METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO ASSESSMENT OF EFFICIENCY OF CUSTOMS REGULATION OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN CONDITIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM REALIZATION

Important tasks of social and economic development of the Russian Federation implying strengthening of Russia's position in the world market, ensuring global competitiveness of manufacturing sectors of the Russian industry, geographic diversification of foreign economic contacts, creation of the Eurasian economic area change the objectives of the mechanism of customs regulation of foreign economic activity. At present the system of customs authorities' administration is engaged in the active transition from organizational-management and legal methods of administration that are used for assessment of activity mostly applying criteria of clearness, timeliness and completeness of observance of customs control procedures towards program-purpose methods of administration implying assessment of the degree of achievement by customs authorities of the set socially important results of activity. Complexity of the problem of introduction of formal approaches to assessment of performance and efficiency of customs authorities' activity is predetermined by the multi-directional nature of tasks to encourage the development of foreign trade and receipt of customs payments to the federal budget in full amount, the necessity of use of the wide range of indicators, combination of qualitative assessments with quantitative ones and link of the assessment tools set with peculiarities of activity organization at one or another level of the customs authorities' system. The article analyses the existing system of assessment of efficiency of customs authorities' activity. The author comes to a conclusion that the present system is characterized by an excessively wide coverage of areas of customs authorities' activity, the high degree of subjectivity in determination of final assessment that is determined by the interrelation of the system of activity efficiency indicators with the mechanism of financial encouragement of customs authorities' officials, the closed nature of assessment for direct participants of the process of customs processing of goods. The conducted analysis helps to differentiate the main directions of transformation of the system of indicators as well as the procedure of assessment of efficiency of customs authorities' activity: 1) distinction of the system of indicators influencing financial encouragement and indicators used for assessment of performance of the mechanism of customs regulation of foreign economic activity; 2) shift of priorities of the system towards assessment of efficiency of creation of institutional conditions for carrying out foreign economic activity (introduction of modern information technologies, reduction of the customs control period); 3) increase in transparency of the system of assessment of customs authorities' activity, public character of forming data on results of such assessment and development of the mechanism for monitoring of efficiency of customs authorities' activity on the part of Russian noncommercial organizations uniting individuals engaged in foreign economic operations and activity in the sphere of customs procedures.