deadlines for consideration of appeals, liability measures, etc.

These reports, according to E.K. Glushko, greater openness should be given by ensuring that authorities periodically publish analytical reviews and reports containing statistical data on received applications, information on specific measures taken to eliminate the causes and conditions that give rise to violations of the rights of citizens, causing repeated applications and complaints , and also made public facts of violations by officials of the legislation on the procedure for considering citizens' appeals and inform about the measures taken against persons violating this procedure. It seems that in the future it is necessary to increase the information and analytical component of work with citizens’ appeals.

The greatest attention should be paid to the objective and constructive consideration of citizens' appeals on the merits. In fact, the substantive side of the issue is often replaced by a long written dialogue, which gives rise to a gigantic workflow that develops into correspondence between officials at various levels.

In other words, if the formal and procedural aspects of this work are provided, then its substantive aspects are sometimes ignored by government officials, and specific requests are not always considered, and, most importantly, resolved on their merits. An important vector for improving the institution of citizen appeals should be the desire to reduce complaints, and, on the contrary, to increase the number of proposals from citizens aimed at solving various kinds of problems.

Thus, the institution of citizen appeals as a whole performs human rights, information and communication functions, but at the same time needs further improvement.

References

1. Glushko, E.K. Federal Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” (article-by-article commentary) / E.K. Glushko // [Electronic resource]. Access mode: URL: http://base.consultant.ru (access date 03/04/2017).

2. Likhacheva, E.A. Prospects for organizing work with citizens’ appeals in local governments / E.A. Likhacheva, I.N. Mikhailyuk // Political management: scientific information and educational electronic journal [Network electronic edition, ISSN 2221-7703]. 2013. No. 03 (06). P.59-63.

3. Meshcheryagina, V.A. Legal nature of the constitutional right to appeal as a subjective right / V.A. Meshcheryagina //Current problems Russian law. 2015. No. 10. P. 71-75.

4. Nikitin, A.V. We need an honest, open dialogue between government bodies and residents of the region / A.V. Nikitin // Komsomolskaya Pravda - Tambov. 2015, September 3-10.

5. On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation: federal. Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ // Collection. legislation of the Russian Federation. 2006. No. 19. Art. 2060.

6. Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on December 1, 2016 // Russian newspaper. 2016, December 2.

7. Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated July 18, 2012 No. 19-p “In the case of verifying the constitutionality of Part 1 of Article 1, Part 1 of Article 2 and Article 3 of the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” in connection with the request of the Legislative Meetings of the Rostov region” // Collection. legislation of the Russian Federation. 2012. No. 31. Art. 4470.

The Republic of Belarus is developing dynamically in all spheres of life of the state and society. High results achieved in various industries national economy are the result of joint efforts of the state, society and each person. And they are aimed at doing decent life our citizens.

It is not for nothing that at the third All-Belarusian People's Assembly the motto of the current five-year anniversary was proclaimed to be building a state for the people.

Therefore, the main goal of government authorities is to pursue such a policy, implement such projects that would consistently improve the quality of life of people and make it as easy as possible to resolve issues that citizens face every day.

A lot has been done in this direction - a number of measures have been taken to ensure accessibility, simplicity, and efficiency in solving the pressing problems of every person. The main thing now is the proper and timely implementation of what was planned, further improvement of the work of all structures in the state.

However, some negative facts of manifestations of bureaucracy in activities state apparatus significantly reduce our ability to move forward.

There are also managers who have chosen the so-called “desktop” style of work that is convenient for themselves, preferring to make decisions without an objective analysis of the real situation on the ground. Creating an appearance business activity, they reduce their activities to the preparation of various types of information, certificates, instructions, plans, reports, thereby distracting a large number of employees of various organizations from specific work. This undoubtedly reduces the effectiveness of the government apparatus and often leads to distortion of decisions made at the state level.

The formalism, red tape, paperwork, arrogance, disrespect for people, indifference to their destinies and needs demonstrated by some officials, as evidenced by citizens' appeals submitted to the Head of State for consideration, undermine their trust in the state. This state of affairs is unacceptable.

In order to further de-bureaucratize the state apparatus and improve work with citizens:

1.1 heads of government agencies:

expand the practice of using “direct telephone lines”, regular holding of on-site personal receptions by government officials of citizens and representatives of legal entities, meetings with the population, press conferences on issues relevant to the population, including with the involvement of deputies of all levels and representatives of the media and public associations. At the same time, issues raised by citizens that do not require special additional verification and fall within the competence of the relevant official must be resolved without delay;

introduce into practice pre-registration for personal appointments in government bodies by telephone or via electronic means. If the agreed procedure for personal reception changes, the relevant government body must notify the citizen about this;

ensure the working hours of structural units and officials of government bodies receiving citizens, including with applications for the implementation of administrative procedures, at a time convenient for the population. Reception of citizens on weekdays should begin no later than 8.00 or end no earlier than 20.00, and also be carried out on Saturdays and (or) Sundays, if necessary, taking into account the number and specifics of requests. Managers bear personal responsibility for ensuring the specified mode of work in the government bodies they head, as well as in subordinate organizations;

take measures to prevent the emergence of queues, as well as long waits by citizens for appointments with government bodies, organizations providing services that ensure the livelihoods of the population, including by ensuring timely staffing, implementation information technology remote servicing of citizens, electronic queue management systems. In case of systematic occurrence of these negative situations, take immediate measures to eliminate these phenomena and the causes that give rise to them;

exclude cases of unjustified summons of citizens to the courts, prosecutors, internal affairs bodies, state security, State Control Committee, tax, customs and other state bodies, their presence in these bodies in excess of the established legislative acts time, as well as in excess of the time necessary for the performance of procedural actions;

when making decisions affecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, strictly comply with the requirements of the law, and not allow their arbitrary interpretation when applied. In case of ambiguity or vagueness of the instructions of a legal act, decisions should be made based on the maximum consideration of the interests of citizens;

pay special attention to ensuring attentive, responsible, friendly attitude of employees towards citizens. For each case of formalism, biased, tactless behavior, rudeness and disrespect for people, carry out an investigation and, if the relevant facts are confirmed, bring the perpetrators to justice, up to and including dismissal from their positions;

1.2 heads of republican government bodies and local executive and administrative bodies and (or) their deputies to carry out on schedule:

personal reception every Wednesday from 8.00 to 13.00;

“direct telephone lines” with the population every Saturday from 9.00 to 12.00;

on-site personal receptions at least once a quarter.

If necessary, due, among other things, to a significant number of citizens’ requests, the activities specified in paragraphs two and three of part one of this subclause may be carried out for a longer period of time;

when considering appeals containing information about violations of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, use existing powers to eliminate the violations committed, keep issues under control until they are fully resolved;

intensify work to solve local problems of life support for the population;

stimulate people's interest in the development of their regions, promote the formation of a feedback channel with the population, including through public discussions of issues of interest to citizens;

1.4 state media within three days notify state bodies about materials published in relevant periodicals or heard in television and radio programs about the failure of employees of such bodies to comply with legal requirements when working with the population.

Heads of state bodies are obliged to consider such materials and take measures to eliminate the violations committed and the reasons that give rise to them, as well as bring those responsible to justice;

1.5 To the Ministry of Information:

organize constant coverage in the media of measures taken to de-bureaucratize the state apparatus and improve work with the population;

carry out information and propaganda work on an ongoing basis aimed at explaining to the population the constitutional requirements for the mutual responsibility of the state to citizens and citizens to the state.

2. Take measures to further improve the implementation of administrative procedures. In this case:

2.1 prohibit state bodies from requesting from interested persons who have applied for the implementation of an administrative procedure, documents and information not provided for by the legislation on administrative procedures, as well as unlawful refusal to accept applications for the implementation of administrative procedures, including in connection with the temporary absence of the relevant employee.

If facts of violation of the prohibitions provided for in part one of this subparagraph are revealed, consider such facts as a gross violation of official duties;

2.2 heads of state bodies ensure:

proper organization of reception places for citizens in government bodies carrying out administrative procedures, including providing a sufficient number of seats for visitors and parking spaces for transport, drinking water, other amenities, the creation of a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities and people with limited mobility in order to ensure their unhindered access to places of reception of citizens;

reducing the maximum waiting time in line when applying for administrative procedures;

2.3 To the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus together with the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee:

carry out work on a systematic basis to simplify administrative procedures, including by reducing the number of documents required to complete them;

take measures to ensure that citizens are informed as fully as possible about the use of the “one window” principle in carrying out administrative procedures, including through the media and the global computer network Internet;

within three months, work on the issue of ensuring maximum consolidation of administrative procedures within one service and submit for consideration by the Head of State a draft decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus defining the legal status and organization of the activities of “one-stop” services;

within two months:

ensure the development and approval of instructions for carrying out complex and multi-stage procedures, ensuring a clear, transparent and maximally unburdensome mechanism for citizens for the implementation of such procedures, establishing intermediate and deadlines for their implementation, excluding far-fetched and unreasonably costly requirements;

minimize the number of administrative procedures for which citizens need to personally visit Minsk or regional centers;

2.4 regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee to eliminate the need for citizens to repeatedly visit various divisions of the local executive and administrative body (subordinate organizations) to submit applications for the implementation of administrative procedures. Reception of applications for administrative procedures and provision of necessary consultations should be carried out in one place.

3. Increase the level of informatization in the field of work with citizens and organizations. For these purposes:

3.1 The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus should ensure a full-scale transition of state bodies to electronic document management when implementing government functions, interacting or performing administrative procedures, including taking the necessary measures:

to ensure a timely transition to interdepartmental electronic interaction of government bodies and their subordinate organizations;

to reduce paper document flow while simultaneously expanding the practice of using the electronic format for submitting documents;

to ensure information and technological interaction of all information resources necessary for the implementation of administrative procedures, as well as to refine the “One Window” software package, taking into account shortcomings in its work identified in practice;

on organizing the possibility of carrying out administrative procedures in electronic form, starting from the remote submission of applications for the implementation of administrative procedures (applications for their implementation) and ending with the receipt of results in the form of an electronic document;

on the creation and implementation of information resources that allow identification of citizens in the process of carrying out administrative procedures in electronic form;

to encourage citizens to apply for administrative procedures to be carried out electronically;

3.2 To the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus together with the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee:

organize the gradual equipping of government agencies with audio and video recording systems in order to monitor the correctness of reception of citizens and respectful attitude towards people;

on an ongoing basis ensure the updating of information contained on the websites of government bodies and organizations subordinate to them, in order to eliminate contradictory, irrelevant information and fill gaps in informing the population;

3.3 heads of government bodies to expand the practice of public discussion on the websites of government bodies of the most significant draft normative legal acts, ensuring, by using the results of such discussion, the involvement of citizens in government and thereby creating a reliable barrier to corruption;

3.4 the regional executive committees, the Minsk City Executive Committee, ensure that information on the telephone numbers of services most in demand among the population in Minsk, regional centers, and other cities is posted on the Internet sites of the district and city executive committees, as well as information on all administrative procedures carried out in the relevant territory, including addresses and regime the work of organizations carrying out these procedures, about administrative procedures carried out electronically, about the procedure for filing applications for the implementation of such procedures.

