The fight against corruption offenses is currently one of the most pressing problems of the government. Such acts pose a particular danger to society and the state. Let us further consider what corruption offenses exist and responsibility for them.
General information
Corruption is a complex of criminal actions that prejudice the authority of state power, the interests of service in state bodies, municipal structures, non-profit and commercial organizations.
Corruption offenses are expressed in the unlawful receipt by officials authorized to fulfill public functions of benefits for actions contrary to official interests.
Classification
The main types of corruption offenses are:
1. Bribery. It represents the receipt / provision of benefits for the commission of any actions contrary to the interests of the service.
2. Assignment and embezzlement of values. Such corruption offenses occur in cases where the subject to whom the property was entrusted uses it for its own purposes, sells, transfers to other persons or commits other illegal actions with it.
3. Fraud. It involves the unlawful seizure of property from the owner by deception or abuse of trust.
4. Extortion. When committing this offense, the offender requires the owner to transfer to him any values or rights to them, to perform certain actions in his favor. In this case, the perpetrator threatens the victims in various ways.
5. Abuse of authority. It involves the use of official position for personal gain.
Other types of corruption offenses
Illegal actions can also be expressed in:
1. Favoritism. We are talking about situations when a superior employee has favorites. They have a number of preferences regarding other employees. For example, favorites are appointed to highly paid posts, despite the fact that they do not have sufficient skills or knowledge to fulfill the respective duties.
2. Cronyism. It is similar to favoritism. The difference is that the protection of relatives of the official.
How to prevent corruption and other offenses?
Since this area of crime is particularly dangerous for the state, various measures are being developed at the government level to combat such acts.
Prevention of corruption offenses includes:
1. Conducting outreach to the population with the goal of creating intolerance of corruption among citizens. Subjects must understand the importance of reporting a corruption offense to law enforcement.
2. Examination of normative acts and bills.
3. Consideration and analysis by federal, regional, territorial authorities, other bodies and organizations with authority, issues of the practice of applying court decisions in corruption cases. Such events are held at least 1 time / quarter. In the course of research and analysis of practice, shortcomings are revealed, the causes of their occurrence, methods for their elimination are developed.
4. Presentation of strict qualification requirements for candidates for filling municipal or public service posts, verification of the information provided by them upon entering work.
five.Establishment of specific grounds for dismissal of persons involved in unlawful acts, and measures of liability for corruption offenses.
6. The introduction into the practice of personnel services of the rules according to which the long, effective, flawless performance of professional duties is taken into account when appointing employees to higher posts, assigning them special or military ranks, class ranks, diplomatic ranks or encouraging them.
7. Improving the activities of institutions of parliamentary and public control over compliance with the provisions of the law governing the fight against corruption.
Of no small importance in the prevention is the timely identification of cases of personal interest of officials in the performance of their duties, conflict of interests, as well as control of income and expenses of municipal and public servants.
Responsibility for corruption offenses under the Criminal Code
It should be noted that in criminal law there is no definition of the term “corruption”. Meanwhile, a number of articles of the Criminal Code establish penalties for various forms of its manifestation. For example, article 290 of the Code stipulates liability for receiving a bribe. At the same time, extortion of funds by the guilty acts as a qualifying attribute. In other words, there is a tendency towards a corruption offense.
The Criminal Code also provides penalties for:
· Abuse of authority (201 articles).
· Commercial bribery (204 norm).
· Illegal business (Article 289).
· Giving a bribe (291 articles).
When identifying the grounds for holding perpetrators accountable for corruption offenses, it is necessary to take into account the provisions governing the special status of entities.
Administrative sanctions
In many norms of the Code of Administrative Offenses, punishments for officials for committing offenses within the framework of relations between citizens and organizations on the one hand and government structures on the other are fixed. Conventionally, such articles of the Code can be divided into 2 categories.
The first group includes norms reflecting acts that may accompany corruption violations. To them, in particular, include articles:
· 13.11 on violation of the rules for the collection, distribution, use, storage of personal information.
· 13.14 on the disclosure of information, access to which is limited.
· 15.21 on the use of official information for personal gain in the securities market.
The second group contains norms that have direct anti-corruption significance. Among them are articles:
· 19.28 for unlawful compensation on behalf of a legal entity.
· 19.29 for the illegal involvement of a civil servant (including former) in labor activity.
Civil Measures
The possibilities of their application are considered in 2 aspects. First of all, the legal grounds for using civil law measures are important. Their definition is necessary to implement the requirements of the legislation governing issues related to the fight against corruption. Secondly, of particular importance is the assessment of damage arising from unlawful actions and the possibility of compensation.
This, in particular, is about the provisions of article 575 of the Civil Code, which enshrines a number of restrictions for certain categories of persons entering into relationships related to gift. According to the norm, subjects located at state positions at the federal / regional level, civil servants, Central Bank employees are entitled to accept ordinary gifts, the cost of which is not more than 3 thousand rubles. Consequently, failure to comply with this requirement will be regarded as a corruption offense entailing disciplinary liability.
Additionally
When deciding issues relating to the application of civil liability measures to perpetrators, it is necessary to take into account a number of provisions enshrined in the Civil Code.So, in article 16 of the Code it is established that the losses that organizations and citizens have suffered as a result of unlawful actions / inaction of authorized bodies are compensated by the Russian Federation, the relevant region or municipality.
The circumstances in which civil liability may apply are specified in Articles 1069-1071 of the Civil Code.
The grounds for punishing perpetrators of corruption offenses can also be considered in the context of the provisions of Federal Law No. 273. We are talking about torts related to the transfer of property and shares to trust.
International law
The prerequisites for the expanded use of civil law measures are determined by the provisions of the CE Convention.
It defines the anti-corruption potential of sanctions that can be used by persons who are victims of corruption offenses. The key method of protection is the lawsuit. Its purpose is to provide full compensation for real damage and lost profits. Compensation guarantees are associated with the possibility of involving the state in the process as a defendant for the actions or omissions of an employee.
The introduction of such a mechanism in the domestic legal system implies the willingness of national courts to a qualified trial of corruption cases.