The meeting of the Commission for the Coordination of Work on Anti-Corruption in the RT was held in the Kazan Kremlin

(KZN.RU, September 24). Today, a regular meeting of the Commission for Coordination of Anti-Corruption Activities in the RT was held in the Executive Corps of the Kazan Kremlin. The meeting was held by Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the RT.

Mintimer Shaimiev, the State Adviser of the RT, Farid Mukhametshin, the chairman of the State Council of the RT, Aleksey Pesoshin, the prime minister of the RT, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, heads of other municipalities, and heads of ministries and departments of the RT took part in the work.

The commission considered the issue “On the implementation of the tasks set out in the National Plan on Anti-Corruption for 2018-2020”.

During the meeting, it was noted that corruption continues to be a destabilizing factor that has a direct impact on economic development, political stability, and the relationship between authority and society. Counteraction to this phenomenon requires systemic measures. It is a particularly urgent task, without the solution of which it is impossible to create favorable conditions for the development of the economy, to ensure healthy competition and the implementation of major investment projects.

In order to improve anti-corruption work, the Presidential Decree No. 378 of June 29, 2013, approved the National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2018-2020. In accordance with this plan, the Cabinet of Ministers of the RT introduced amends to the State Program “Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Policy of the RT for 2015-2020”.

The work carried out in the republic had a positive impact on the implementation of certain state programs, including construction, overhaul, and the work of cash settlement centers in the sphere of housing and communal services. In general, this allows increasing the return on costs of social and other projects being implemented, and reducing losses from corruption.

Nevertheless, for 2017 and the first half of 2018, only corruption-related crimes identified by law enforcement agencies caused damage in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles. In 2017, 803 crimes were identified, including 149 facts of bribery. For 7 months of 201, 443 crimes were identified, including 98 facts of bribery.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the RT, most of all crimes in 2018 were identified in the disposal of immovable property (114), in education (70), health and social security (21), construction and housing (22).

Prosecution authorities in the course of supervision over the implementation of anti-corruption legislation in the first half of 2018 revealed 1565 violations.

Analysis of criminal statistics, materials of control and supervisory bodies and the results of the work of the Republican expert group on combating corruption shows that the main number of criminal encroachments falls on the processes of disposal of immovable state property. But high corruption risks are inherent in practically all spheres of economic and managerial activity. Particularly strong corruption influence is noticeable in the implementation of programs to support agriculture, business and citizens, construction, the implementation of state and municipal procurement, including procurement, carried out by organizations using budgetary funds.

There are questions about the effectiveness of control and supervisory activities, including those carried out by the republican profile ministries and local self-government bodies. For 7 months of 2018, they carried out more than 24 thousand inspections, during which almost 50 thousand violations were revealed. According to the violations, more than 41.5 thousand response reports were issued, including 22.78 thousand protocols. Fines have been imposed in the amount of 105.4 million rubles. 20.7 thousand people were brought to administrative responsibility for violations.

Thus, the management and control and supervisory activities of the executive bodies of state power are not yet effective enough. The relevant ministries at the meeting of the Commission were instructed to develop roadmaps and incorporate changes in departmental anti-corruption programs in the following areas: agriculture, construction, road and property complexes, land relations, education, health, culture, the system of state and municipal purchases, grant support, safety of cultural heritage sites, etc.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the RT acts as the coordinator of measures taken by the executive bodies of state power to prevent corruption. Under the control of it, a number of measures have been adopted over the past year that contributed to reducing the conditions, in which corruption offenses are possible.

At the same time, the vector of growth of corruption offenses and crimes moved towards local government officials. In corruption crimes in 2017, 29 heads of local self-government bodies were convicted in municipal districts. About half of corruption encroachments were connected with the illegal alienation of land plots in state or municipal ownership. In 2018, 15 corruption crimes were identified with the alienation of lands in relation to the heads of the rural settlements of Aksubaevsky, Bavlinsky, Bugulminsky, Buinsky, Vysokogorsky, Zelenodolsky, Kamsko-Ustinsky, Leninogorsk, Pestrechinsky, Rybno-Slobodsky, and Tetyushsky municipal districts. 77 municipal employees were brought to disciplinary responsibility for 6 months for committing corrupt offenses.

In the conditions of the persisting level of corruption offenses, it is necessary to organize work aimed at creating public rejection of corruption, increasing the legal awareness of citizens and increasing their participation in the public control over the activities of government bodies, including compliance with the requirements of the law on contract system in the field of procurement. Some steps in this direction have already been taken. Thus, a “Center for Public Control in the Sphere of State and Municipal Management of the RT” was created under the Public Chamber of the RT. It acts as the coordinator of the activities of subjects of public control in the territory of the RT. The Public Council on the procurement of goods, works and services for municipal needs was created in Kazan, as well as the Coordinating Council for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship. The last includes representatives of public organizations: “Delovaya Rossiya”, “Opora Rossii”, an Association of Enterprises small and medium business of the RT. The Regional Public Organization of the RT “Civil Society”, the Foundation for the Promotion of Legal Education of the Population of the RT, and others contribute to the development of public control.

Nevertheless, the work carried out by the governing bodies of the RT and local authorities in the RT should focus on preventive measures, including improving the system of prohibitions, restrictions, and requirements, established in order to fight corruption. Also, there should be an increase of the effectiveness of educational and other activities aimed at the formation of an anti-corruption behavior of state and municipal employees, promotion of anti-corruption standards in society, and the development of public legal awareness.

Vasil Shaikhraziev, the deputy prime minister of the RT, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, and Anatoly Fomin, the chairman of the Public Chamber of the RT, delivered speeches at the meeting of the Commission.

As a result of the meeting, a protocol will be prepared with specific instructions addressed to state authorities, recommendations to local authorities regarding the improvement of anti-corruption work.

The information on the meeting is posted on the official website of the Commission for the Coordination of Anti-Corruption Activities in the RT in the information and telecommunication network Internet on the Commission's website, reports the press service of the President of the RT.