4. Establish that creating conditions for ensuring the normal functioning of citizens and improving the quality of services provided to the population is the primary task of local executive and administrative bodies. All problems and difficulties of the population must first of all be resolved directly on the ground.

For these purposes:

4.1 to the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee:

as a matter of priority, ensure the proper operation of housing and communal services, healthcare, trade, educational institutions, transport and other organizations providing services that ensure the livelihoods of the population in the relevant territory. The telephone numbers of these organizations should be posted on the websites of the district and city executive committees, and the quality of their work should be constantly monitored;

organize in each district, including on a paid basis, the provision to the population of services for renting equipment for agricultural and construction work, home delivery of agricultural products when purchased seasonally, firewood and other fuels sold to the population for heating, and other services in demand population;

periodically analyze the quality of services provided to the population, including taking into account the number of complaints received, and take measures to improve the efficiency of their provision;

4.2 To the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus together with the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee:

develop and implement a rating system for citizens to evaluate the effectiveness of organizations providing services that ensure the livelihoods of the population, the quality of administrative procedures through questionnaires, conducting surveys on the global computer network Internet and other activities using information and telecommunication technologies. Ensure proper consideration of this information and its use when assessing the activities of relevant organizations and rotating their management personnel;

to increase the level of provision of services to the population by organizations of the system of the Belarusian Republican Union of Consumer Societies, the Republican Unitary Postal Enterprise "Belposhta", other organizations of republican significance that provide services to the population, and ensure control over the proper quality of provision of these services;

4.3 recommend to the republican public association “Belaya Rus”, the public association “Belarusian Republican Youth Union” in cooperation with territorial centers social services of the population, organize a volunteer movement to provide veterans, disabled people, elderly people, and other categories of citizens with assistance in relations with government bodies and organizations providing services to the population.

Considering the importance of the fight against bureaucracy, I appeal to Councils of Deputies of all levels, trade unions, youth, women's, veterans and other public associations, and other organizations with a request to actively assist in the implementation of the provisions of this Directive.

You cannot overcome bureaucracy using administrative methods alone. The issuance of additional acts leads to the emergence of new elements and relationships in the bureaucratic system, despite the fact that they are aimed at destroying individual relationships. This is due to the fact that the bureaucratic system is social, not technical. There is significant inertia in any social system, and therefore even nominally abolished relationships will still exist for a long time if their absence is not controlled. However, for such control it is necessary to create additional relationships and elements within the system, that is, there will be a transformation of the bureaucratic system without reducing it.

Only through joint efforts can we ensure the protection of the interests of the individual, the state and society, and eliminate the negative phenomena associated with manifestations of bureaucracy in all spheres of life.

3.2 Improving the activities of government bodies in organizing work with citizens’ appeals

Currently, the leadership of Belarus pays special attention to the work of government bodies as institutions that implement public policy. This is especially important given the fact that citizens’ opinions about the work of government bodies are formed through direct communication with officials.

Back in 2010, at a meeting on improving the efficiency of working with citizens’ appeals, it was noted that the efficiency of the work of state bodies of Belarus with citizens’ appeals needs to be increased. The relevance of the topic for the entire population of the country is due to the declared implementation of the “State for the People” policy. For people, it is not so much GDP indicators that are important, but how large-scale government programs affect their lives and help solve pressing everyday problems. Accordingly, it is extremely important for the entire system of government to improve the feedback channel on the most pressing issues that concern people, which is the mechanism for appealing citizens and legal entities.

This is all the more important because it often happens that the issues with which citizens turn to government bodies do not require significant financial expenses. On the part of officials, it is only necessary to show attention to the person and a desire to help him. However, this is precisely what is missing in practice. As experience shows, citizens’ appeals are often “dispatched” by higher authorities to local authorities, or the applicant is redirected to other authorities, “driving him around in circles.” The efficiency of the work of government agencies in Belarus with citizens’ appeals needs to be increased.

Thus, we can come to the conclusion that there are significant shortcomings in the system of interaction between government agencies and the population that negatively affect the reputation of civil servants themselves and the entire public administration system as a whole, which causes distrust in a number of government agencies and institutions, ranging from local councils and executive committees and ending with judicial, investigative and law enforcement agencies.

The main task is to analyze the current situation regarding the work of civil servants with citizens' requests and assess the quality of its implementation and level of effectiveness, as well as develop recommendations for improving efficiency.

Achieving the planned results is expected, firstly, by increasing openness and transparency in working with applications (for example, open access to data on applications considered on the merits or forwarded to the competent authorities), and secondly, by amending and supplementing the current legislation , including a mechanism of increasing coefficients or bonuses for the effectiveness of working with requests from citizens and legal entities.

Appeals perform at least three important functions. Firstly, appeals are a means of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations. Secondly, this is a form of realization of the constitutional right to participate in government, and, therefore, one of the forms of expression of democracy, democracy. And thirdly, appeals are a means of feedback, an expression of the reaction of the people, the population to decisions made by the state authorities.

At the same time, experience shows that many leaders view work with citizens as a secondary task in relation to resolving issues entrusted to the organization they lead. Issues of production growth, socio-economic development of regions, etc. are traditionally put in first place. Consideration and resolution of everyday requests from the population are often carried out on a residual basis, as free time becomes available. Many people think that this is a “secretary” job, and they do not have time to deal with such issues. However, we believe that the priority task of the head of the organization is to organize clear work with incoming requests.

In accordance with Article 40 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, everyone has the right to send personal or collective appeals to government bodies. Officials are obliged to consider the appeal and give a response on the merits in defined by law term; refusal to consider a submitted application must be justified in writing.

In addition to the previously provided written and oral forms of appeals, the law of July 18, 2011 introduced a new form of appeals - electronic. The innovation is due to the fact that the previous legislation on citizens’ appeals did not regulate this form of appeal. At the same time, since many government bodies and other organizations have official Internet sites and email addresses, this form of appeal is widely used in practice. In this regard, the law eliminates this gap in the legislation. In addition, citizens should know that they can directly contact government agencies or organizations promptly.

The legalization of electronic appeals and the establishment of uniform legislative approaches to their consideration will protect the rights and legitimate interests of both applicants and government bodies and other organizations, and ensure consideration of applicants’ appeals using the capabilities of the Internet, thereby eliminating or reducing paper document flow.

One of the innovations of the law in terms of organizing a personal reception was the granting of the right, by decision of the head of a state body, to an organization to use technical means (audio and video recording, film and photography) when carrying out a personal reception. However, this is possible provided that the applicant is notified of the use of technical means before the start of the appointment.

This provision is aimed both at protecting the rights of citizens and the interests of government bodies and organizations, since it will eliminate unsubstantiated references to abuses by officials during a personal reception.

Another innovation of the law was the legislative consolidation of the applicant’s right to withdraw his appeal at any time before consideration of the appeal on the merits.

The Law “On Appeals of Citizens and Legal Entities” (hereinafter referred to as the Law), which came into force in 2012, created the basis for a qualitative improvement in the mechanism for considering appeals. The Law comprehensively combines all the rights and obligations of citizens, responsibility for improper consideration of appeals, and introduces a new type of appeal - electronic appeal. In addition, it contains a number of norms aimed at more clearly delineating the competence of government agencies.

Another measure that created conditions for improving the quality of work with citizens’ appeals is the holding of personal receptions. The schedule and location of receptions must be indicated on the information board (or on the website) of the relevant government body or organization. You can sign up by phone or electronically. The heads of ministries, state committees and concerns have established a single day for receiving citizens (the first Wednesday of the month).

In addition to personal receptions, such forms of working with citizens’ appeals as holding meetings with teams, organizing common information days, direct telephone lines, hotlines and press conferences with the participation of media representatives are also provided.

Measures of information and interaction with citizens are also used, such as helplines, posting information on information stands in organizations and websites of government agencies. But, as practice shows, not always this information provided in a timely and complete manner.

For violation of the procedure for considering citizens’ appeals, Article 26 of Chapter 4 of the law provides for liability: “For violation of the procedure for considering appeals from an organization, their officials, individual entrepreneurs and their employees bear responsibility in accordance with legislative acts." Article 9.13 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on administrative offenses“Violation of the legislation on appeals of citizens and legal entities” provides for liability in the form of a fine in the amount of four to twenty basic units.

Currently, the Republic of Belarus does not use any of the generally accepted scientifically established systems for assessing the effectiveness of government bodies, such as, for example, key performance indicators (KPI) - System Methodology key indicators effectiveness, which is based on the use of measurable indicators that reflect the real contribution of each employee to the implementation of the intended plan. These indicators must be reliable and balanced among themselves, clearly and specifically formulated, and must enable the performer to independently evaluate his work and influence its result.

In world practice, there is also a method of the so-called Common Assessment Framework (CAF), which was developed in 1998 and was normatively enshrined in the agreement on the development of this method through the European Network of Public Administration.

There is also a balanced scorecard - Balanced Score Card. BSC in the practice of public administration allows you to translate state goals into a system of specific balanced indicators, as well as justify performance criteria; carry out the design of a map of strategic goals, combining it with the tasks of a government agency, as well as a map of key performance indicators for civil servants at all official levels.

At the same time, the provisions of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated March 29, 2012 No. 278 “On the rating assessment of the performance of managers” are used as a system for assessing the effectiveness of the activities of government bodies. The purpose of this legal act is to “improve the assessment of the activities of heads of republican government bodies and other government organizations, subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Belarus, chairmen of regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee for ensuring sustainable dynamic socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus." The provisions of the above resolution indicate the use of a system of indicators as an assessment of the effectiveness. At the same time, there are no criteria for publicity, consequences and satisfaction of the assessment. Thus, in Belarus, the performance of an individual civil servant is not assessed (the authors do not consider the certification mechanism as an assessment tool, since in most cases it is carried out purely formally).

And yet, despite the fact that there is no criterion for considering citizens’ appeals in the above description, the relevant structures monitor the work with appeals.

Thus, the Operational Analytical Center (OAC) conducted a sociological monitoring “Opinion of the population of Belarus on the state of work on de-bureaucratization of the state apparatus.” The survey involved 1,571 respondents aged 18 years and older in all regional centers of the country and the city of Minsk, district cities and rural areas. populated areas. The respondents were asked a number of questions regarding the assessment of the style and methods of working with citizens in government agencies and other organizations, the organization of work with citizens’ appeals, and the degree of satisfaction of citizens with the resolution of their issues. It was also possible to create a social portrait of employees of government agencies and identify shortcomings in the work of officials with written appeals.

It is interesting that almost a third of the population (on average 29.5%) notes an improvement in conditions for serving the population, informing and providing qualified advice, professionalism and competence, and the ability to work with people, compared to only 8% who noted a deterioration.

As for the degree of satisfaction with the resolution of their issues, about 76.5% are satisfied with the resolution of their issues in organizations at the place of work or study, at communications enterprises and in civil registry offices.

