News
- 31 January 2019, 18:00
- The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation
The results of the work carried out in 2018 by the prosecution authorities to identify corruption generating factors in regulatory legal acts and drafts thereof indicate the presence of positive trends aimed at reducing the corruption potential of regulatory legal acts at all levels of government and local self-government.
During this period, prosecutors, exercising the powers granted to them by federal laws “On the Prosecution Bodies of the Russian Federation”, “On the Anti-corruption Examination of Regulatory Legal Acts and Drafts of Regulatory Legal Acts”, looked through more than 991 thousand regulatory legal acts (in 2017 - 970 thousand). It was revealed that containing corruption generating factors were 48 thousand regulatory legal acts (46 thousand).
The above mentioned regulatory legal acts contained more than 59 thousand corruption generating factors (56 thousand in 2017). With the aim of eliminating them, the prosecutors introduced 3.8 thousand claims (3.8 thousand), and filed almost 43 thousand protests (41 thousand), and forwarded around 100 lawsuits (applications) to the courts (150), as well as presented 1 thousand submissions (1 thousand), and sent out almost 150 reports (173).
As a result of the work done, out of 45 thousand regulatory legal acts (in 2017 - almost 43 thousand), more than 55 thousand corruption generating factors (52 thousand) were excluded. The statistics provided indicate the high efficiency of the measures taken by prosecutors with the aim of conducting anti-corruption examinations.
The analysis of the work carried out by the prosecution authorities showed that more often than not prosecutors identified such corruption-causing factors as the absence or incompleteness of administrative procedures (14.9 thousand), breadth of discretion (12.8 thousand), adoption of a normative legal act beyond one’s field of competence (11, 4 thousand), selective change in the scope of rights (7.5 thousand), presence of excessive requirements set in order for a person to exercise his/her rights (5.7 thousand).
Normative regulatory acts rarely contained corruption-generating factors in the form of refusal from competitive procurement (auction) procedures and of filling in legislative gaps with the help of by-laws in the absence of a legislative delegation of relevant powers (100 each), as well of excessive freedom of by-law rulemaking (almost 340) and abuse of the applicant’s right by state government or local government bodies (about 780).
While conducting anti-corruption expertise of regulatory legal acts the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation involves large scientific enterprises and higher educational institutions. To this end, in 2018, agreements on cooperation were concluded with the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ural State Law University. During previous periods, similar agreements were concluded with the Higher School of Economics NRU, the Far Eastern and Kazan (Volga Region) Federal Universities.
In pursuance of subparagraph “b” of paragraph 39 of the National Anti-Corruption Plan for the years 2018-2020, approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of dated June 29th, 2018 No. 378, prosecution authorities together with the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, are working towards the further involvement in anti-corruption expertise of interested scientific and educational organizations.
As part of this event, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, together with representatives of the named institute and the Higher School of Economics NRU, are preparing a memo on anti-corruption expertise, which will be designed for a wide audience: prosecutors, independent experts, representatives of state authorities and of local governments conducting anti-corruption examinations, as well as university students.
In the year 2018, prosecution authorities received 49 reports of independent experts (33 in 2017). Based on the 14 of them appropriate measures were taken (19 in 2017). In 10 regulatory legal acts ( in 2017 - 9) changes were introduced, as for the rest, they are still being examined.
Thus, within the framework of the review of the independent expert’s report, an anti-corruption examination of the order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated October 26, 2017 No. 871n was carried out. The above mentioned order approved the procedure for determining the initial (maximum) price of the contract to be concluded with a single supplier when purchasing pharmaceutical products.
An examination of the provisions of the order established legal uncertainty with relation to the impossibility of clearly determining the method to be used in calculating the price of the drug. The customer put in the conditions of ambiguous wording, in order to admit the supplier to the procurement activity of a certain supplier, could use any of these three methods or their combination in calculating and justifying the price. In order to exclude the revealed corruption-causing factor, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation was presented with a relevant report that was reviewed and satisfied.
The proper interaction between the prosecution authorities and independent experts has a positive effect on the rule of law.
For example, based on the results of consideration of the independent expert’s report, the prosecutor’s office of the Kursk region sent a note to the regional Duma asking to exclude a certain corruption-causing factor from the Law of the Kursk region “On the organization of activities of foster families for elderly citizens and physically impaired in the Kursk region”, as a result of consideration of which corresponding changes were made to the Law.
The work carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in the field of conducting anti-corruption examinations strives to identify and eliminate corruption-generating factors from regulatory legal acts of federal executive bodies which in their turn are aimed at regulating public relations in the most significant areas. These include protection of the citizens’ rights, education and support for people with disabilities, use of natural and land resources, support system for entrepreneurs, and a number of other fields.
