Russia needs to launch a Delivery Unit for reforms’ management: Boris Titov

MOSCOW, Sep 3, 2020, Pan Pacific Agency. Russia needs to create a system of reforms’ management on the model of Western countries, Boris Titov, the Presidential commissioner for the rights of business people, said during the III Stolypin-Forum “The Immune System of the World Economy” in Moscow.

“There is more than enough money in the country for this goal (reforms in the economy). There are few heads, few minds. We don’t have the main thing – a reform management center. This mechanism, the Delivery Unit, was invented in the UK and then successfully applied in all countries that have developed their economies quickly and efficiently, such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, India,” he said.

“The bottom line here is to separate the management of reforms, or development, from the management of the on-going economy issues. When you have a headache on half of the sewerage system doesn’t work nationwide, you can no longer think about space exploration,” Mr. Titov explained. He cited Kazakhstan as an example, where a few days ago the president announced the re-establishment of an analogue of the Delivery Unit – the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms. “You cannot change the whole management at once. We have failed one administrative reform because it is useless to fight against officials. We need landing forces. If we create such a body of power, we will have a more effective state administration,” Boris Titov added.

A centralized implementation function was pioneered in American cities and states as local system, as well as by Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair in 2001 as the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. In fact, Delivery Units have been subsequently created in Thailand, Malaysia, India, etc.

For example, in Malaysia, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit, better known by its acronym PEMANDU, or “the driver” in Malaysian, was launched in 2009 with the assistance of McKinsey consultants, after disappointing electoral results, PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resigned, and his deputy, Najib Razak, was sworn in.

In India, the Delivery Monitoring Unit has been set up in the PM’s office for review of the flagship projects of the India’s govt with task to ensure time-bound and effective delivery of identified programs by ministries assigned the responsibility. Now it improves delivery of 20 key government initiatives.

In Russia, German Gref, Sberbank’s CEO, first proposed to President Vladimir Putin to launch a Delivery Unit. This idea was voiced by him at the meeting of Mr. Putin with senior economic officials, back in 2015.

Russian version of this article is available here.