OREANDA-NEWS. October 05, 2010. Dmitry Medvedev held an expanded meeting of the Council for Local Self-Government Development, at which issues of municipal improvement and enhancing the quality of utility services were discussed.

Mr Medvedev noted that the current legislation defines the responsibility for municipal improvement in very general terms only and agreed with the proposals made by representatives of municipalities to introduce relevant amendments to federal legislation specifying certain aspects of this work. At the same time, regulations should be flexible and tailored to regional and local demands. President Medvedev suggested to include municipal improvement among the criteria for evaluating local government performance.

The President also proposed to define the rights and responsibilities of managing organisations, increasing their liability for non-compliance with the legislation.

In order to boost the local public spending efficiency, the President called for a more active introduction of the e-government system, which must include a control mechanism and have maximum transparency for the public. Mr Medvedev stressed that people should be encouraged to seek information and communicate with the authorities electronically.

Apart from Council members, the meeting was attended by top municipal, district and rural officials, deputies of municipal representative bodies, representatives of public organisations, management companies and housing cooperatives. The total number of participants exceeded 90. This was the first meeting of the Council held in this format.