MOSCOW, August 2 (Itar-Tass) — Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Gerasimov said more than 140 top police officers have failed the reevaluation procedure and had to step down. The candidacies of 122 of them were never put up before the Evaluation Commission under the Russian president.
“An emphasis placed on extraordinary re-evaluation of top command was the first thing done; special attention was paid to this process,” Gerasimov said.
He reminded that the Commission, led by Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin, included representatives of all the agencies concerned, including the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service, the Federal Fiscal Monitoring Service, as well as public organization activists, such as composer Ilya Reznik and Public Chamber member Anatoly Kucherena.
The Commission representatives cannot be suspected of bias, as all its candidates underwent objective and profound scrutiny.
“As a result, we carried out preliminary selection, and if the Interior Ministry had questions or sufficient reasons not to present this or that employee, we intentionally did not put up his candidacy (for consideration),” the deputy interior minister said.
“In all, 143 police senior police officers have been relieved of their duties. Of those, the Commission reviewed and did not approve 21 officials. The candidacies of 122 officials were never discussed; they were screened out by the minister’s decision and by the results of preparatory work,” Gerasimov said.
According to Gerasimov, a large number of police officers opted not to take the re-evaluation procedure.
“During preliminary work, a large number of personnel decided to quit police bodies. At an earlier stage, they tended their resignations. They were mostly the personnel who were aware that they would not pass the evaluation procedure,” he said.
Gerasimov said the evaluation procedure ruled out the possibility for senior police officials to “square accounts” with annoying subordinates. The evaluation commission under the president was “exemplary” in deciding on human resource issues. Its experience was used by the Interior Ministry’s Central Evaluation Commission and its regional branches.
In his opinion, “the objectivity of re-evaluation was quite high.”
“I’m drawing your attention to the fact that some officials – by taking advantage of the re-evaluation, might have attempted to square accounts with uncompromising personnel. But the very system of arranging re-evaluation practically ruled out this possibility,” the deputy interior minister said.
All the issues related to passing the decision on this or that police official were made collectively. “In this event, the role of one official, even if he has a high rank, is decreased to a considerable extent.”
A system of information about violations during re-evaluation was functioning.
On Monday, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said 875,000 police had passed performance review. As for top police officers, the Central Evaluation Commission assessed the performance of 327 Generals. Twenty-one Generals – who stood before the evaluation commission — were not approved due to unauthentic income declarations or discrediting police work.