Each corruption-causing factor is one of the conditions due to which corruption is born and spread. In general, such prerequisites arise due to imperfections in the state system and legislation. Below is a list of the most common factors for the growth of corruption, as well as the nature and principle of the anti-corruption expertise.
The arbitrariness of officials
The first corruption factor is the breadth of discretion. What does it consist of? This factor is based on the uncertainty or lack of conditions for the timing and basis for decision-making. It can also be described as the coexistence of the same powers between different government bodies or officials. The adjective “discretionary” itself literally means “acting at its own discretion”.
In other words, this factor develops in a situation where an official receives a certain unacceptable freedom of authority and can make decisions for the sake of his interests (primarily financial). Many examples can be given to describe this pattern. If the administrative regulations do not indicate the time frame for making a certain decision, then the official, for the sake of his selfish goals, will get a chance to deliberately delay this decision. Thus, he can offer to speed up his work for certain “services”.
Another corruptogenic factor is the intentional going beyond one's own competence. Local governments or state authorities can sin this.
Legal conflicts
“Holes” in the laws can lead to the fact that officials will be able to fill the gap with by-laws, the essence of which will help them to enrich themselves or get any other benefits. In Russia, a similar situation developed in the 90s. Then the old Soviet legislation overnight became invalid, and new norms were adopted over the course of several years. It was at this time that there were many legal conflicts.
This corruption-generating factor is due to the fact that laws cannot be adopted for any petty cause, thereby regulating each particular case of law enforcement. But then what remains to be done when controversial situations arise? For them, there are by-laws that may well settle certain particulars. For example, they may be able to resolve certain disputed aspects of the activities of state bodies.
Is job status a corruption factor? Only if the work of an official is not described with all the details in the legislation. The state needs to build and maintain a system in which, regardless of his position, the official will know exactly his own place, boundaries of authority and full responsibility for corruption crimes. If this institution works efficiently and without exception, the notorious human factor, which is often complained of, will be lost, explaining the reasons for the enormous bribery.
Administrative Procedures Unclear
Often corruption crimes occur due to incomplete or lack of administrative procedures. In this case, we are again talking about the imperfection of the legislation. In order to stop this dangerous factor, the state needs to adopt such legal acts that would provide for all possible administrative procedures required to satisfy public interests.
The wording given in the legislation is fairly streamlined. According to the principle of incomplete description of administrative procedures, many norms can be challenged. For example, we are talking about article 80 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, indicating that the president is a representative of the state in the international arena. However, the law does not provide a detailed explanation of the procedure for the first official.
This example shows that the literal interpretation of the above corruptogenic factor is dangerous and incorrect. But erroneous and frivolous attitude to this phenomenon. Often corruption crimes occur due to the fact that officials take advantage of the ambiguity of laws governing their activities and use their position to their advantage. Therefore, most of the activities of government representatives need a detailed and full-scale description.
Auction (competitive) procedures
All kinds of state tenders are a huge niche for illegal enrichment. Modern corruption in Russia is based on budget competitions. We can talk about anything - the construction of large infrastructure facilities, the production of certain goods for state needs. Competitive tenders themselves are not types of corruption-causing factors. They are used as workarounds for enrichment if the state system is imperfect, and its fight against economic crimes of officials is in a deplorable state.
According to the classical scheme, auctions and tenders are used as follows. Tender officials influence the final decision on the winner. They give the project to the company that will offer the best price for it. In this case, the money, of course, will go into the pocket of the official. Simply put - this is a kind of rollback.
Also, officials can hold tenders in favor of companies belonging to "their" people - friends or relatives. Often corruption in Russia boils down to the following. A company closely associated with a representative of the government receives the project (for example, the construction of a road) and implements it through the sleeves. In other words, part of the data money for fulfilling obligations goes into the pocket of an official, because of which the result is primarily affected. If we are talking about construction, then most likely the contractor will save on building materials, which will lead to a decrease in the quality of work. The new road will be short-lived, the new building will very soon need repairs, etc. And this, in turn, is the reason for the next contests, which negligent officials want to earn.
Tenders and Offshore
According to statistics, the identification of corruption-generating factors shows that similar schemes that use competitions have long displaced so-called domestic corruption from the first positions — transferring money to public servants directly “in envelopes” for rendering certain services. Such a network can consist of many levels and faces. One-day companies are often created to enrich themselves through competitions. After receiving a state order, they suddenly disappear (and with them the money).
The competitive model almost left in the past scenes with the transfer of money in suitcases full of cash. Such primitive methods have become the lot of feature films. Using one-day companies, buffer companies and other tricks, civil servants often withdraw money abroad in order to “launder” them and use them calmly in the form of honestly earned money. Such corruption is based on offshore. These overseas accounts or companies help criminals legalize stolen and stolen from the state and taxpayers.
Administrative barriers
Among other things, corruption-prone factors are overstated requirements for citizens, necessary for the realization of their legal rights. Officials can establish insurmountable and burdensome barriers that prevent people or organizations from receiving state assistance, etc. This situation is a typical abuse of power. Of all the ways for the unjust enrichment of officials described in the legislation, the most unambiguous and clear is precisely this corruptogenic factor. The concept of “administrative barriers” is clear and transparent. As they can be huge lines, an excessive number of necessary certificates, etc.