About 70% of respondents are satisfied with the results of visiting social protection authorities, educational institutions, local executive and administrative authorities, and notary offices. Only 8.5% rate their experience as negative. Almost half of citizens (48%) are to some extent dissatisfied with the resolution of their issues in customs authorities, architecture and construction organizations, and housing and communal services.

As for the noted shortcomings, 24% of respondents responded that unsubscribes are sent in response to requests. According to 15% of respondents, it is difficult to find an employee in an institution who can accept an application or consider a written appeal. Often, responses are delayed or not received, or applications are sent for consideration to the organization about which you are complaining.

At the same time, a third of respondents (35%) do not note any shortcomings.

1) Introduction of the principle of openness of information regarding the consideration of appeals from citizens and legal entities. For example, publication on the website of the relevant institution of the status of the appeal or complaint (considered on the merits, forwarded to the competent authorities, cannot be considered for certain reasons), indicating the specific responsible person involved in resolving the situation and the decision made.

2) Introduction of a feedback mechanism. Citizens should be able to evaluate the quality of the service provided, which can be done in the form of a questionnaire, online feedback, or rating in accordance with a specially developed scale.

3) Introduction of a system of non-material incentives for the effectiveness of working with appeals from citizens and legal entities. For example, an announcement of gratitude, publication (posting in electronic form on the website of a government agency) information about a specific official who effectively resolves issues related to citizens’ appeals.

4) Adoption of amendments and additions to the current legislation to establish differentiated pay for civil servants involved in considering appeals, depending on the effectiveness of such activities. This proposal can be implemented through the introduction of special increasing and decreasing coefficients, bonuses (along with the bonus reduction mechanism), or monthly (quarterly/annual) bonuses, depending on the quality of consideration of applications.

5) In the future, when developing legislation on the activities of government bodies and civil servants, legally formalize and consolidate provisions that would take into account the effectiveness of working with appeals from citizens and legal entities, if this is provided for by the competence of the relevant government agency and official, as one of necessary qualification requirements when passing certification for compliance with the position held (promotion in position, class rank).

These measures would undoubtedly help improve the efficiency of interaction between government agencies and the general public. The benefit for state institutions would be that their reputation in the eyes of citizens would be strengthened, minimizing manifestations of social tension. Binding wages civil servants involved in the consideration of appeals to qualitative and, possibly, proportionate quantitative indicators would lead to a personal interest in the proper performance of the work. The system of material and non-material incentives for civil servants contributes to increased motivation. For citizens, as the final beneficiaries, the adoption of such measures would mean a high level of quality service provided. Ultimately, all this would lead to increased trust in the state and government institutions.

To summarize, we can say that a regulatory framework has been created and is successfully operating in Belarus, helping to overcome such negative phenomena as formalism, red tape and incorrect attitude towards people. The Directive became the basis for the further development of legislation in this area and is a long-term program to combat bureaucratic manifestations in the state and society. It contains only those approaches that are currently relevant, especially necessary and of high priority. Therefore, today the most important thing is its effective implementation in practice. However, no administrative methods will be able to eliminate negative phenomena if all citizens of Belarus do not join in this work.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Organization of work with citizens’ appeals in local government bodies

1.1 Regulatory and legal framework for working with citizens’ appeals in local governments

1.2 The need to reform legislation on citizens’ appeals

Chapter 2. Practice of working with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration

2.1 Analysis of work with citizens’ appeals in the Administration of the city of Chelyabinsk

2 Ways to improve work with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration

Conclusion

Introduction

Unlike Soviet constitutions, the 1993 Constitution puts civil (personal) rights and freedoms in first place, followed by political ones, and only then economic, social and cultural ones. Particular attention in this chapter of the Constitution is paid to legal guarantees of the proclaimed rights and freedoms. Articles 33 and 46 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation determine that citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to apply personally, as well as send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments.

Appeals from citizens are one of the sources of information about the socio-economic situation of various population groups or their place of residence (district, city, village), about their moods and needs. Timely and high-quality resolution of problems contained in appeals significantly contributes to meeting the needs and requests of citizens, relieving tension in society, increasing the authority of government and management bodies, and strengthening their connections with the population.

The problems of citizens' appeals to local government bodies were studied by: Avakyan S.A., Borodin I.A., Golovatskaya M.V., Dvorak A.A., Zhenetl S.Z., Kobzarev F., Kravchenko V.V., Osipenko O.V., Potyarkin D.E., Pikalova E.F., Smushkin A.B.

All this determines the relevance of the topic under study and determines the object, subject, goals and objectives course work.

The object of the study is the Administration of the city of Chelyabinsk.

The subject of the research is working with citizens' appeals from the Chelyabinsk City Administration.

The purpose of the course work is to analyze the activities of the Chelyabinsk City Administration in dealing with citizens’ appeals, identifying existing problems and developing recommendations for solving them.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved:

1.The regulatory framework for working with citizens' appeals in local government bodies has been studied.

2.The practice of the Chelyabinsk City Administration in working with citizens’ appeals is analyzed

.Problems and ways to improve the activities of the Chelyabinsk City Administration with citizens' appeals have been identified.

When preparing the course work, such methods as the method of analysis and synthesis, the method of observation and comparison, and the statistical method were used. The work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion, a list of used sources and literature.

The practical significance of the work is determined by the presence of recommendations for improving the work with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration.

Chapter 1. Organization of work with citizens’ appeals in local government bodies

1.1 Regulatory and legal framework for working with citizens' appeals in local government bodies

Currently, the main law regulating citizens' appeals to local government bodies is the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” dated May 2, 2006.

The right of citizens to appeal is a constitutional right, as it is enshrined and guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the Basic Law of our state enshrines only general provisions. This right is expressed in the fact that “citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to apply personally, as well as send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments.”

The federal law somewhat expands this concept, also securing the right to appeal not only to authorities, but also directly to officials. Of course, the right to appeal should be interpreted broadly, since not only citizens of the Russian Federation have this right. The procedure for considering applications also applies to legal relations related to the procedure for considering applications from foreign citizens and stateless persons located on the territory of Russia. Excluding this category of persons would mean a violation of the constitutional principle of equality of rights and freedoms. The right to appeal is exercised by sending an application, proposal, or complaint. It is obvious that these appeals have their own characteristics.

The proposal represents a citizen’s recommendation for improving laws and other regulatory legal acts, the activities of state bodies and local governments, developing public relations, improving socio-economic and other areas of activity of the state and society.

A statement is a citizen’s request for assistance in the implementation of his constitutional rights and freedoms or the constitutional rights and freedoms of other persons, or a message about violations of laws and other regulatory legal acts, shortcomings in the work of state bodies, local governments and officials, or criticism of the activities of these bodies and officials.

A complaint as a type of appeal is a citizen’s request to restore or protect his violated rights, freedoms or legitimate interests, or the rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of other persons.

In this case, the form of appeal can be either written or oral.

Federal law establishes a unified procedure for considering appeals. First of all, this is manifested in the obligation to register all written requests sent in compliance with the requirements provided for by law within three days of its receipt.

Mandatory requirements for a written appeal include an indication of its author, the address to which the appeal is sent, and the address where the response to this appeal must be sent. In addition, mandatory deadlines are also provided for the period for consideration of the application. A written appeal is considered within thirty days from the date of its registration.

The peculiarity of oral appeal is that the citizen implements this right through a personal reception with heads and authorized persons of state bodies and local governments.

Among the state institutions that citizens of the Russian Federation most often turn to, the institution of presidential power should be noted. Based on how often citizens use their right to appeal, we can conclude that, in the opinion of citizens, this is one of the most authoritative and reliable methods in protecting a violated right.

Russian legislation specifically establishes and regulates the right to go to court. For example, an interested person has the right to go to court for the protection of violated or disputed rights, freedoms or legitimate interests. At the same time, it is unacceptable to deny the right to go to court.

The provided legal guarantees make it possible not to limit the legal activity of citizens to the use of only domestic mechanisms. The Constitution of the Russian Federation contains provisions that make it possible to protect violated rights not only in Russia, but also abroad, using international institutions for the protection of rights. In particular, the right is enshrined “to appeal to interstate bodies for the protection of human rights and freedoms if all available domestic remedies have been exhausted.”

The inclusion of the Russian Federation in the system of globalization processes has led to a number of changes in our legislation. As a result, Russian citizens acquired the practical opportunity to exercise their right to appeal to interstate institutions. For example, to the European Court of Human Rights.

It should be noted that the granted right did not become a formal right for Russians. A significant number of citizens took advantage of the opportunity provided to them to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The statistics of complaints are as follows: in 2002, more than 10,000 complaints were sent against Russia, in 2003 - 6062, in 2004 - 7855, in 2005 - 8781, in 2006 - 10,569, in 2007 - 9497 complaints. Consequently, the number of complaints regarding Russia is constantly growing.

A study of the practice of appeals shows that in the total volume of all appeals, complaints filed against the Russian Federation do not occupy the last place. Comparing the total number of all complaints received against states parties to the 1950 Convention with the number of complaints against Russia, we can conclude that our state accounts for more than 20%.

Unfortunately, in the course of exercising their rights, citizens face some difficulties. In particular, the lack of special knowledge leads to mistakes made by citizens when filing written appeals. As a result, more than half of the cases are recognized by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as not meeting the requirements. A similar situation arises with European Court on human rights, where a significant number of applications are also rejected due to their non-compliance with the requirements. For the same reason, about 10% of requests are rejected by the Commissioner for Human Rights.

Again, unfortunately, there are many examples when interested parties measures are being taken to identify obstacles to filing a complaint. Basically, such situations are a common occurrence in places of deprivation of liberty, when the management of these institutions in every possible way prevents the filing of complaints. Obviously, a well-thought-out system of measures is needed in relation to persons who have sent such complaints against unlawful influence. Of course, there are problems associated with non-fulfillment decisions made regarding citizens' appeals.

In addition, the established period for consideration of applications is also regularly extended by authorities and officials. The Commissioner for Human Rights also points to the same problem, noting that his appeals to government bodies often remain without a timely response.

Some difficulties in using the right to appeal are related to legal regulation. The analysis shows that authorities do not always promptly adopt appropriate legal acts to realize the rights of citizens. Administrative regulations on the implementation of the right of citizens to appeal to certain federal executive authorities were adopted during the same year when the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” was adopted (for example, in the Ministry of Defense). In a number of other departments, similar regulations were adopted only several years later. The presence of negative examples in the practice of implementing the right of citizens to appeal at the same time does not diminish the importance that this institution has.

The legal consolidation of the right to appeal contributes to the development of the legal culture of Russian society, since it provides citizens with the opportunity to show their activity by using legal norms in protecting violated rights, in realizing one’s abilities.

