Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations is at the top of the openness rating of federal executive bodies in 2016. Ministry of Housing and Building and Federal Road Agency are at the end of the list.

MOSCOW, December 6, 2016.  Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) in cooperation with the Open Government presents the annual openness ranking of the federal executive bodies. The rating reflects the quality of the implementation of the Concept of Openness for the federal executive bodies approved by the Russian Government decree dated January 30, 2014[1].

The second openness ranking designed in 2016 involved 38 federal executive bodies.

The 2016 integrated openness ranking is based on the assessments of four reference groups (population, frontline workers, business representatives, experts) regarding the level of awareness about the federal executive bodies’ activity (mass media coverage, accessibility, transparency and trust in information); interactions with the reference groups (interaction of federal executive bodies with the Public Council and the population); the performance of the federal executive bodies and the level of corruption in the public sector.

The Ministry for Civil Defense, Emergency Management and Natural Disasters Response is at the top of the ranking: the value of the integrated index* is 58.7 p.; this is followed by the Ministry of Defense (57.5 p.) and the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (53.7 p.).

The study shows that the least “transparent” bodies are Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being (46.2 p.), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (45.9 p.), Federal Service on Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development of Russian Federation (45.8 p.), Ministry of Transportation (45.3 p.), Federal Bailiff Service (45.0 p.), Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs (44.8 p.), Ministry of Agriculture (43.9 p.), Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East (43.5 p.), Federal Road Agency (42.9 p. ), and Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities (42.9 p. ).

Top ten agencies that improved positions in this year ranking involve Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (+18), Ministry of Culture (+18), Federal Agency for Fishery (+17), Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation (+13), Ministry of Health (+11), Ministry of Energy (+10), Ministry of Industry and Trade (+10), Ministry of Education and Science (+8), Ministry of Justice (+7), and Ministry of Internal Affairs (+6).

Positions of certain agencies have deteriorated; they are as follows: Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (-19), Russian Ministry of Sport (-18), Federal Service for the Supervision of Public Health and Social Development (-18), Ministry of Economic Development (-17), Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East  (-12), Ministry of Labor  (-10), Federal Accreditation Agency (-10), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (-10), Ministry of Finance (-9), and Federal  Antimonopoly Service (-9).

* Integrated index of openness of the federal executive bodies is based on the data of public opinion surveys among population, frontline workers (regional and municipal workers, heads of non-governmental organizations), business community representatives (heads of enterprises and organizations) and experts. Only informative answers are taken into account to calculate the mean; the equal weighting principle where 100 is assigned to the highest value and 0 to the lowest value is used. The calculation of indices is made for groups able to assess the assessment topic being analyzed. To build the integrated index the weighted coefficients set by experts are used. 

The VCIOM study was conducted during July - September 2016 and had several stages: (1) 27 Russian national surveys each involving 1200 respondents (1 survey in each federal executive body) were conducted using stratified dual-frame random sample based on a complete list of telephone numbers operating in Russia; the margin of error does not exceed 3.9%; (2) survey among executive bodies’ workers  (regional and municipal employees, heads of non-governmental organizations) (5700 persons); (3) survey among business community representatives (heads of enterprises and organizations) (5700 persons); (4)  expert interviews (9367 persons).

* For the Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs, residents of the North Caucasus Federal District were surveyed; for the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, residents of Far Eastern Federal District of Russia were surveyed; For the Federal Road Agency, the survey involved car owners; for the Ministry of Agriculture – agricultural population; for the Ministry of Education and Science – students and their parents .

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