Corruption is the use by officials of their powers and rights, authority and status, capabilities and relationships solely for personal gain. In any country in the world, including Russia, actions of this kind are unlawful and punishable by law. To combat corruption, special state bodies are created, the methods of which are most effective, for example, in China, Sweden and Singapore.
Due to the fact that our country has historically developed a critical situation with a mass predisposition to corruption in all spheres of power, the fight against it is quite complex. After all, one cannot simply toughly eliminate corrupt structures, as this will lead to an inevitable crisis of power. A sound approach to this problem should be based on the following basic methods:
- adoption of legislative regulation toughening punishment for this type of crime;
- increase in official income of government representatives;
- Creation of competitive conditions that reduce the potential profit from corruption.
Mechanisms and prevention
The entire spectrum of anti-corruption measures is based on oversight mechanisms: internal and external.
Internal mechanisms provide maximum incentives by delimiting the powers of officials. And authorized bodies working autonomously carry out the necessary supervision over them.
External mechanisms generally operate independently of the executive branch, which increases their effectiveness due to the invulnerability of the position. The role of such structures may be the media, freedom of speech of citizens of the Russian Federation and the judicial system of the state.
The prevention of corruption in its legislative basis is based on the following incentive measures:
- control of legislation by parliamentary and public institutions;
- the formation of negative perceptions in society in relation to corrupt officials;
- a regular (quarterly) regime for analyzing legal practice to identify and punish corruption;
- effective legal measures to prevent corruption in the form of dismissal from office or dismissal from a post; moreover, persons subject to knowingly false information about incomes, expenses, movable and immovable property, financial obligations in relation to their immediate relatives are subject to punishment;
- a thorough examination of information regarding applicants for municipal or state posts;
- introduction of the practice of stimulating representatives of state and municipal structures to perform flawlessly and effectively within their authority.
Anti-Corruption Fundamentals and Responsibility
The whole range of anti-corruption measures is guided by the following fundamental principles:
- legality;
- protection of the rights and freedoms of a citizen and a person;
- publicity and transparency;
- Imminent liability for the offense;
- attraction of political, legal, informational, organizational, socio-economic and other measures as means of fighting corruption;
- cooperation at the state level with international institutions, individuals and public organizations;
- the application of preventive measures to prevent corruption.
In our country, specially created committees and commissions are waging an uncompromising fight against corruption. And some government agencies even have anti-corruption departments. The legislation provides for strict liability for every act related to corruption, which may be criminal, administrative, civil and disciplinary. These legislative norms, inter alia, provide for the nature of the offense in relation to Russian citizens, stateless people or foreign residents, individuals or legal entities.
Anti-corruption commission
To prevent and combat corruption of responsible persons, a special commission has been created to combat it, which monitors all areas of society. Among her responsibilities is the promotion of anti-corruption behavior. Members of this organization are persons approved by the President of the Russian Federation.
This commission has the following objectives:
- protection of the legal rights of citizens;
- assistance to law enforcement agencies;
- Providing legal support to the population in cases of corruption;
- involvement of the media and public opinion in the fight against corruption.
The main tasks of the anti-corruption commission are:
- raising the legal level of informing citizens about corruption issues;
- Assistance to state and law enforcement agencies on this issue from public support;
- development of scientific and practical measures at the international, federal and regional levels of anti-corruption;
- Formation of a detailed annual report on corruption in our country;
- providing full information on detected corruption in government structures to the public through the media;
- assistance to the population in protecting their rights from corrupt representatives of government agencies;
- active publishing;
- protection of the rights of members of the commission;
- conducting opinion polls and analysis of public opinion;
- the international cooperation;
- analysis of legislative acts (primarily federal);
- conducting a regular examination of the activities of state and municipal bodies;
- development of proposals and preparation of an action plan.
By its effective activity, this commission shows that the fight against corruption in Russia can be waged without additional funding from the state budget, relying only on the initiative of conscious citizens.