.2 The need to reform legislation on citizens’ appeals

The Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation” allows for the realization of human and civil rights and freedoms, however, it does not contain specification and detail of the procedures associated with the consideration of citizens’ appeals of various types (applications, complaints, proposals); a number of its provisions allow for ambiguous interpretation. Objective factors in the development of Russian society and law enforcement practice related to citizens’ appeals allow us to assert the need to further improve the legislation on citizens’ appeals. This law established the procedure for considering citizens' appeals by state bodies, local government bodies, and officials and extended the application of its provisions to relations related to the exercise of the right to appeal to state bodies and local government bodies by a citizen of the Russian Federation, as well as foreign citizen or a stateless person (except for cases established international treaty Russian Federation or federal law). At the same time, the procedure for considering citizens' appeals established by the Federal Law applies to all appeals, with the exception of those subject to consideration in the manner established by federal constitutional laws and other federal laws. For example, the procedure for considering citizens' appeals by the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation is regulated by the federal constitutional law of the same name.

Thus, the Federal Law does not apply to relations related to appeals of legal entities and public associations to public authorities and their officials. Although the Russian Constitution provides for the right in question only for citizens of the Russian Federation, this constitutional provision cannot be interpreted as limiting or not allowing such a right for collective economic entities and associations of citizens. However, the sphere of relationships in which these entities send their appeals to public authorities (for example, with a proposal to make changes to any regulatory legal act) and the corresponding obligation to consider them remains unregulated today. Meanwhile legal entity and a public association are an association of citizens united along a certain basis to solve problems determined by a specific function (economic, socio-political, etc.), which makes it possible to interpret the appeals of these subjects as a unique form of collective appeal of citizens.

According to O.V. Osipenko, it is necessary to regulate the procedure for considering citizens’ appeals not only by authorities and officials, but also by enterprises, organizations and institutions, regardless of their form of ownership. One should only partly agree with this opinion, due to the fact that organizations (with the exception of government and municipal institutions) citizens are bound by labor, civil law, financial and other relations, the procedure for considering applications for which is regulated by the norms of other federal laws. And only institutions are vested with certain powers by authorities at the appropriate level to provide state and municipal services (for example, state unitary enterprises “Bureau of Technical Inventory”). Moreover, in everyday life Citizens much more often have to turn to institutions rather than to government structures. In this regard, it seems appropriate to extend the provisions of the analyzed Federal Law to the activities of state and municipal unitary enterprises and institutions for considering citizens' appeals.

The set of norms combined in Article 5 of the Federal Law under the general title “Rights of citizens when considering appeals” contains a number of powers, the implementation of which determines the effectiveness of the entire institution of citizens’ appeals.

The right of a citizen to make a request to obtain documents and materials is very important, since in many cases a citizen does not have the opportunity to obtain the necessary documented information on the basis of which he bases his appeal. In a sense this type production is also associated with the implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information in any legal way. “Unfortunately, having formulated this right of a citizen, the legislator did not formulate the corresponding obligation of public authorities and officials to ensure such a demand.” Meanwhile, in reality, the implementation by a citizen of the above-mentioned right poses a serious problem due to large quantity territorial and structural divisions of government authorities, the cost and length of the search process the required document, the need to collect documents and materials coming from various authorities.

Article 5.39 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses provides for the imposition as a sanction administrative fine in the amount of 500 to 1000 rubles for an unlawful refusal to provide a citizen with documents and materials collected in the prescribed manner that directly affect the rights and freedoms of a citizen, or untimely provision of such documents and materials, failure to provide other information in cases provided for by law, or provision to a citizen of incomplete or obviously false information.

According to S.Z. Zhenetlya, this article is declarative in nature, since it requires simultaneous proof of both the fact of collecting information in the prescribed manner and the fact that these documents and materials directly affect the rights and freedoms of a citizen ( additional characteristic"directly" is very binding). If we add to this the rather vague category of “illegal refusal”, which, unfortunately, does not include the usual ignoring of a citizen’s written request, then the application of this article in practice becomes unrealistic.

The next right of a citizen established by the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation” when considering an appeal is the opportunity to get acquainted with documents and materials related to the consideration of the appeal, if this does not affect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of other persons.

At first glance, this norm appears to be legally justified. At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that in order to refuse to familiarize yourself with documents and materials, it is enough that in the process of familiarization someone else’s rights, freedoms or interests were simply affected (but not violated). The concept of affecting other people's rights, freedoms and interests in itself also seems very unclear. However, there is no exception “for a situation where a person whose rights, freedoms or legitimate interests will be affected consents to this.” Clarifying the grounds for refusal to familiarize yourself with documents, taking into account the proposals made, would help alleviate a number of problems of citizens, authorities, and officials related to the consideration of applications.

Article 6 of the Federal Law contains guarantees of the safety of a citizen who has sent an appeal to a government body, in particular, it establishes a prohibition of persecution of a citizen in connection with his appeal to a state body, local government body or official with criticism of the activities of these bodies or an official or for the purpose of restoration or protection of their rights, freedoms and legitimate interests or the rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of other persons. Meanwhile, persecution of citizens who sent an appeal should be excluded in principle and in general, and not only in connection with criticism or other circumstances listed in the law.

There is no doubt that working with citizens’ appeals is a lively and multifaceted activity, during which one has to deal with citizens pursuing different, including morally unscrupulous, interests or suffering from mental disorders. Therefore, it seems quite legitimate that there are a certain number of grounds according to which applications are not subject to consideration. Such grounds are set out in Article 11 of the law in question. Their analysis is very important for assessing the entire administrative and legal mechanism for working with citizens’ appeals.

Thus, Part 2 of Article 11 of the Federal Law stipulates that an appeal in which a court decision is appealed is returned to the citizen within seven days from the date of registration with an explanation of the procedure for appealing this court decision. The wording of this rule does not seem to be very successful due to the fact that citizens, as a rule, do not appeal a court decision, but express dissatisfaction or disagreement with the decision made by the body (official), regarding which the court decided to refuse the citizen to satisfy his demands. Here it seems expedient to change the above article of the Federal Law with a rule according to which, not upon appeal, but simply upon the fact that there is a court decision on the issue specified in the appeal, the citizen is returned an appeal with an explanation of his right to appeal the court decision. This will save time and effort for both the applicant and the party considering the appeal.

In accordance with Article 4 of the Federal Law, a citizen’s appeal is sent to a state body, local government body or official in writing or in the form of an electronic document in the form of a proposal, statement, complaint. A proposal, as a form of written appeal, is considered in the Federal Law as a citizen’s recommendation for improving laws and other regulatory legal acts, the activities of state bodies and local governments, developing public relations, improving socio-economic and other spheres of activity of the state and society. According to Article 10 of the Federal Law, a state body, local government body or official is required to give a written or electronic response to the questions raised in the appeal. However, a citizen’s appeal in the form of a proposal may not contain questions. “If an applicant expresses, for example, his recommendations for improving regulations, then in response, as a rule, one can only indicate that his proposals will be taken into account in the subsequent improvement of legislation, if there are no similar projects or existing legal acts. If the applicant directly indicates that a response is not needed, or his appeal is an “emotional release” and does not contain specific requests or complaints, then the response can be regarded as an “unsubscribe” or, accordingly, “bullying.” In such situations, the formal nature of the obligation to respond to citizens’ proposals can be avoided if Article 11 of the Federal Law provides, as a basis for refusing a response, the citizen’s direct indication that a response is not needed, or the absence of the substance of the appeal in the text (for example, if the appeal consists from a collection of disconnected words, phrases or sentences).

An effective way to establish understanding between a citizen and a state body or local government body, an official, allowing citizens to express their position and seek clarification is a personal reception of citizens. Unfortunately, the Federal Law only establishes the obligation of state bodies and local governments to bring to the attention of citizens information about the place of reception, about the established days and hours of personal reception of managers and authorized persons. As M.V. rightly notes. Golovatskaya, this norm in comparison with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 1968 is significantly impoverished - it does not contain a provision that the reception of citizens should be carried out at a time convenient for them.

The federal legislator should turn to the successful legislative experience of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which made it possible to improve the provisions on the personal reception of citizens. In particular, the Law of the Republic of Bashkortostan “On appeals of citizens in the Republic of Bashkortostan” in Article 8, dedicated to the personal reception of citizens, stipulates that the organization by a state body of the Republic of Bashkortostan, a local government body, an official of the reception of citizens (establishing to a sufficient extent the place, days and hours reception, the number of persons authorized to personally receive citizens) is carried out in such a way that the right of citizens to appeal can be exercised in a timely and full manner. Moreover, the republic provides additional guarantees when carrying out personal reception of citizens, such as the right to priority personal reception, which pregnant women and veterans of the Great Patriotic War have Patriotic War, combat veterans, citizens who took part in eliminating the consequences of accidents at nuclear power plants, as well as those who received or suffered radiation sickness or other diseases as a result of an accident at a nuclear power plant or as a result of nuclear tests, disabled people of groups I and II, parents (persons replacing them ) a disabled child, parents (persons replacing them) who came to a personal appointment with a child under the age of 1.5 years. Supplementing the Federal Law with similar provisions would significantly improve the quality of the law.

The activities of public authorities to consider citizens' appeals and resolve issues contained in their proposals, statements and complaints require careful monitoring. Article 14 of the law in question contains a general rule, according to which state bodies, local self-government bodies and officials, within their competence, exercise control over compliance with the procedure for considering applications, analyze the content of incoming applications, take measures to timely identify and eliminate the causes of violations of rights , freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens. The content of this norm indicates that all control functions in the field of compliance with the procedure for considering citizens' appeals are subject to implementation by the very bodies whose activities are subject to control. This clearly indicates the corrupt nature of the provision of the Federal Law under consideration.

According to Article 31 of the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation”, the Commissioner, based on the results of studying and analyzing information about violations of the rights and freedoms of citizens, summarizing the results of consideration of complaints, has the right to send his comments and suggestions of a general nature related to ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens , improving administrative procedures.

In accordance with Article 26 of the Federal Law “On the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation”, the subject of supervision is the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms by federal ministries, state committees, services, other federal executive bodies, representative (legislative) and executive bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local government bodies, military command and control bodies, control bodies, their officials, as well as management bodies and heads of commercial and non-profit organizations. From the cumulative analysis of this norm and other provisions of Chapter 2 of this law, it follows that prosecutorial supervision in this area does not cover the very scope of consideration of complaints, applications and proposals by the relevant bodies and officials, but is implemented individually, regarding a specific violation of the law.

Thus, in the Russian Federation today there is no special body designed to systematically and purposefully monitor the activities of state bodies, local governments and officials to consider citizens’ appeals. These functions could be assigned to judicial authorities at the federal (in relation to federal and regional government bodies and officials) and regional (in relation to municipal bodies and officials) levels.

Modern practice shows that certain objective factors of the current period of development of public authorities and society have influenced the emergence of new forms and methods of working with citizens’ appeals. And the existing experience of working with citizens’ appeals confirms what has been said. For example, the population of the country today has the opportunity to send an electronic appeal to the President of the Russian Federation. As indicated on his official website #"justify">Other officials followed his example, which made it possible to make the communication between the authorities and the population of the republic completely new in form and content. For example, on the website of the Chelyabinsk City Administration there is an opportunity to send an Internet appeal to the Head of the Chelyabinsk City Administration

The creation of Internet sites, public and Internet receptions, “live” communication in the blogs of the country’s top officials on the Internet indicates serious transformations in the field of working with citizens’ appeals to modern stage development of Russia and its subjects.

