Some Directions of Increasing the Efficiency of Public Administration in the Context of Digitalization

Building upon the practices of the Treasury of Russia as well as other federal executive agencies, this article presents a new approach aimed at improving the efficiency of public administration through the centralization of general management functions within a given body. The set of general functions across public authorities is largely generic, suggesting that the stage involving the optimization of said functions can be regarded as a preliminary one preceding a full-fledged digital transformation of public administration. Functions associated with budget accounting and budget report formation, material and technical support, and personnel, legal and administrative activities dominate in the structure of both federal and local authorities’ general management functions. At the same time, individual government bodies at both the federal and regional levels are all, to some extent, engaged in the optimization of general functions implementation costs through assigning appropriate powers to subordinate agencies. Exemplified by the Treasury of Russia and other public administration bodies, the article systemizes and analyzes the existing approaches within the subject matter. As a result of the analysis, it is deemed advisable to synchronize the activities of public authorities, in particular through coordinating the process at the level of the Government of the Russian Federation.