OREANDA-NEWS. April 11, 2012. Dmitry Medvedev approved a list of instructions issued following a March 22 meeting of the working group to draft proposals for developing the Open Government system, devoted to countering corruption.

The Government has been instructed to publish a register of state-owned enterprises, state corporations, and business associations in which the state has a stake, and provide the justification for keeping these organisations or stakes in state ownership.

The Government and the working group on developing the Open Government system have been instructed to organise public discussion on the necessity of retaining state ownership of or state stakes in business organisations of economic importance, and, based on this discussions’ conclusions, draft a list of the organisations that should remain under state ownership.

The relevant instructions have also been given to the regional governors.

An instruction has been issued to present proposals on introducing a ban on holding federal, regional, municipal state office or heading state corporations and organisations under state control for persons convicted of corruption-related crimes.

The Government, together with the working group on developing the Open Government system, have been instructed to draft a list of the most important state services for the public and for business and organise public discussion on ways to improve these services’ provision; examine the possibility of establishing additional anti-corruption institutions, primarily to combat corruption in the higher levels of power, and develop the mechanisms for public oversight of their work; examine the expediency of setting up a special board in general jurisdiction courts to try corruption cases; present proposals on procedures for making information on corruption cases in the courts and their verdicts openly available on the Internet and establishing a common information resource for this purpose. 

The instructions also concern internal audit in the biggest public companies and state-owned corporations; procedures for publishing on a common Internet portal information on tenders held by companies and business organisations in which the state is the majority shareholder, and other aspects of the fight against corruption.