We cannot dwell on the issues of improving interaction in the state between citizens and state authorities and local governments, officials, because, as noted by Professor S.A. Avakyan, the content of the right to appeal includes a strong public component - it serves as a means of influencing citizens on the activities of state authorities and local self-government, in many cases also on the institutions of civil society.

Legislative imperfections in this area are perceived most acutely by citizens, since without proper regulation of the institution of circulation, the full implementation and protection of all rights and freedoms of citizens is impossible. In this regard, issues of improving legislation on the procedure for considering citizens' appeals should be a priority.

self-government Chelyabinsk citizen appeal

Chapter 2. Practice of working with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration

.1 Analysis of work with citizens’ appeals in the Administration of the city of Chelyabinsk

The city administration, within its competence, ensures consideration of citizens' appeals in accordance with current legislation, the Charter of the city of Chelyabinsk, and these Regulations.

The organization of work with citizens' appeals, as well as personal reception of citizens at the City Administration, is entrusted to the department of letters and reception of citizens of the Administration of the City Administration (hereinafter referred to as the department of letters and reception of citizens).

Appeals received by the City Administration (in writing and in the form of an electronic document) from citizens are transferred to the department of letters and reception of citizens, where they are processed in the prescribed manner and registered in the electronic database within three days from the date of receipt by the City Administration.

After registration, citizens’ appeals, depending on the address and content of the questions raised in the appeals, are sent in the prescribed manner for consideration to the Head of the City Administration, the First Deputy Head of the City Administration, Deputy Heads of the City Administration, other officials of the City Administration, heads of structural divisions of the apparatus, Administration bodies cities.

The Head of the City Administration, First Deputy Head of the City Administration, Deputy Heads of the City Administration, other officials of the City Administration, heads of structural divisions of the apparatus, bodies of the City Administration, to which the citizens' appeal for consideration has been sent, no later than 3 days forward it with the appropriate resolution to the direct executor to take action and prepare a response to the applicant.

Citizens' appeals are considered within 30 days from the date of their registration.

The period for consideration of an appeal may be extended if the issues raised in it require special study and additional checks, but no more than 30 days with written notification of this to the citizens who applied. The right to extend the period for consideration of an appeal is granted to the Head of the City Administration, the First Deputy Head of the City Administration, Deputy Heads of the City Administration or other officials of the City Administration who are competent to resolve the issues raised in the appeal.

Appeals from citizens sent for consideration from bodies of representative and executive government, local government of the city of Chelyabinsk, and other government bodies are placed under special control by the department of letters and reception of citizens.

Personal reception of citizens by the Head of the City Administration, the First Deputy Head of the City Administration, Deputy Heads of the City Administration, and other authorized officials of the City Administration is carried out on established days of the week according to a schedule approved quarterly by the Head of the City Administration. Information about the reception of citizens is posted in the lobby of the City Administration building, and is also brought to the attention of citizens through the media.

Making an appointment, preliminary interview and organizing personal reception of citizens is provided by:

) to the Head of the City Administration - reference letter of the Head of the City Administration;

) to the First Deputy Head of the City Administration - reference letter of the First Deputy Head of the City Administration;

) to the deputy heads of the city administration, the head of the Department of Social Development - the head of the department of letters and reception of citizens;

) to other officials of the City Administration - authorized employees of the relevant structural divisions of the apparatus, bodies of the City Administration.

Instructions from the heads of the City Administration, given during a personal reception of citizens, are monitored.

Written applications submitted at a personal reception are taken into account and considered on an equal basis with other written requests from citizens. For each citizen’s request received at a personal reception, an electronic registration card is created.

If the questions raised in citizens' appeals are not within the competence of the City Administration, the appeals are sent within seven days from the date of their registration to the relevant body or the relevant official, whose competence includes resolving the issues raised in the appeal, with notification of the citizen who sent the appeal, about forwarding the request.

Appeals received in the form of an electronic document are subject to consideration in the manner established by these Regulations. In the appeal, the citizen must indicate his last name, first name, patronymic (the latter if available), email address if the response must be sent in the form of an electronic document, and postal address if the response must be sent in writing. A citizen has the right to attach to such an appeal necessary documents and materials in electronic form or send the specified documents and materials or copies thereof in writing.

Citizens' appeals are considered fulfilled if all the questions raised in them are considered, resolved, or detailed explanations are given.

Responsibility for the timely and correct resolution of issues raised in citizens' appeals lies with the Deputy Heads of the City Administration and other authorized officials of the City Administration in accordance with their competence.

A written response to the applicants, together with materials for considering citizens’ appeals from the relevant structural unit of the apparatus, body of the City Administration, is transferred to the department of letters and reception of citizens for removal from control.

Documents on the reception and consideration of citizens' appeals are grouped into cases and stored in the department of letters and citizens' reception in accordance with the nomenclature of cases.

The Department of Letters and Reception of Citizens organizes recording and analysis of issues contained in citizens’ appeals, summarizes the results of work with citizens’ appeals and presents relevant information to the heads of the City Administration.

In 2010, the Chelyabinsk City Administration received 14,077 (an increase compared to 2009 - 26.85%) citizens' appeals, including in written form - 12,131 (an increase - 36.92%), at personal receptions - 1,946 (a decrease of 13% ).

The number of requests received from higher authorities increased by 26.37% and amounted to 2818.

Compared to 2009, the total number of repeated requests decreased by 7.35% and amounted to 756. The number of complaints compared to the corresponding period decreased by 21.91%. 65 appeals from city residents gave a positive assessment of the work of the city Administration.

In 2010, considered in violation established deadlines 24 requests, which is 9.09% more than the level of the past year.

As a result of considering citizens' appeals, 15,091 issues were put under control, 10,562 issues were clarified in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, and 2,084 issues were resolved positively.

The largest number of requests per 1 thousand residents by district in the city came from residents of the Central, Sovetsky and Kalininsky districts of the city of Chelyabinsk.

Collective requests amounted to 13.75% of the total number of requests received, which is slightly more than last year (+2.22%). They are mainly aimed at solving issues of housing and communal services, demolition and relocation, construction, landscaping of courtyards, repair of roads, internal driveways, and placement of parking lots.

The topics of appeals to the Head of the City Administration are represented mainly by issues affecting the social and economic situation of the population:

housing and communal services (5457 questions or 34.57% of the total number of questions);

problems of improving living conditions (4405 questions or 27.91%);

healthcare (1155 questions or 7.32%);

social protection and social security (1156 questions or 7.32%);

transport, construction and road repair (1062 questions or 6.73%).

In 2010, there was an increase in requests from citizens related to housing and communal reform, repair and maintenance of housing (by 8.5%).

As part of the implementation of the industry target program "Major repairs of apartment buildings for 2008-2011" in accordance with the Federal Law of July 21, 2007 No. 185-FZ "On the Fund for Assistance to the Reform of Housing and Communal Services" in 2010, major renovation common property at 206 apartment buildings at the expense of budgetary funds and funds of owners in the amount of 330529.0 thousand rubles.

Also in 2010, work was purposefully carried out to improve courtyards, repair and asphalt internal driveways - this is a prompt response to numerous requests from citizens. The number of requests from citizens regarding improvement issues almost tripled compared to the previous year (from 372 in 2009 to 1035 in 2010). Based on requests from citizens, large-scale tree pruning was carried out in the city, and work on lighting urban settlements continued.

Of the total number (4405) of housing issues, 2386 (54.2%) are related to the provision of housing and improvement of living conditions.

When resolving appeals regarding housing problems in 2010:

35 families of public sector workers and 54 young families were provided with social payments for the purchase or construction of housing;

6 participants of the Great Patriotic War were provided with living quarters;

56 citizens registered as needing residential premises were provided with housing under social rental agreements;

As part of the implementation of programs for the resettlement of citizens from dilapidated housing stock, legal acts were adopted recognizing 15 houses as unsafe and subject to demolition; the resettlement area was 6596.6 sq.m., living conditions were improved for 170 families, which is 469 people.

Of the 16 houses declared unsuitable for living, 142 families (439 people) were resettled; citizens were provided with living quarters with an area of ​​7091.43 sq.m.

But, despite the work carried out in this direction by the City Administration, the problem of improving living conditions still remains relevant for Chelyabinsk residents.

For recent years there has been a slight decrease in the number of appeals on issues of social protection and social security (8.9% of the total number of appeals in 2009, 7.3% in 2010). This is due to targeted work on social support population of the city of Chelyabinsk. So in 2010:

targeted financial assistance was provided to 9,268 city citizens for a total amount of 20,151.6 thousand rubles;

daily hot meals were organized for low-income citizens at public catering points;

During the reporting period, 16,673 people received in-kind assistance.

Healthcare issues, including ensuring the availability of medical care and drug supplies, occupy a significant place among the requests. The number of such requests decreased from 1,578 in 2009 to 1,155 in 2010 and amounted to 7.32% of the total number of requests.

Modern equipment is being supplied to the city’s medical institutions; the “Electronic Registration” project is being implemented in clinics, which will significantly reduce queues for specialists. In 2010, a new emergency room was opened in hospital No. 3, and the first health center for children began operating on the basis of children's clinic No. 8, where parents can find out how their child is developing and develop an individual health program.

Active road construction evoked a response from the townspeople. Issues of transport, construction of road junctions, repair and expansion of roads make up 6.73% of the total number of requests. In 2010, at the entrance to the Leninsky district, a new two-level interchange was opened, an alternate to Sverdlovsky Prospekt appeared - a continuation of Tchaikovsky Street, Novomekhanicheskaya Street was completely updated and expanded.

City residents had the opportunity to submit requests for road surface repairs by calling hotlines.

Land use issues were raised in 546 appeals. The largest number of requests are related to privatization and registration of title documents for land plots, collective gardening and market gardening, allocation of land plots.

Trade issues (302 or 1.9%) are mainly related to the protection of consumer rights, disruptions in the functioning of markets and summer cafes.

In 2010, city residents were seriously concerned about the impact of the destruction of ammunition at the Chebarkul test site and aircraft flights from the ChVVAUSH airport.

Despite the fact that 850 additional places in kindergartens were opened in 2010, the number of requests for placement of children in kindergartens has increased. preschool institutions from 38 in 2009 to 136 last year.

There are only a few groups of issues relating to communications and telephony, industry, and individual labor activity.

Various non-office forms of receiving citizens on personal matters and meetings with the population at their place of residence continue. In 2010 the following was carried out:

1946 receptions of citizens by the heads of the city Administration, including the Head of the City Administration - 417 meetings;

1026 visiting receptions of citizens, 2379 meetings with the population at their place of residence.

2.2 Ways to improve the work with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration

Based on the results of an analysis of the work practices of the Chelyabinsk City Administration, the following recommendations can be offered for improving work with citizens’ appeals:

-conduct quarterly inspections of completed requests, with on-site visits;

-hold information days in populated areas of the district;

-develop an effective scheme for monitoring the implementation of requests received during information days;

-conduct reports from heads of organizations, departments, heads of territorial administrations on work with citizens’ appeals at extended staff meetings;

-oblige housing and communal services managers to conduct on-site receptions of the population;

-organize the work of helplines (“direct lines”), as the most popular form of help service for older citizens and the most popular among the population.