For instance, a certain citizen’s appeal led to an anti-corruption examination of the order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated December 25, 2015 No. 937/pr, approving the documentation requirements set for the minutes of general meetings of owners of premises in apartment buildings.
It was established that the minutes of the general meeting held in the form of in-person voting, shall not document the decisions taken by the owners (by means of putting their signatures) on with regard to the items on the agenda.
Thus, it was revealed that the provisions of the order envisioning various volumes of documents to be attached to the minutes of such a general meeting (depending on its chosen) provide the law enforcer with unreasonably wide limits of discretion. In this regard, the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation was presented with a note asking to exclude the above mentioned corruption factor. The note was further was reviewed and satisfied.
Another anti-corruption examination revealed that the following acts did not meet the requirements set by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 01, 2010 No. 821 “On Commissions for Compliance with the Requirements for the Official Conduct of Federal Public Servants and the Settlement of Conflicts of Interest”: orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography; Federal Agency for Fishery; Federal Agency for Railway Transport; Federal Service for Intellectual Property – all of which regulate the activities of their relevant commissions for compliance with the requirements for the official conduct of federal public servants and the settlement of conflicts of interest. The introduced acts suggesting measure to be taken were further reviewed and satisfied. All the forementioned bodies are working on the elimination of the identified contradictions.
One more anti-corruption expert examination was held with regard to the order of the Ministry of Forestry, Hunting and Nature Management dated June 28, 2013 No. 73/1 (as amended on June 28, 2018) “On the approval of the Procedure for using subsoil areas of local significance, registration, state registration and issuance of licenses” (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure). Based on the results thereof, for the purpose of excluding the revealed corruption-causing factor in the form of the breadth of discretionary authority, a relevant act was submitted, which was further examined and satisfied.
Thus, clause 5.1 of the Procedure, stipulated that decisions on holding auctions for the right to use subsoil plots, as well as decisions on the composition and operation mode of auction commissions, as well as those on determining procedures and conditions for holding such auctions with regard to each subsoil plot or a group of subsoil plots, are to be taken in accordance with federal legislation and the named Procedure. At the same time, neither the legislation, nor the Procedure touch upon the timing and frequency of taking decisions on holding auctions.
Another measure taken in this regard was an appeal lodged by the prosecutor of the Luzsky district of the Kirov region in relation to administrative regulations which stipulated a time limit for issuing notifications on the provision of municipal land plots to citizen - which provided law enforcement with a wide range of discretion.
Struggling to eradicate the presence of corruption generating factors in regulatory legal acts, prosecutors still continue their work on the above mentioned cases. Thus, in 2018, more than 932 thousand drafts of regulatory legal acts were studied (in 2017 - 870 thousand), in 26 thousand of them almost 36 thousand corruption causing factors were revealed (25 thousand and 34 thousand, respectively).
In order to have these corruption-generating factors excluded from the draft regulatory legal acts, the prosecutors sent about 25 thousand information notes (in 2017 - more than 23 thousand). As a result of the prosecution authorities intervention, out of 23 thousand draft normative legal acts almost 31 thousand corruption-causing factors were eliminated (23 thousand and 31 thousand, respectively).
For example, thanks to the remarks expressed by the Prosecutor's office of the Republic of Buryatia, the draft law on introducing amendments to the Law of the Republic of December 7, 2004 No. 896-111 “On the Local Self-Government of the Republic of Buryatia” was finalized.
According to the changes proposed at first, the coordination between the state civil service of the republic and the municipal service was entrusted to be ensured by an authorized body of state power of the Republic of Buryatia, whose powers include maintaining a register of local self-government staff and the data on the candidate pool. At the same time, the draft did not provide for the procedure for the exercise of such powers.
The prosecutor of the Chukotka Autonomous District indicated that the draft resolution of the district government on the Approval of the Procedure for the Provision of Annual Benefits Based on the Performance over the Course of the Year for Certain Categories of Medical Workers contained a corruption generating factor expressed in that the competence was defined by the wording “entitled to”. The provisions of the draft allowed for the possibility of making a decision on the payment of benefits ranging from one to three times depending on the subjective decision of the officials. The comments of the prosecutor were taken into account.
Further this year, prosecution bodies will continue their work in the field of eliminating corruption-causing factors from regulatory legal acts and drafts thereof.
