Legal and organizational framework for combating corruption
The stability of the work of the state apparatus of the Russian Federation, its independence from external influences guarantees the development of the state and the quality of life of citizens. If a civil servant finds himself in a situation where he is being influenced in order to get involved in corruption crimes, he must have a mechanism to combat this influence. The regulations adopted so far should ensure the protection of society from corruption.
Regulatory regulation
The main normative act in the field of combating corruption in the Russian Federation is the law "On Combating Corruption" dated 25.12.2008 No. 273-FZ. He established: basic concepts; organizational and legal measures used to prevent corruption; restrictions that are imposed on civil servants and officials in order to combat corruption.
Also in the area of regulation of the federal law were issues of conflict of interest, which sometimes becomes the basis for the behavior of a civil servant contrary to the goals of the state, even without the presence of an obvious corruption component.
It turned out to be in the interests of every state body in the Russian Federation to create, within the legal reality proposed by law, its own system of measures that would help prevent corruption. These measures can be implemented both organizationally, by adopting documents, and technically, by using hardware and software methods to prevent actions, the commission of which could become part of a corruption offense.
The law was not able to fully regulate the difficult situation of bribery in the Russian Federation. So, it turned out to be sufficiently framework, but made it possible to launch a wide campaign in pursuit of indicators to bring to justice doctors, teachers, police guards - persons who do not have the opportunity to cause serious harm by their actions, but traditionally receive bribes, bribery or bribes - gratitude. Measures for the declaration of income, which have become one of the methods of control, do not save you from registering property in the name of trustees. The rules on conflict of interest turned out to be quite formal, they are not supported by a mechanism of action in the event of a conflict of interest, a mechanism for its settlement.
The concept of corruption and anti-corruption
The general concept of corruption in the law, in contrast to public perception, does not exist. A list of actions is proposed, each of which, on the one hand, is illegal, on the other, is characterized by a certain common feature - an official uses his official position to obtain benefits, while performing actions that run counter to the interests of society and the state. The benefit can be achieved in any way, including the receipt of money or property from third parties interested in a particular action of a civil servant of the Russian Federation. Thus, the anti-corruption law in Art. 1 brings under this concept such elements of criminal offenses as:
- abuse of office;
- giving or receiving a bribe due to official position;
- abuse of power;
- commercial bribery.
Further, the law introduces an independent definition, which cannot be correlated with a specific composition: the use of an official position contrary to the interests of society or the state in order to obtain benefits for oneself or some third parties. Obviously, this definition can be decomposed into the compositions indicated earlier. It should also be noted that the anti-corruption law does not address the receipt of non-property benefits, for example, placing a child in a well-paid job or patronage at work. This sharply narrows the possibilities of control over manifestations of corruption in the Russian Federation.
Under the law against corruption, the law understands the actions of authorized state bodies, civil society structures, citizens, whose purpose is to prevent corruption; fighting them; minimizing the consequences of these acts.
Thus, the law considered the fight against corruption to be the task of the whole society, and not just the state apparatus. In addition to the law, specific activities are regulated by various regulatory legal acts, in particular, by decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, decrees issued by ministries, departments, and municipal authorities. Thus, at the level of many municipal districts of the Russian Federation, individual orders of their heads are introducing Leaflets "How not to be involved in corruption" with a clear listing of the duties of a municipal employee that arise when he encounters corruption, and the tasks of organizing anti-corruption.
Features of the fight against corruption
The specifics of the subject of a crime - a person with an official position and extensive connections in law enforcement agencies - often leads to the fact that at the level of a particular municipal district or subject of the Russian Federation, anti-corruption turns into a fight against competitors in the public service or in the market for corruption services. That is why it is quite difficult to fully rely on the work of the state apparatus in organizing anti-corruption work; departmental struggle can sometimes completely overcome the goal of cleansing the ranks of civil servants from persons prone to corruption.
At the same time, the fight against corruption is impossible without coordinated actions of society and the economic security services of the law enforcement agencies. Every businessman, every person in the Russian Federation who could become a victim of a corruption crime committed for purposes beneficial to competitors should be able to interact directly with the internal control services over law enforcement agencies at both the regional and federal levels. In this case, the organizational basis for combating corruption will be the possibility of creating, on a legal basis, permanent secure communication between business and internal control departments.
The second feature was the creation of a special legal status for the property of a civil servant of the Russian Federation and his family members. It should be included in the declaration on a wide list, which becomes available for study by the general public. The property of the spouses of Russian civil servants and their minor children is also declared. In fact, declaring has become a measure of limiting the legal capacity of a citizen in the civil service. Along with the declaration, the Anti-Corruption Law introduced a norm on the need to transfer to trust management of shares and shares owned by an employee. The rule is intended to create a situation where an official is unable to make operational or strategic decisions on the company he owns, but if he owns one or less percent of the shares, the rule does not seem appropriate, despite the fact that the official incurs the costs of paying for the services of a trustee.
