An assessment of the openness of government in Russia: the federal and regional dimension

The article is devoted to the problems of Open government performance evaluation in Russia. Nowadays there are different approaches to the methodology and criteria of the Open government performance evaluation, which are not interrelated at the federal and regional levels in Russian Federation. Progressing towards sustainable development of Open government local public authorities in practice face with significant obstacles in measuring their results, because at present there are neither generally accepted methods nor specific standards to be met. Moreover, existing methods of performance evaluation frequently lead to incorrect or incomplete perception of Open government tasks by local public authorities. Nevertheless, regional performance evaluation approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but these respective practices evolve without coordination. On the basis of the research authors formulate proposals for unification of present performance evaluation models on regional level. The important attention is paid to incoherence between Open government performance evaluation system and performance evaluation of government authorities. At present there are no scientific studies proving direct relationship between the Open government implementation and improving the efficiency of public administration. On the basis of the research authors formulate recommendations for harmonization of methodology of the public authorities openness assessment in Russia at federal and regional levels.