Legal Regulation of Civil Servants in Russia and Germany Receiving Gifts

Zimneva, S.; Chumakova, Anna

doi:10.17589/2309-8678-2015-3-3-142-151

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Such a prohibition seems to be quite justified, given that the gift to a public servant, as a rule, is not granted "for no special reason. " The practice of analysing "gift relations" suggests that "nobody gives public servants, especially regarding their business activities, gifts for no particular reason" (Zimneva, Chumakova, 2015). They are provided before or after the satisfaction of certain "interests," although in practice these facts are difficult to prove.…”

Section: Key Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The gift is associated with "positive" and unlawful benefit -with the "negative" acts of a public servant. That is why the gift can be regarded as a manifestation of "respect, gratitude, recognition of acts of a public servant" (Zimneva, Chumakova, 2015). At the same time, it should not be considered as a promotion in civil service law, which is directly related to "public approvals, the recognition of personal merits, successful and faithful fulfilment by the person of his or her official duties, the results achieved with the provision of a person with material, moral, status, and other benefits, values, guarantees, privileges, etc. "…”

Section: Key Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Gift for a Public Servant – A Manifestation of Respect, Reward or a Means of Unlawful Influence

Kolomoets¹,

Verlos²,

Pyrozhkova³

2018

BJES

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Abstract. The article, based on analysis of scientific works and legislation of different countries, singles out problematic issues of legal regulation of relations connected with the reception of gifts by public servants. It is substantiated that in modern conditions a gift, unfortunately, can be used not only as a manifestation of respect and gratitude but also an unreasonable enrichment of public servant and unlawful influence on him, his official activity. Fragmentation, contradiction in the content of the "gift" legislation, its saturation with its evaluative and generalizing provisions predetermines the existence of "grey" zones in the legal basis of the use of a gift resource for public servants. Analysing existing prohibitive, restrictive, permissive models of "gift relations in the public service", the expediency of introducing an absolute prohibition on gifts for public servants is justified. It is proposed to provide exceptions for "ordinary" gifts, "official" gifts, and gifts on the occasion of special personal events, with the definition of limits of allowed behaviour. The mandatory declaration of all gifts received by a public servant, indicating its sources, seems expedient. The normative definition of a "gift" is proposed to be fixed in a special anticorruption legislative act, focusing on its disinterested symbolic, non-systematic nature, the legitimacy of acts of the servant as the basis for the gift, and the absence of any arrangements for its provision between the public servant and the "donor of a gift. " As a result, it eliminates its mistaken association with unlawful benefits, public servant's labour compensation, incentive, and indemnity payments. Taking into account the specifics of "official" ("business") gifts, detailed regulation of rules of conduct with them is proposed, including the possibility of their redemption, with the priority of realization and protection of public interest. The necessity of unification of legal principles of regulation of "gift relations in the public service" and coordination of provisions of anti-corruption (in the part of special prohibitions and declaration as a means of preventing conflicts of interest in the public service), tax (in terms of declaration of incomes and determination of the legality of their sources), and tort (liability for breach of established regulations) legislation is grounded. It is considered appropriate to form uniform legal standards for the implementation of "gift policy in the public service. "

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Section: Key Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Key Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Gift for a Public Servant – A Manifestation of Respect, Reward or a Means of Unlawful Influence

Kolomoets¹,

Verlos²,

Pyrozhkova³

2018

BJES

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“…It is possible to highlight several directions of enhanced scientific analysis of the relevant issue: a) with an emphasis on the specifics of regulatory consolidation and the practice of applying in a particular state (for example, in Brazil (Vasileva, 2015), Singapore (Gladchenko, 2014), Japan (Kolyshkyna), Russia (Gafurova, 2015), Ukraine , Slovenia (Nysnvevich, 2016), Indonesia (Tolmachev, 2016) etc. ; b) in the aspect of comparative legal analysis through the example of several states (Zimneva, Chumakova, 2015) or a significant number of states (Kolomoiets, Verlos, Pyrozhkova, 2018); c) with the emphasizing of one or several problematic aspects of regulation (for example, the normative definition of a gift and its place in the contiguous conceptual series, the variety of gifts, the rules of gifts handling in different circumstances, the differentiation of principles of legal responsibility for breach of "gift rules", etc. (Bonsing, Langsted, 2013).…”

Section: The Issue Of "Gift Relations" In the Public Service In The Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts for a Public Servant: Whether It Is Worth to Comply With the Rules