Organizational measures
The basis for combating corruption should be the transparency of all actions of the authorities. The more light is shed on those spheres of life in the Russian Federation, where big money circulates, which, as you know, love silence, the more chances to avoid direct collusion or commercial bribery.
The Anti-Corruption Law envisages the introduction of a system of measures to control the activities of civil servants of the Russian Federation. The main ones among them were:
- the obligation to submit a declaration of their income;
- the obligation to notify the relevant services of all incidents of persuading a civil servant to commit an act that has signs of corruption;
- creation of a register of persons dismissed on grounds of loss of confidence;
- restriction on employment within two years after an official or a person filling a position in the state apparatus of the Russian Federation has left his place of work. If the salary at the new place of work exceeds 100,000 rubles, then he must obtain a work permit from a special commission.
But in the Russian Federation it is impossible to fight such a multifaceted phenomenon as corruption, only by pressing the state apparatus. It is necessary to build the system of public relations in such a way that it becomes either a naturally dying rudiment of the post-perestroika system of relations, or a phenomenon condemned at the level of civil society. To this end, the law proposes:
- eliminate all prohibitions or restrictions on business activities that government officials like to produce. In this aspect, the work of the ASI (Agency for Strategic Initiatives) is especially relevant, which during its activity was able to work out several ways to eliminate barriers to business in various issues - from simplifying the registration of companies to reducing the number of approvals at the start of construction;
- it would be reasonable to increase the incomes of employees of state power and administration bodies, bringing them to such a level that it would be illogical to lose their salaries due to suspicions of corruption. Here is also a group of measures related to the non-admission of those persons who have remained the imprint of corruption activities in the future to public service;
- to create a working mechanism of public control over the work of civil servants, allowing to highlight all situations that have signs of corruption. Within the framework of this mechanism, there are public chambers, public councils under ministries and departments, systems of preliminary legal examination of regulatory legal acts, petitions and public appeals, other mechanisms for direct involvement of civil society in the system of control over the purity of the exercise of powers by state bodies;
- enhancing the role of independent anti-corruption media, including through a quick and clear reaction to their publications by employees of the departments responsible for controlling corruption crimes.
Each department, in turn, must remember that flaws in the field of information security become the basis for committing a crime. Often, the purpose of a corrupt act is to obtain confidential information about:
- planned decisions of state bodies;
- considering any issues related to investment projects or the provision of benefits;
- consideration of a criminal case;
- plans and programs of privatization;
- personnel appointments.
It is clear that the commission of such a crime can be prevented using modern information security systems, for example, DLP systems, which will prevent data leakage. In addition, it is necessary to carry out regular checks of the protection status of those information blocks that are of greatest interest. The creation of a working mechanism to control the activities of officials, which would allow checking their personal contacts, limiting the use of instant messengers and imposing a ban on contacts with persons previously involved in corruption crimes, if implemented at the level of law, could also become effective.
Informing civil servants about the danger of corrupt behavior
No matter how responsible a state or municipal employee is, in most cases he works in a situation where “hand washes his hand,” and his refusal to respond to an offer of a bribe in an environment where the commission of corruption offenses has become a norm of behavior can become a problem for him too. , and for the service in general. There must be a working mechanism that allows him to feel protected by timely transferring external corruption pressure to the relevant services responsible for economic security. The memo, adopted by state authorities or at the level of a local self-government body, is designed to show such an employee all the possibilities for avoiding controversial or difficult situations or inform about their existence in time. The responsibility of each individual person should become the basis for combating corruption.
Criminal law practice of applying the legislation on corruption
Criminal prosecution is becoming the main tool in the fight against corruption. Despite the wide network of coverage, it is extremely rare that information about the prosecution of a civil servant for corruption acts becomes the property of the press. The well-known case of the Minister of Economic Development Ulyukaev is not an indicator of the application of measures of this nature to him, since the situation that became the reason for the accusation (extortion of a bribe for negotiating a privatization transaction) could also become the basis for accusations of fraud or other similar economic crimes.
In 2010, the Plenum of the Supreme Court issued an overview of the practice of applying the law "On Combating Corruption". The review notes that in the year that has passed since the adoption of the law, 6,826 persons were convicted for corruption crimes, among them not only officials, but also employees of commercial structures. In a number of cases, the law managed to reach high-ranking criminals. Bribery turned out to be the main part of the charges against these persons. Only 26% of the accused received a sentence in the form of a real term. The main measure of punishment as a form of countering corruption was a fine, the amount of which can be significant.
The later practice has not yet been generalized, but when analyzing the decisions of cases on corruption articles of the Criminal Code, which are in open sources, it can be seen that the trend does not change, only more people from the upper echelons of power are in the field of law.
The Supreme Court drew attention to the fact that corruption crimes not only impede the development of the state, but also create a negative image of Russia in the eyes of the international community, and called for strengthening the use of organizational measures to combat corruption.
