Ms. Svetlana Orlova, Member of the Board, SAI Russia, attended the 2023 All-Russian Forum of Control Authorities held on September 28–29 in Saint Petersburg.

The Forum is a key platform for discussing the target vision as well as the promising strategic trends of the control (supervision) domain development. Over 800 representatives from 84 Russian regions participated in the Forum this year. Among them are parliamentarians, representatives of ministries and government agencies, public and expert communities.

Speaking at the Forum opening ceremony, Svetlana Orlova noted that control (supervision) activities are becoming one of the key drivers of economic development under the current conditions:

The world has not collapsed because of sanctions. On the contrary, the economy of the Russian Federation continues  developing. The Accounts Chamber, in cooperation with the Government of the Russian Federation, contributes to this process. Today, control and supervision are becoming a crucial element of economic development.  

Ms. Orlova highlighted that the very concept of control has evolved significantly towards monitoring, reducing the number of control actions, and developing the environment of integrity.

The number of business inspections experienced almost a 2.5-fold decrease in 2022 compared to 2021,” Svetlana Orlova stated. “And we can see the result already. For instance, the procurement from small and medium-sized businesses has increased by almost 60% to amount to 7 trillion rubles. Now we have the highest indicator in terms of the number of SMEs – about 6 million, and the sector employment is approaching 30 million people. 

Upon its introduction, the preventive visits practice has played a huge role in reducing the administrative burden. The preventive visits are carried out at the initiative of the controlled entities themselves.

The figures speak for themselves: the number of preventive visits in January–August of this year increased almost 2.3-fold compared to the same period in 2022 – from 300 thousand to 700 thousand. In addition, a business itself may initiate a preventive visit,

Svetlana Orlova said during the “Preventing Violations: Preventive Visit Practices” Session.

According to the Auditor, the efficiency of such preventive interaction with the control authorities is also obvious for entrepreneurs themselves, since they now have the opportunity to correct mistakes timely without any fines or sanctions imposed.

Nevertheless, the improvement of mechanisms of control and supervision activities shall go beyond the results achieved. The Accounts Chamber is also actively involved in the adjustment of such mechanisms, in particular, through its recommendations and proposals. “Upon the analysis of the control and supervision system, within which 44 ministries and agencies were audited, the Accounts Chamber has provided the Government with its recommendations aimed at further improvements in this field. I would like to emphasize that all of them have been adopted by the Government and are being implemented under our control,” Svetlana Orlova concluded.