The Prosecutor General's Office
of the Russian Federation
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation
31 January 2019, 18:00
The activities of the Russian prosecution authorities on conducting anti-corruption examination of regulatory legal acts and drafts thereof in the year 2018
The results of the work carried out in 2018 by the prosecution authorities to identify corruption generating factors in regulatory legal acts and drafts thereof indicate the presence of positive trends aimed at reducing the corruption potential of regulatory legal acts at all levels of government and local self-government.
During this period, prosecutors, exercising the powers granted to them by federal laws “On the Prosecution Bodies of the Russian Federation”, “On the Anti-corruption Examination of Regulatory Legal Acts and Drafts of Regulatory Legal Acts”, looked through more than 991 thousand regulatory legal acts (in 2017 - 970 thousand). It was revealed that containing corruption generating factors were 48 thousand regulatory legal acts (46 thousand).
The above mentioned regulatory legal acts contained more than 59 thousand corruption generating factors (56 thousand in 2017). With the aim of eliminating them, the prosecutors introduced 3.8 thousand claims (3.8 thousand), and filed almost 43 thousand protests (41 thousand), and forwarded around 100 lawsuits (applications) to the courts (150), as well as presented 1 thousand submissions (1 thousand), and sent out almost 150 reports (173).
As a result of the work done, out of 45 thousand regulatory legal acts (in 2017 - almost 43 thousand), more than 55 thousand corruption generating factors (52 thousand) were excluded. The statistics provided indicate the high efficiency of the measures taken by prosecutors with the aim of conducting anti-corruption examinations.
The analysis of the work carried out by the prosecution authorities showed that more often than not prosecutors identified such corruption-causing factors as the absence or incompleteness of administrative procedures (14.9 thousand), breadth of discretion (12.8 thousand), adoption of a normative legal act beyond one’s field of competence (11, 4 thousand), selective change in the scope of rights (7.5 thousand), presence of excessive requirements set in order for a person to exercise his/her rights (5.7 thousand).
Normative regulatory acts rarely contained corruption-generating factors in the form of refusal from competitive procurement (auction) procedures and of filling in legislative gaps with the help of by-laws in the absence of a legislative delegation of relevant powers (100 each), as well of excessive freedom of by-law rulemaking (almost 340) and abuse of the applicant’s right by state government or local government bodies (about 780).
While conducting anti-corruption expertise of regulatory legal acts the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation involves large scientific enterprises and higher educational institutions. To this end, in 2018, agreements on cooperation were concluded with the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ural State Law University. During previous periods, similar agreements were concluded with the Higher School of Economics NRU, the Far Eastern and Kazan (Volga Region) Federal Universities.
In pursuance of subparagraph “b” of paragraph 39 of the National Anti-Corruption Plan for the years 2018-2020, approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of dated June 29th, 2018 No. 378, prosecution authorities together with the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, are working towards the further involvement in anti-corruption expertise of interested scientific and educational organizations.
As part of this event, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, together with representatives of the named institute and the Higher School of Economics NRU, are preparing a memo on anti-corruption expertise, which will be designed for a wide audience: prosecutors, independent experts, representatives of state authorities and of local governments conducting anti-corruption examinations, as well as university students.
In the year 2018, prosecution authorities received 49 reports of independent experts (33 in 2017). Based on the 14 of them appropriate measures were taken (19 in 2017). In 10 regulatory legal acts ( in 2017 - 9) changes were introduced, as for the rest, they are still being examined.
Thus, within the framework of the review of the independent expert’s report, an anti-corruption examination of the order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated October 26, 2017 No. 871n was carried out. The above mentioned order approved the procedure for determining the initial (maximum) price of the contract to be concluded with a single supplier when purchasing pharmaceutical products.
An examination of the provisions of the order established legal uncertainty with relation to the impossibility of clearly determining the method to be used in calculating the price of the drug. The customer put in the conditions of ambiguous wording, in order to admit the supplier to the procurement activity of a certain supplier, could use any of these three methods or their combination in calculating and justifying the price. In order to exclude the revealed corruption-causing factor, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation was presented with a relevant report that was reviewed and satisfied.
The proper interaction between the prosecution authorities and independent experts has a positive effect on the rule of law.
For example, based on the results of consideration of the independent expert’s report, the prosecutor’s office of the Kursk region sent a note to the regional Duma asking to exclude a certain corruption-causing factor from the Law of the Kursk region “On the organization of activities of foster families for elderly citizens and physically impaired in the Kursk region”, as a result of consideration of which corresponding changes were made to the Law.