-informing the population about opportunities to participate in local government and supporting citizens.

-organization of public receptions at local governments to provide qualified legal assistance to the local population and consultations on issues of local importance, explanations legislative provisions on local self-government, charters of municipalities and other regulatory legal acts affecting the rights of citizens.

In the development of information and analytical work with citizens’ appeals in the Chelyabinsk City Administration, it is important:

analyze incoming written and oral appeals according to chronological intervals, thematic, social and regional aspects;

more actively use analytical materials when preparing decisions, developing proposals for resolving problems of the region, industries and social groups;

regularly inform the population through the media about the practice of working with written and oral appeals from citizens and the results of their consideration;

also regularly reflect in the media the main issues that interest citizens;

Regular informing of the population about the activities of federal ministries and departments on the most important socio-economic issues through Internet sites, various reference and information systems, and the media;

To solve this problem, it is necessary to install an information point in the lobby of the Chelyabinsk City Administration, in which, in order of priority, an employee of the general department of the Administration will be on duty and give advice to the population on issues of interest. Provide the responsible employee with computer equipment and legal reference systems, thanks to which he will have the opportunity to instantly and in more detail explain to anyone who turns to him and give an answer to any question.

Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated July 27, 2010 No. 210-FZ “On the organization of the provision of state and municipal services” establishes requirements for the procedures for the provision of state and municipal services, the performance of state and municipal functions, as well as for the procedure for the interaction of bodies providing state and municipal services services and performing state and municipal functions, with citizens and organizations, including electronically.

This allows you to provide:

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Conclusion

The right to appeal to state bodies and local self-government bodies is an inalienable right of every citizen. Article 33 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation allows citizens of the Russian Federation to apply personally, as well as send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments. In accordance with Art. 2 of the Basic Law, man, his rights and freedoms are the highest value. Recognition, observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is the responsibility of the state.

The legislation on citizens' appeals establishes the obligation of relevant bodies, enterprises, institutions, organizations, and officials to accept citizens' appeals. This responsibility includes obtaining accurate data regarding the factual and legal circumstances of the case, as well as recording the appeals themselves.

The Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation” allows for the realization of human and civil rights and freedoms, however, it does not contain specification and detail of the procedures associated with the consideration of citizens’ appeals of various types (applications, complaints, proposals); a number of its provisions allow for ambiguous interpretation. Objective factors in the development of Russian society and law enforcement practice related to citizens’ appeals allow us to assert the need to further improve the legislation on citizens’ appeals.

The mechanism for considering appeals from organizations and citizens that have a broad public appeal allows us to solve the most important political task of attracting citizens to participate in government governance. This creates conditions for sustainable development of the economy and social sphere, development and strengthening of civil society.

Of great importance is increasing the efficiency and transparency of the dialogue between authorities and the population based on strengthening interaction with public chambers, public councils, industry, regional public organizations that unite citizens by professional, social or other status.

It is also necessary to organize on an ongoing basis a systematic reception of citizens by the heads of federal and territorial authorities.

It is very important to develop the practice of conducting on-site receptions.

In addition, a network of public reception centers should be developed and experienced lawyers, economists, and psychologists should be involved in their activities. It is necessary to involve state legal services to provide free legal assistance to low-income citizens.

It should be noted that especially many complaints are received today at all levels addressed to municipal authorities regarding the provision of state (municipal) services.

In the Chelyabinsk region, work with citizens' appeals is regulated by the following legal acts: Decree of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region dated October 25, 1997 No. 67-p “On the nature of citizens' appeals to the regional administration”, Decree of the Governor of the Region dated 04/08/98 No. 200 “ On measures to protect the constitutional rights of citizens, restore order in the work with citizens’ appeals and the interaction of managers with labor collectives.”

In this regard, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated July 27, 2010 No. 210-FZ “On the organization of the provision of state and municipal services” was adopted, which establishes requirements for the procedures for the provision of state and municipal services, the performance of state and municipal functions, as well as the procedure for interaction between bodies providing state and municipal services and performing state and municipal functions with citizens and organizations, including in electronic form.

This allows you to provide:

-reducing the costs for citizens and organizations to overcome administrative barriers and interact with authorities;

-improving the quality and efficiency of execution of decisions;

-increasing the level of satisfaction of citizens and organizations with the quality and accessibility of state and municipal services;

-uniform legal regulation of actions and procedures for the performance of state (municipal) functions, procedures for the internal activities of government bodies and their interaction with each other;

-optimization of performance indicators of the state (municipal) function, including in the interests of citizens and organizations, the implementation of whose rights and obligations is ensured by the execution of the state (municipal) function;

-availability for citizens and organizations of information about the procedure and progress of the execution of state (municipal) functions at each stage;

-control over the execution of state (municipal) functions.

List of sources and literature used

Regulatory acts

1.Constitution of the Russian Federation. Adopted by popular vote on December 12, 1993 (taking into account additions from December 30, 2008) // Russian newspaper. 1993. December 25; 2009. January 21.

2.Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses: Federal Law of December 30, 2001 No. 195 - Federal Law, M., 2010.

.On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation: Federal Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ // Collection of legislation of the Russian Federation. 2006. No. 19. Art. 2060.

.On measures to protect the constitutional rights of citizens, establish order in the work with citizens’ appeals and the interaction of managers with work collectives: Resolution of the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region dated 04/08/1998 No. 200, Ch., 2010.

.On the nature of citizens' appeals to the regional administration: Decree of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region dated October 25, 1997 No. 67 - p, Ch., 2010.

.On the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation: Federal Law of February 26, 1997 No. 1 - FKZ. M. 2010.

.On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation: Federal Law of January 17, 1992 No. 2202 - 1, M, 2010.

Literature

8.Avakyan S.A. Constitutional law of Russia: training course. In 2 volumes. T. 1. M.: Yurist, 2005.

9.Borodin I.A. On the right of citizens to appeal in defense of their rights and freedoms // Military Legal Journal. 2007. No. 8

.Golovatskaya M.V. On the issue of the procedure for considering citizens' appeals // Lawyer. 2007. No. 5.

.Dvorak A.A. Implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to appeal in the Russian Federation: Dis. ...cand. legal Sci. M., 2004.

.Zhenetl S.Z. Theoretical analysis of the main provisions of the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” // Administrative Law. 2008. No. 4.

.Kobzarev F. Appeals from citizens: short stories legal regulation// Legality. 2007. No. 7.

.Kravchenko V.V. The right of citizens of the Russian Federation to appeal (legal regulation and implementation practice) // State power and local self-government. 2010. No. 4.

.Pikalova E.F. Issues of improving legislation on citizens' appeals//Legislative Research. 2010. No. 6.

.Potyarkin D.E. Some problems of legal regulation of consideration of citizens' appeals // Taxes. 2009. No. 15.

.Smushkin A.B. Comment to Federal law dated May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation.” M., 2006.

Similar works to - Practice and problems of organizing work with citizens' appeals in the Administration of Chelyabinsk

ANNOTATION

The article examines the functioning of the system for handling appeals in state and municipal authorities using the example of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science. An analysis is carried out of the problems of working with appeals in government bodies and the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of the appeals system. Based on the research, ways to improve the circulation system in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science are proposed.

Key words: citizens, Department of Smolensk Region for Education and Science, feedback, citizens' appeals, system of appeals, improving work with citizens' appeals, management.

A huge number of scientific works have been written to study issues of improving the quality of work with people’s requests. These works raise issues of research into forms of protecting people's rights, types of people's appeals to government agencies and local administrative bodies. Directions for improving work with people's appeals are being explored, but the issue of improving appeal procedures has not been sufficiently studied.

The Institute of Citizens' Appeals contains principles that reflect the main specifics of its work. One of the principles of the institute is the principle of an impartial, complete and meaningful study of the situation in respect of which an appeal has been received from a citizen. As follows, this principle entails the main responsibilities of public authorities when considering appeals from citizens:

• understand the essence of the appeal for review;
• answer all questions asked;
• request the necessary documents;
• Conduct on-site inspections to seek clarification from appropriate individuals;
• involve eyewitnesses, professionals, and translators in the production.

To fully study people’s appeals, government agencies can make decisions, one of which is to carry out verification activities necessary to monitor control, check the implementation of decisions made, study and summarize people’s appeals. Thus, we come to the conclusion that control is necessary to eliminate the causes and conditions that give rise to citizens’ appeals, as well as to ensure the rule of law and state discipline.

At the stage of control of government agencies within their own competence:

• control the implementation of the procedure for studying appeals;
• analyze the content of received requests;
• take constructive measures in a timely manner to establish and eliminate the circumstances of violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of residents.

Control is a more fundamental type of feedback, with the help of which government agencies receive data on the real state of affairs, the implementation of decisions made, it is used to strengthen executive discipline, evaluate work and prevent negative actions.

People's appeals to government agencies are one of the important components of any developed democratic country. The relevance of scientific and theoretical research into the institution of people's appeals at the current time is obvious.

For example, the Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” defines appeals from citizens.

A citizen's appeal is a written proposal, statement or complaint that is sent to a municipal body, local government body or official, or an oral appeal of a citizen to a municipal body, local government body.

The law establishes three main types of appeals: proposals, appeals and complaints.

The most common type of communication is complaints.

The new national law describes a complaint as a citizen’s request for restoration or protection of his own violated rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of other persons.

A complaint arises in legal relations that arise as a result of violation of the rights and legitimate interests of a citizen, which were established and enshrined in regulations regulating the rights and personal interests of people. The purpose of the complaint is to protect and restore rights.

The proposals are described in the law as a citizen’s recommendation to improve laws and other legislative acts, the work of municipal bodies and local administrative bodies, the development of public relations, and the improvement of social, financial and other areas of management.

The proposal is one of the important forms of realizing the right of people to participate in governing the country.

A statement is defined in Law No. 59-FZ as a citizen’s request for support in the exercise of his constitutional rights and freedoms or a report of violations of laws, shortcomings in the work of municipal bodies, local administrative bodies and civil servants.

Thus, citizens’ appeals in the totality of the legal norms regulating them represent a complex and quite ramified institution. For many years it has been functioning and serving as an effective means of democratizing society, forming rule of law, a broad channel for citizen participation in managing the affairs of society and the state.

As part of this work, the analysis will be carried out using materials from the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science.

In accordance with the current regulations, when considering people's appeals, the executive bodies of state power of the Smolensk region and local administrative bodies of urban formations of the Smolensk region must constantly summarize people's appeals in order to study the opinion of the population and improve own work, identify more serious problems in time.

Therefore, one of the important directions of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science is maintaining statistics and studying the content of citizens’ appeals on issues of education and science.