Kolomoets¹,

Стеценко²,

Шарая³

2018

BJES

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The article substantiates the expediency to distinguish a kind of "gift relations in the public service"-"gift relations with the participation of close persons of a public servant. " The author draws attention to the specificity of the subjects of the relevant relations, which is a public servant (a person empowered to exercise the functions of the state or local self-government and "serve" for a public interest) and close persons of the public servant (persons connected with the public servant by means of family, friendly relations) A gift in these relations differs by peculiarity because it is oriented solely to the person of a public servant, and not to his professional activities, his special legal status. Its presentation does not imply any influence on the "purity" of the professional activities of a public servant. In view of this, it is inappropriate to consider the normative consolidation of the appropriate "personal" (it is also called "private", "ordinary", "normal") gift to requirements for cost, grounds, the periodicity of receiving. At the same time, despite the specifics of "gift relations with the participation of a public servant, " they cannot remain outside the regulatory framework. Such regulation allows strengthening the foundations of determinacy in the "gift policy" of the state and eliminating the grounds for use of "gifts from close persons" as a means of "indirect" influence, including inappropriate, on the professional activities of public servants or concealment of unjust enrichment of the latter. The author justifies the inappropriate use of prohibitions and restrictions in the regulation of appropriate kind of "gift relations in the public service. " Instead, the introduction of an obligatory annual declaration where public servants point all gifts, including "personal" ones, indicating donor's personality, the nature of the relationship with him, the market value of the gift. A similar obligation is proposed to provide for close persons of a public servant (first of all, family members as well as close persons who live together with a public servant) in order to strengthen the principles of transparency of "gift relations with the participation of close persons of a public servant, " confirmation of the history of relationship, funds sources for gift's presentation (the indication of funds sources for the gift is mandatory for this group of persons). For the effective use of the declaration, proposals are formulated to unify the provisions of anti-corruption, tax and tort legislation in the aspect of compliance with the requirements for obtainment of gifts by public servants from their relatives.

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“…However, there are no research papers directly devoted to the issues of "value feature" of the gift for a public servant. There are either papers devoted to the range of problems towards special restrictions for public servants in general (Vylloriia, Synnestrom, Bertok, 2010) or restrictions on gifts receptions, however without focusing on gifts value (Kolomoiets, Verlos, Pyrozhkova, 2018), or experience of certain countries regarding regulating issues concerning gifts restrictions for public servants (Zimneva, Chumakova, 2015), or general analysis of determination of gift value for public servants, but using selective approach to characteristic of the experience of each country and separation of regulatory legal acts which fix gifts value (Suslova, Fluri, Badrak, 2017). Overall, this leads to a simplified approach to clarifying a resource of "values feature" of the gift for a public servant and its regulatory determinacy as a "filter" for effective implementation of the state policy in the sphere of public service.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Statutory Definition of Gift Value as a “Filter” for Effective State Policy in the Public Service

Kolomoets¹,

Halitsyna²,

Kushnir³

2019

BJES

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The paper substantiates the importance of standardization of gift’s “value feature” for a public person as a reliable “filter” for eliminating threats for effective implementation of the state policy in the public service. Methodology. The analysis of regulatory and law enforcement experience of different countries allowed distinguishing three basic regulatory models of “gift relations” in the public service – prohibitive, permissive, and mixed. Clarification of the essence of each of them led to the conclusion on the expediency to choose the mixed model as an optimal alternative for an effective counteraction to the unlawful, non-purpose use of gift resource in the public service under the conditions of modern reformation state-building and law-enforcement processes. This model due to a simultaneous regulation of the principles of “prohibitive gift” relations, “permissive gift” relations envisages determination of the limits for possible reception of other gifts by public servants. It ensures elimination of the prerequisites as for waking “gift relations” in the public service, so for unreasonable use of the gift as a source for enrichment, encouragement means, and “instrument for influence” on the professional official activity of a public servant. Results. A unique character of the gift in the public-official relations is caused, first of all, by its trifling “symbolic” value. Due to this fact it can be considered as a “symbolic manifestation” of respect, gratitude to a public servant for his competent, honourable, lawful professional official activity. Its symbolic “value feature” is its central feature that causes the need for its obligatory complete regulatory determination. On the basis of the comparative legal analysis of rule-making and law-enforcement experience of different countries, a number of basic approaches to the definition of “value feature” of a gift are distinguished (in a completely determined amount, in a multiple of the guaranteed rates established by the state, in a multiple to the salary of a public servant, in a generalized form without any quantitative indicators and with the list of possible external forms of gift’s manifestation etc.), and it is justified the feasibility of its binding to a certain number of the national currency (“solid”, “constant” indicator). Practical implications. Standardisation of this gift feature along with others which carry out an additional role (frequency of reception and source) should be at the level of the basic legislative act, which consolidates principles of “gift relations” in the sphere of public service in its entirety. Taking into account the importance of this gift feature, any sub-legislative “alternative” in relation to the determination of gift value can’t exist eliminating the grounds for a controversial nature of regulation of relevant relations. Value/originality. It will help to unify the regulatory standards for using gift’s resource in the public service as a whole, regulatory “filtering” effectiveness of the implementation of public policy in the sphere of public service as a whole.

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Legal Regulation of Civil Servants in Russia and Germany Receiving Gifts

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

A Gift for a Public Servant – A Manifestation of Respect, Reward or a Means of Unlawful Influence

A Gift for a Public Servant – A Manifestation of Respect, Reward or a Means of Unlawful Influence

Gifts for a Public Servant: Whether It Is Worth to Comply With the Rules

The Statutory Definition of Gift Value as a “Filter” for Effective State Policy in the Public Service

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