The work carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in the field of conducting anti-corruption examinations strives to identify and eliminate corruption-generating factors from regulatory legal acts of federal executive bodies which in their turn are aimed at regulating public relations in the most significant areas. These include protection of the citizens’ rights, education and support for people with disabilities, use of natural and land resources, support system for entrepreneurs, and a number of other fields.
For instance, a certain citizen’s appeal led to an anti-corruption examination of the order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated December 25, 2015 No. 937/pr, approving the documentation requirements set for the minutes of general meetings of owners of premises in apartment buildings.
It was established that the minutes of the general meeting held in the form of in-person voting, shall not document the decisions taken by the owners (by means of putting their signatures) on with regard to the items on the agenda.
Thus, it was revealed that the provisions of the order envisioning various volumes of documents to be attached to the minutes of such a general meeting (depending on its chosen) provide the law enforcer with unreasonably wide limits of discretion. In this regard, the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation was presented with a note asking to exclude the above mentioned corruption factor. The note was further was reviewed and satisfied.
Another anti-corruption examination revealed that the following acts did not meet the requirements set by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 01, 2010 No. 821 “On Commissions for Compliance with the Requirements for the Official Conduct of Federal Public Servants and the Settlement of Conflicts of Interest”: orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography; Federal Agency for Fishery; Federal Agency for Railway Transport; Federal Service for Intellectual Property – all of which regulate the activities of their relevant commissions for compliance with the requirements for the official conduct of federal public servants and the settlement of conflicts of interest. The introduced acts suggesting measure to be taken were further reviewed and satisfied. All the forementioned bodies are working on the elimination of the identified contradictions.
One more anti-corruption expert examination was held with regard to the order of the Ministry of Forestry, Hunting and Nature Management dated June 28, 2013 No. 73/1 (as amended on June 28, 2018) “On the approval of the Procedure for using subsoil areas of local significance, registration, state registration and issuance of licenses” (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure). Based on the results thereof, for the purpose of excluding the revealed corruption-causing factor in the form of the breadth of discretionary authority, a relevant act was submitted, which was further examined and satisfied.
Thus, clause 5.1 of the Procedure, stipulated that decisions on holding auctions for the right to use subsoil plots, as well as decisions on the composition and operation mode of auction commissions, as well as those on determining procedures and conditions for holding such auctions with regard to each subsoil plot or a group of subsoil plots, are to be taken in accordance with federal legislation and the named Procedure. At the same time, neither the legislation, nor the Procedure touch upon the timing and frequency of taking decisions on holding auctions.
Another measure taken in this regard was an appeal lodged by the prosecutor of the Luzsky district of the Kirov region in relation to administrative regulations which stipulated a time limit for issuing notifications on the provision of municipal land plots to citizen - which provided law enforcement with a wide range of discretion.
Struggling to eradicate the presence of corruption generating factors in regulatory legal acts, prosecutors still continue their work on the above mentioned cases. Thus, in 2018, more than 932 thousand drafts of regulatory legal acts were studied (in 2017 - 870 thousand), in 26 thousand of them almost 36 thousand corruption causing factors were revealed (25 thousand and 34 thousand, respectively).
In order to have these corruption-generating factors excluded from the draft regulatory legal acts, the prosecutors sent about 25 thousand information notes (in 2017 - more than 23 thousand). As a result of the prosecution authorities intervention, out of 23 thousand draft normative legal acts almost 31 thousand corruption-causing factors were eliminated (23 thousand and 31 thousand, respectively).
For example, thanks to the remarks expressed by the Prosecutor's office of the Republic of Buryatia, the draft law on introducing amendments to the Law of the Republic of December 7, 2004 No. 896-111 “On the Local Self-Government of the Republic of Buryatia” was finalized.
According to the changes proposed at first, the coordination between the state civil service of the republic and the municipal service was entrusted to be ensured by an authorized body of state power of the Republic of Buryatia, whose powers include maintaining a register of local self-government staff and the data on the candidate pool. At the same time, the draft did not provide for the procedure for the exercise of such powers.
The prosecutor of the Chukotka Autonomous District indicated that the draft resolution of the district government on the Approval of the Procedure for the Provision of Annual Benefits Based on the Performance over the Course of the Year for Certain Categories of Medical Workers contained a corruption generating factor expressed in that the competence was defined by the wording “entitled to”. The provisions of the draft allowed for the possibility of making a decision on the payment of benefits ranging from one to three times depending on the subjective decision of the officials. The comments of the prosecutor were taken into account.
Further this year, prosecution bodies will continue their work in the field of eliminating corruption-causing factors from regulatory legal acts and drafts thereof.