All of these unpleasant phenomena for citizens constitute fertile ground for the emergence of products. On the one hand, an official can provide a certain advantage or service for money, and on the other hand, he can relieve burdensome troubles. It is according to the last principle that this corruption-generating factor works. There are no detailed examples in the law, but they can be presented with at least some understanding of public services.
Sometimes a similar situation develops with servicemen who are supposed to live in housing under a social contract of employment. In order to get on the line, a person needs to collect more than a dozen references. All of them are made in different state bodies, and the slightest nitpicking of an official can cause repeated ordeals and upholstery of the thresholds of various services, ministries and administrations in search of extracts from registers and photocopies. When the fate and future well-being of a citizen depends on an official in such a sensitive and vital issue, there is a temptation to take advantage of his position for enrichment. In other words, only the decency of a particular official can save a person from the need to provide a bribe.
In fairness, it is worth noting that in recent years the state has taken several steps in order to resolve this problem. In 2012, a law was passed that changed the way the authorities provided various social services. In particular, this innovation shifted the obligation on state bodies to request certain documents, making it easier for a citizen to receive the necessary papers. Nevertheless, this problem is still relevant. To resolve it is one of the most important goals of the state in today's anti-corruption policy.
Document wording
Other signs of corruptogenic factors are the linguistic uncertainty of some legal formulations in official documents. As a rule, this problem concerns value judgments. In order to identify such conflicts, special linguistic and legal examinations are carried out.
There are several fundamental rules regarding the drafting of normative acts. Documents should be written in a clear and understandable language for ordinary citizens. Papers must be cleaned of complex and streamlined formulations, jargon, foreign words, etc. Ambiguous terms are an excellent pretext for bureaucratic abuse.
There is a so-called legal technique - a set of rules by which normative acts are written. Ignoring these principles makes official papers a source of corruption. Incorrectly drafted normative acts seriously impede law enforcement, slow down the work of state bodies, and take away extra time from citizens. Conflict of interest as a corruption factor is a dispute that may arise, among other things, due to such low-quality documents.
Anti-corruption expertise
In modern Russia, a law is in force, according to which the anti-corruption expertise is carried out by the responsible authorities. This measure came about as a result of the ratification of the United Nations Special Convention by the Russian Federation . This set of rules is designed to regulate the state’s struggle against bribery and embezzlement. Anti-corruption expertise is necessary for the periodic reassessment of administrative measures and legal documents. Their adequacy and effectiveness in the fight against bureaucratic violations is checked.
The prerequisites for conducting anti-corruption expertise in modern Russia were theoretical studies of the Center for Strategic Research and the Indem Foundation, conducted in 2003. Specialists issued a special memo. Using it, it was possible to determine whether corruptogenic factors were present in the work of the authorities. Authors of the publication got examples of such documents from foreign Western experience.
In Russia, these studies were the first of their kind. They showed that in the conditions of the recently emerged market economy, young state institutions were extremely susceptible to corruption. And it was not only that officials were distinguished by greed and a desire to illegally enrich themselves. It would be strange to think that such officials worked only in Russia. Of course, they are everywhere, but in an effective state there are mechanisms that cut off any opportunities for bribery. The immature power in the Russian Federation has not yet managed to build such a system. But it was in the mid-2000s that the institution of anti-corruption expertise began to emerge, which in the future helped make the fight against corruption more effective. The results of those innovations are noticeable today.
Features of anti-corruption expertise
Anticorruption examinations are primarily carried out at the stage of adoption of a new regulatory legal act. So they help to pass a new bill, decree or document, already free from dangerous legal gaps. Examination is one way to prevent corruption along with the creation of open power, public communication, public participation in the political life of the country, removal of administrative barriers to business. It is effective only in conjunction with all of the above measures and phenomena.
Anti-corruption expertise is carried out by the bodies of the Russian prosecutor's office, as well as the Ministry of Justice. Their roles in this process are different. So, the prosecution authorities draw up a conclusion based on the results of the examination, consisting of requirements, which are then necessarily executed. Such measures are necessary preventive measures to improve the quality of a normative legal act. In a similar format of checks, a document can go through several examinations. He will return to his department until, in the opinion of the auditors, he begins to comply with all fundamental anti-corruption requirements.
Corruption and lawmaking
First of all, anti-corruption expertise is designed to provide security measures necessary to protect public relations from a possible source of corruption. It can arise in a variety of fields and activities.
For example, speaking of normative legal acts, one cannot but mention deputies - subjects of the law-making process. They are subject to outside influence. A significant situation developed in the Russian parliament in 2002, when 80 of the 179 members of the Federation Council were entrepreneurs or lobbyists of various corporations. In other words, all laws relating to business were adopted by interested people.
In a certain situation, representatives of a large company could give it significant advantages in the market to the detriment of competitors. Such activities often led to the emergence of industry monopolies. Of course, such legislation is an example of malicious corruption, and the anti-corruption examination of the proposed laws is precisely combating these phenomena.