President Dmitry Medvedev has dissolved two federal agencies and handed over their functions to the Education and Science Ministry in an attempt to streamline the ministry's work.
Medvedev disbanded the Federal Agency for Science and Innovations and the Federal Agency for Education, which had answered to the Education and Science Ministry, according to a decree posted on the Kremlin web site Saturday.
Former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov created the two federal agencies in June 2004 and granted them the power to publish state orders for goods and services in the relevant spheres, the ministry's web site said.
The agencies were formed amid sweeping government reforms that created three levels of federal executive power: ministries charged with drafting bills, agencies managing state property and funds, and services charged with supervisory functions.
The outgoing head of the Federal Agency for Education, Nikolai Bulayev, said Saturday that the dissolution of the two agencies would make the ministry's work more "dynamic and efficient," RIA-Novosti reported.
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