The main task of the Department is to implement or protect the rights of citizens in the field of science and education, generalize and draw “average” questions on these appeals. Residents are interested in having their requests considered as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that violations are eliminated as thoroughly as possible. The authorities themselves are most interested in analytical work on appeals. In this work, “feedback” appears. Addressing citizens, representatives of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science will find out about the needs and difficulties of residents in the field of science and education. At the same time, studying and summarizing the issues that were raised in people’s appeals is one of the forms of the people’s embodiment of democracy and an additional guarantee of the protection of people’s rights.

Firstly, by raising certain difficulties and problems in appeals, proposing ways to solve them, pointing out violations, residents have the opportunity to influence the decisions made by the Department. Naturally, the authorities cannot take into account the appeals of everyone, but huge amount complaints on the same problem may lead to the fact that it will shape the Department's actions to correct this deficiency.

Secondly, residents, by filing complaints and trying to protect themselves from violations own rights, immediately contribute to eliminating the causes of these violations so that they do not recur in the future.

If a complaint is received from one citizen, it means there is a single violation; if many similar complaints are received, it means there is a serious problem in the area. Thus, statistical and analytical work on citizens’ appeals is of great importance.

Let's consider the dynamics of receiving requests from people to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science. In 2017, the head of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science received 3,233 written (including electronic) and oral requests, and in 2016 - 3,806 units, which is 15% less than in 2017. From this percentage, we see that in comparison with the previous year 2016, the total number of people’s requests to the Department has decreased significantly.

Studying the dynamics of receiving requests during 2017, we concluded that the total number of calls in the second half of the year increased by 4% compared to the first half of 2017, the largest number of calls to the Smolensk Regional Department of Education and Science in 2017 was during the periods from April to May and from November to December, these dynamics are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Reception of people’s requests during 2017 to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science

From this graph we see that the total number of people’s requests to the Smolensk Regional Department of Education and Science has decreased significantly compared to the previous year 2016.

The increase in productivity in studying people’s appeals was ensured, first of all, by tightening operational control over the timing of the execution of orders, strengthening organizational principles, increasing the personal responsibility of performers and the active role of managers in monitoring the results.

In total, when considering applications to the Smolensk Regional Department of Education and Science, managers formulated 3,397 instructions to the relevant executors. 1,487 orders were taken under control of execution by the authorities. In oral requests, 83 instructions were monitored, which were completed on time. There are no unfulfilled orders based on oral appeals from citizens.

Over the 12 months of 2017, citizens most often addressed the following topics:

• issues of preschool, primary and general education(providing a place in preschool educational institution(preschool educational institution), transfer of a child from one preschool educational institution to another, conflict situations in educational organizations);
• on the provision of living quarters to orphans and children left without parental care;
• renovation of educational institutions;

Analysis of the subject of appeals and territoriality The largest number of appeals came from citizens living in Smolensk (164), Safonovsky district (40), Smolensky district (34), Yartsevo district (31), Vyazemsky (15), Gagarinsky (25), Roslavl (23).

A study of work with citizens’ appeals demonstrated that in 2017, organizational, control and analytical activities were activated in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science for the following positions:

• protection of rights, freedoms, legitimate interests of man and citizen, strengthening of the legal order in matters of science and education;
• the obligation to investigate people’s appeals, regardless of their gender, age, nationality, membership in social groups and public associations;
• timeliness and objectivity of studying people's requests.

The study of the subject and nature of people’s appeals can serve as an indicator of civic activity, the dynamics of social and financial actions, and is studied as one of the principal channels of feedback from residents to executive bodies of state power on issues of education and science.

Continuing to talk about the quality of work with citizens’ appeals, it is necessary to consider and comprehensively study the reasons that influence the repetition of people’s appeals to the Department.

Directions of work in the Department of Smolensk Region for Education and Science on these issues:

1. Improving the organization of work with written and oral requests:

• we need to find ways to increase the productivity of working with people’s appeals, eliminating the circumstances of reasoned complaints, repeated appeals;
• at operational meetings, consider the status of work with people’s requests, sum up the results of the annual work;
• conduct a study of the practices of executive bodies of state power and municipalities;
• expand the practice of combining planned trips of employees taking into account requests from people on the ground, as well as checking the quality of this work in the territorial departments of education and science of the Smolensk region.

2. Strengthen control over the results of the work of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science with statements from people:

• it is necessary to pay special attention to the quality of studying the requests of people who come to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science;
• identify shortcomings in working with letters and in organizing personal receptions of people;
• in cases where the applicants’ demands are not based on current legislation, they are provided with detailed explanations of the incorrectness or illegality of such requests;
• extension of deadlines and removal from control of citizens' appeals sent with control from higher authorities - only in agreement with the Department.

3. Development of information and analytical work of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science:

• consider incoming written and oral appeals at chronological intervals, aimed at specific topics on issues of education and science;
• intensively use analytical materials in preparing decisions;
• provide information to the population through the media about the practice of working with written and oral appeals from people and the results of their study.

4. Improvement of material equipment:

• intensively carry out automatic processing of data on letters and personal receptions of people based on standard software;
• solve issues of improving the work criteria of personnel who are involved in considering people’s requests and providing personal reception of citizens, taking into account the enormous mental stress and work on the computer.

As the practice of the Department of Education and Science of the Smolensk Region indicates, repeated requests most often are:

• requests to review the answer to a question asked;
• the answer was given, but written in “bureaucratic language”; the applicant did not understand what was written to him;
• a reasonable answer is given, but citizens are still not satisfied with it, they turn to higher authorities.

Studying the prerequisites for receiving repeated requests from people to the Department of Education and Science of the Smolensk Region, it was concluded that their growth, as before, is facilitated by the fact of collecting incomplete answers about the measures taken in statements about the lack of full explanation. Often, responses to people’s requests are limited to formal notices.

When working with citizens' appeals to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science, difficulties often arise. Let's look at issues that are not regulated by law. Fixing the mandatory characteristics and details of requests is necessary in order to distinguish requests from other types of messages and simplify the procedure for considering requests. The law defines appeal through its types; however, it is obvious that any message received by the Department cannot be considered an appeal.

Studying the difficulties that arise when working with citizens in the Department of Education and Science of the Smolensk Region, we come to the conclusion that it is necessary to clearly distinguish appeals from other messages, congratulations, thanks, and consolidate this at the legislative level to eliminate ambiguity in the future. Also introduce a separate type of crime reports (alarm messages) and allow anonymity for them. It is necessary to set different minimum signatures for petitions of different contents. To regulate in detail and clearly all forms of liability for violations in the consideration of appeals, to combine disciplinary, administrative, and civil liability. It is necessary to develop clear criteria for “control”, uniform for all government bodies. It is necessary to improve the thematic classifier of citizens' appeals and create a unified database of citizens' appeals. It is necessary to improve statistical and analytical work on citizens’ appeals, develop uniform forms of reports and analytical notes, and open for wide access analytical reviews, annual and quarterly reports on work with citizens’ appeals.

Naturally, these proposals do not exhaust the entire wide range of issues that arise when working with citizens in the Department. Taking into account the difficulties and problems of the Department’s work that arise when considering people’s appeals, we can conclude that control is a more fundamental type of feedback, with the help of which government agencies receive data on the real state of affairs and the implementation of decisions made.

It is used to increase the productivity of discipline, evaluate work, and prevent negative actions. The Department needs to create a commission to carry out planned and unplanned verification activities to ensure the completeness and quality of studying people’s requests.

It is proposed to create a project that was aimed at improving the procedures for studying people’s requests “Model regulations on conducting scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the completeness and quality of consideration of citizens’ requests.”

According to experts, “feedback” from residents can be considered successful; with the help of existing methods of cooperation between residents and officials, some problems of the productivity of executive bodies are solved and trust in them grows.

Residents have the right to take part in the work of local administrative bodies, interact with government leadership, understand local difficulties and tasks of city government, which helps solve problems of increasing the quality of municipal management and increases cooperation with government agencies.

To increase the productivity of government structures and their accountability, feedback from residents is needed, an important part of which is people turning to the leadership of the Smolensk Regional Department of Education and Science. Appeals usually play a major role in the management process, due to the fact that they are used for dialogues with residents, control over the work of the state apparatus and local self-government, as well as the implementation of legitimate civil rights residents.

To effectively work with people’s appeals in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science, the following conditions must be met:

• creating good criteria for citizens to protect their own rights and freedoms in matters of education and science;
• strengthening public relations;
• management and control over the implementation of programs to increase the productivity of municipal government in matters of education and science;
• increasing the quality and expanding the list of information services provided to citizens;
• limiting intermediation, in other words ensuring direct communication with the Department.

Regulating and streamlining the mechanisms for studying appeals in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science is the most important right of the authorities at the corresponding level.

To optimize the system of working with people’s appeals in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science, the following measures need to be taken:

The Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science, as part of its own work, must:

• conduct a full study of the circumstances of the increase in the number of people's requests in the surveillance mode;
• it is necessary to strengthen control over the consideration of written and oral appeals from people and the implementation of administrative discipline;
• expanding the possibilities for organizing on-site receptions of citizens by representatives of all levels of government and video recording of these actions;
• constant coverage in the media of burning topics about people's appeals.

Based on this, it is proposed to consider a project that will improve the quality of studying people’s appeals to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science.

The goal of the project: to increase the level of completeness and quality of studying people’s requests to the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science.

Project objectives:

• create a commission to carry out planned and unplanned verification activities in order to determine the completeness and quality of the study of people’s appeals;
• prepare an order of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science “On approval of the Standard Regulations for conducting scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the completeness and quality of consideration of citizens’ appeals.”

The following commission functions must be included in the specified application:

• analytical function (also informational), which relates to the study of reporting: organization and holding of conferences, seminars, professional consultations in the framework of studying the completeness and quality of people’s requests;
• corrective function: make decisions on the implementation of corrective actions when considering people’s requests.

Table 1 presents the main directions within the framework of the project to improve the work with citizens’ appeals in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science.

Table 1.

Events forimplementation of a project to improve work with citizens' appeals in the DepartmentSmolensk region for education and science

Thus, it can be summarized that appeals are an essential part of the implementation of the principles of democracy. With their help, residents protect their interests and express indignation at existing difficulties and problems. At the same time, appeal is a means of protecting people’s rights and a form of constitutional role in governing the country and local self-government.

At the present stage, the appeal system is undergoing a process of high-quality changes in accordance with changes in the functions of municipal and city government.

To increase the productivity of work with citizens in the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science, it is necessary to work out in detail the mechanism of the system of appeals and monitoring their implementation. This can ensure productivity and stability of the Department in the near future.

References:

1. Federal Law of May 2, 2006 N 59-FZ (as amended on November 27, 2017) “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” // Legal reference system Consultant+ [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: URL: http://www.consultant.ru (access date 12/10/2018)
2. Official website of the Smolensk Region Department of Education and Science [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://edu67.ru/(access date 12/10/2018)
3. Pyasetskaya E.N., Samokhvalova T.V. Feedback in the model of public participation of citizens // Russian science and education today: problems and prospects. – 2015. – No. 2 (5). – pp. 105-107.
4. Savoskin A.V. Is it permissible to recognize the consideration of citizens’ appeals as a type of state (municipal) services? //Administrative and municipal law. – 2014. – No. 6. – P. 574-579.
5. Churilina E.N. Features of the system of working with citizens’ appeals at the municipal level // Humanitarian scientific research. 2015. No. 10 [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: http://human.snauka.ru/2015/10/12903 (access date: 12/10/2018).

