Battling Corruption

By Andrei Sharonov Official with the RF Economic Development

Corruption scandals are once again rocking this country. Unfortunately, this will continue until we get rid of the three main causes of corruption.

The first one has deep historical roots, and that is our Byzantine view on the role of the state. We regard the state as an emissary of God, and therefore we believe it taboo to question its doings. Attitude towards the state is different in the West, where the state is not regarded as a superstructure above society; there, it is seen as a provider of services that will perform specific functions for a price and is responsible for the performance of these functions.

The second cause is the absence of a clear definition of powers and responsibilities of state officials. It is hard to rebuke a state official for not doing his job properly, because there are no criteria for the assessment of his performance. Had there been such criteria or standards, we would have been able to make objective judgments about his behavior on the job: whether it is lawful to take 100 or 10,000 rubles for issuing a passport, and whether this standard procedure should be performed within two weeks or a month.

Finally, the third reason is that Russian citizens and businesses do not have a tradition of standing up for their rights in a court of law. Russia has already adopted quite a few good laws. However, enforcement of these laws is a problem. For instance, the Law on State Procurements is regarded as progressive because its drafting drew on international experience in this field. However, unless competing suppliers point to us any flaws in the procurement system, even the most perfect law will fail to work. We must therefore encourage people as well as businesses to go to court and seek resolution of any dispute.

In 2005, the government issued a decree to draw up and endorse administrative regulations on the performance of state functions and on the provision of state services. These regulations lay down the standards whereby we must judge the practical activities of the state officials. Overall, we found in the regulations around 300 norms by which we can judge almost all personal and business activities in their relations with the ruling authorities. By conducting a poll, we pinpointed the procedures that are the most criticized by individuals and businesses.

For this year, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry has singled out 39 sets of regulations of first priority, 16 of which have already been deliberated by the Commission for Administrative Reform. These 16 sets of regulations govern the registration of property rights to real estate, the granting of licenses for land utilization, the issuance of passports, the rendering of assistance to job seekers, and the domicile registration of foreign nationals. Before the end of the year, we will try to enforce these regulations with a view to applying the said norms and standards.

The government has drafted another important law and is ready to bring it before the State Duma. It is the Law on Ensuring Access to Information about the Activities of State Agencies and Organs of Local Government. This law lists matters concerning the government, which the authorities are obliged to make public. These matters include information about membership of the government, remuneration of the government officials, as well as actions that are being prepared or have already been carried out by government departments.

Recently, the government also endorsed a Concept for Administrative Reform, which provides for a number of important measures for 2006-2008.

These include special anti-corruption mechanisms for government bodies that manifest a greater propensity for corruption. These mechanisms should reduce this propensity among government bodies, as well as among the users of their services. Also, a system that checks, whether certain laws and regulations encourage bribery, or enable government officials to derive benefit from the administrative posts they hold, is to be introduced.

The Economic Development and Trade Ministry is developing methods to combat purchasability prevailing at government offices. Meanwhile, the efforts aimed at amending laws on the corporations continue. These laws have big loopholes allowing raiders to collaborate with unscrupulous officials in order to stage aggressive takeovers through-court-ruled bankruptcy. Finally, a package of laws is being prepared to amend the Criminal Code and ratify a number of anti-corruption conventions.