Chapter 1. Theoretical and legal framework consideration of citizens' appeals.

1. Appeals from citizens, types of appeals and the procedure for their consideration.

One of the important elements of the administrative and legal status of citizens is their constitutional right to apply personally, as well as to send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments (Article 33 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). Appeals from citizens in the totality of legal norms regulating them represent a complex and quite ramified institution administrative law. Of course, this legal institution needs modernization, improvement of the mechanism for implementing appeals, taking into account new realities, but nevertheless, over the course of many years it has developed, functions and serves as an effective means of democratizing society, forming a rule-of-law state, a wide channel for the participation of citizens in managing the affairs of society and states.

Citizens' appeals can be of three types. A proposal is an appeal from citizens to state or public organizations that are not associated with the violation of any subjective rights or infringement of the legitimate interests of citizens; they are usually aimed at improving the work of state authorities, local governments, their officials, and civil servants. An application is an application for satisfaction of certain rights and legitimate interests of citizens not related to their violation, or a report of abuses, violations of the law and other violations that do not directly affect the rights and interests of the applicant. A complaint is an oral or written, individual or collective appeal of citizens to state bodies, local government bodies, non-governmental organizations, to officials in connection with a violation of the rights or legitimate interests of the citizen himself, other persons or public interests.

The right to appeal is an absolute, unlimited and inalienable right of a citizen. Every capable person can contact any state or non-state organization, any official, on any occasion that is significant to him and at any time. Corresponding to this right of citizens is the obligation of state bodies, local self-government bodies and their officials to receive citizens, accept appeals, register them, consider these appeals and give timely responses to them. Thus, in accordance with the Federal Law “On the Civil Service System of the Russian Federation” dated May 27, 2003, the main responsibilities of civil servants include the obligation, within their competence, to promptly consider appeals from citizens and public associations, as well as organizations, state bodies and local governments and make decisions on them in the manner established by federal laws and laws of the constituent entities of the Federation.

In order to improve the work with citizens' appeals, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, a special Department was created within the structure of the Presidential Administration for working with citizens' appeals. In the Regulations on it, the main functions of the Office include centralized recording of written and oral requests from citizens of the Russian Federation, citizens of the CIS, foreign citizens and stateless persons addressed to the President, to the Government and the Presidential Administration; ensuring consideration of citizens' appeals addressed to the President, the Government and the Presidential Administration; informing the President, the Government and the head of the Presidential Administration about the number and content of citizens’ appeals and the measures taken on them.

The tasks of the Directorate are very extensive: this is organizational and methodological interaction with divisions of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Office of the Government of the Russian Federation, federal government bodies, government bodies of the constituent entities of the Federation on the consideration of citizens' appeals; timely consideration of received written and oral appeals from citizens, as well as sending them for consideration to the relevant state bodies and local governments on issues of their competence; notifying citizens about the results of consideration of their proposals, applications and complaints by the Department; reception of citizens by employees of the Office in the reception area of ​​the Administration of the President and the Government, as well as by the heads of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, ministers of the Government of the Russian Federation and other civil servants; exercising control over the timely and complete consideration of citizens' appeals sent to federal government bodies and government bodies of the constituent entities of the Federation; analysis and generalization of questions raised by citizens in letters and at personal receptions, and on the basis of this prompt and periodic informing the President about the nature of citizens’ appeals; preparation, based on analysis and summarization of citizens’ appeals, of proposals to eliminate the causes that give rise to justified complaints, and some other tasks.

Thus, in the past year, the President received hundreds of thousands of appeals from domestic and foreign authors, and every tenth of them is collective, often with hundreds and thousands of signatures (resolutions of rallies, meetings). Thus, we can talk about millions of citizens who have shown the desire or need to turn to the head of state with their concerns and judgments about events in the life of the country. All these appeals were registered, considered by competent persons and received one or another permission. A significant number of citizens were received by the Office at a personal reception. Work with requests received via the Internet is undergoing significant development. Many federal executive authorities and regions of the country have received this opportunity to work with citizens’ appeals.

Structural divisions similar to the Office of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation for working with citizens’ appeals are also available in federal bodies and government bodies of the constituent entities of the Federation. For example, by order of the FSB of Russia, the Instruction on the procedure for considering proposals, applications, complaints and organizing the reception of citizens in the FSB bodies was approved, which, in particular, defines the forms for recording proposals, applications and complaints, monitoring the progress and timing of the execution of each appeal, and organizing the reception of citizens. Similar legal acts are in force in other federal executive authorities.

The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On measures to strengthen discipline in the public service system” dated June 6, 1996 serves to increase the effectiveness of appeals as a way to protect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens. The Decree provides for a special procedure for considering messages published in the media. Heads of federal executive bodies and heads of executive power of constituent entities of the Federation are obliged to consider reports of violations committed by officials subordinate to them and other public servants, federal laws and decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, non-execution or improper execution of these acts and court decisions that have entered into legal force - not later than three days. The response to the editors must follow no later than two weeks from the date of publication of messages in the media. In federal executive bodies, copies of decisions on these messages must be sent to the Control Directorate of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.

Federal Law No. 59-FZ dated May 2, 2006 “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” defines the following types of appeals:

1. Proposal - a citizen’s recommendation for improving laws and other regulatory legal acts, the activities of state bodies and local governments, developing public relations, improving socio-economic and other areas of activity of the state and society.

2. Application - a citizen’s request for assistance in the implementation of his constitutional rights and freedoms or the constitutional rights and freedoms of other persons, or a message about violations of laws and other regulatory legal acts, shortcomings in the work of state bodies, local governments and officials, or criticism of the activities specified bodies and officials.

3. Complaint - a citizen’s request for restoration or protection of his violated rights, freedoms or legitimate interests or the rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of other persons.

Federal Law NQ 131.ФЗ specifies that local government officials are required to give a written response on the merits of citizens' appeals to local government bodies within one month. The procedure and terms for consideration of citizens' appeals to local government bodies are established by the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the regulatory legal acts of representative bodies of municipalities adopted in accordance with them. For violation by a local government official of the procedure and deadline for a written response to citizens' appeals, the law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation establishes administrative liability.

1. The role and significance of the work of state and local authorities with citizens’ appeals in the life of society

Citizens' appeals to state-legal, administrative and other bodies constitute a necessary condition for them to exercise their rights, and a rule-of-law state, such as ours, must guarantee them. I will refer to the corresponding article of the Basic Law of the Russian Federation guaranteeing their implementation: “Citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to apply personally, as well as send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments.”

They - these appeals - are an important tool for the interaction of citizens with their state and form an extremely wide range of social relations. Through these appeals, citizens and their associations use the mechanisms and powers of government bodies to solve their life problems. Securing the rights of citizens to appeal guarantees the legal provision of this form of interaction between citizens and their state. But the effectiveness of this interaction does not occur automatically. It presupposes knowledge and consideration by both parties of a whole complex of prerequisites, possession of them, legal regulations related to this area of ​​social relations, knowledge about the structure of the state administrative apparatus, the functions of its individual bodies, institutions and structures, as well as the scope of their competence. Of course, citizens themselves or their teams and associations must fully understand their role and responsibility that arise in the process of relationships based on appeals. That is, again we are faced with the classic questions of our life: responsibility, competence, efficiency, combination of rights and obligations, that is, with everything that characterizes the legal culture of citizens. If we take into account that citizens’ appeals are a constantly and very dynamically developing area of ​​civil relations, then the importance of covering its various aspects by specialists and practitioners becomes clear. This is exactly what we have in the person of the employees of the Analytical Department of the Federation Council Staff, who have prepared the next issue of the analytical newsletter dedicated to this topic.

The Federation Council at one time considered it necessary to create a special body of the Chamber that would focus on issues of legislative support for the development of civil society, monitor the activities of its institutions in this area and strengthen civil relations, protect civil initiatives in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. This aspect of the activities of the Federation Council is its exclusive and unique prerogative. The said Commission was formed by a decision of the Federation Council on January 30, 2008. Its jurisdiction includes, in particular, issues of legislative support for the interaction of civil society institutions with state authorities and local governments; participation of civil society institutions in the legislative process; relations between the state and citizens; civil initiatives; participation of citizens and public associations in the implementation of state policy in all spheres of public life. The formulation and effective solution of these problems is directly related to the improvement of work with appeals from citizens, public associations, and other civil society structures to all state administrative authorities, central and local government bodies.

The significance of citizens' appeals for state authorities and local self-government is multifaceted. This is both a clear indicator of public sentiment, evidence of the most pressing problems, and an indicator of trust in the authorities. At the same time, citizens’ appeals are a valuable source of analytical information that allows one to clarify the priorities of legislative activity, use new approaches and creative ideas to find solutions to the most pressing socio-economic problems.

1. Formation and functioning of the institution of citizens' appeals to state and local authorities

Identifying the channels of influence of citizens on the authorities in the context of the transformation of the Russian political system and determining whether it is possible to use them for its democratization and modernization without creating serious threats to social stability is an exceptional task. This is especially important because only in the process of real participation in decision-making, trying to influence the actions of the authorities to promote their own interests, albeit far from politics, can citizens, one might say, learn democracy. According to E. G. Yasin, democracy is “a set of institutions that allow different social strata, political parties and ideological movements to defend their interests, implement their ideas and achieve power in an open public political struggle.” Such experience of civic participation allows citizens to develop democratic value orientations and activity skills that contribute to sociocultural modernization and the realization of their rights and interests. One of these channels is the institution of citizens’ appeals to authorities. Obviously, if there were no appeals from citizens, it would be more difficult for the state apparatus to collect information about the problems of the population, and, therefore, more difficult to monitor changes in the situation and respond promptly to them. This factor is invariably noted by specialists in public administration: “The state considers citizens’ appeals as an important means of realizing their constitutional right to reveal shortcomings in the activities of the state apparatus and individual organizations, make proposals to improve their work, take part in the restoration of violated rights and freedoms, as well as in ensuring social justice.” However, such a point of view seems incomplete. The institution of citizen appeals contains much greater opportunities. In modern conditions, in a democratic state (or striving to become one), they can become not only a means of human rights protection, but also a form of realization of the rights of citizens to participate in the management of state affairs, introduced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined, among other things, by the Russian Constitution.

Job description

One of the important elements of the administrative and legal status of citizens is their constitutional right to apply personally, as well as to send individual and collective appeals to state bodies and local governments (Article 33 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). Appeals from citizens in the totality of the legal norms regulating them represent a complex and fairly ramified institution of administrative law. Of course, this legal institution needs modernization, improvement of the mechanism for implementing appeals, taking into account new realities, but nevertheless, over the course of many years it has developed, functions and serves as an effective means of democratizing society, forming a rule-of-law state, a wide channel for the participation of citizens in managing the affairs of society and states.