CC BY
11Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 11 (2015 8) 2485-2498
УДК 343.352
Anti-Corruption Security in the Krasnoyarsk Territory: Overview of the Situation and Trends
Sergey D. Krasnousov*
Siberian Federal University 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russia
Received 15.06.2015, received in revised form 17.07.2015, accepted 20.08.2015
Based on statistics of corruption crimes in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the author describes the state of corruption crimes in the region during 1997-2014. The author notes the key role of the media in shaping ideas about the effectiveness of anti-corruption policy in the region among the population. The author highlights an increase in the number of bribes in the region, the investigation of which has not happened. The author shows the change in the views of residents on the causes of corruption, the efficiency of the regional anti-corruption policy. Having examined data on registered and unsolved corruption crimes, the author shows the position of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the national rankings of investigation of corruption crimes. Also the author formulates recommendations for improving the anti-corruption policy in the region.
Keywords: corruption, rating, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, security, crime, media, anti-corruption policy.
The author had worked on the project "Methodology of designing a system of regular observations and expert-analytical assessment of the state of the economy, innovation complex and social sphere of the Krasnoyarsk Territory with the following preparation and layout of the publication of the thematic bulletin". The project has received financial support from the Krasnoyarsk Regional Fund of Science and Technical Support.
DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-2015-8-11-2485-2498. Research area: law, economics.
In August 2015 the media of the Krasnoyarsk Territory were actively discussing that the Krasnoyarsk Territory fails in fighting corruption. According to Igor Napalkov, the Head of Central Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Krasnoyarsk Territory "corruption detection rate has fallen in the region, but there has been
© Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
* Corresponding author E-mail address: serz-k@bk.ru
no change in the community for this, that is corruption corruption level has not decreased". Corruption has always existed in the region, but it has had different manifestations.
Next we will look at the issue of anticorruption security from the standpoint of data on corruption in the business environment (Article 204 of the Criminal Code) and in government
- 2485 -
bodies (Articles 285, 290, 291 of the Criminal Code).
At the time of writing, there are some data on the social assessment of public danger of this phenomenon in society; law enforcement bodies have been investigating such offenses (crimes) and have been bringing the perpetrators to justice; certain media coverage of this problem has been accumulated and all these processes are here to continue. Analysis of the information flow about corruption in the region in general and in the business environment in particular, allows making conclusions about trends in this social phenomenon and its direction.
The basis of the state of corruption in the business environment is linked to the data on official criminal statistics (from 1997 to 2014); surveys of corruption in the business environment and commercial bribery; the analysis of 480 sentences given by the courts of first instance under Article 204 of the Criminal Code; and active media coverage of this issue.
According to the data of official statistics published by Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation1 there is a trend of rapid increase in the number of registered facts of corruption in the business environment from 1997 to 2002 and the correspondent reduction from 2002 to 2014, whereas the number of registered cases of bribery in the same period does not undergo any major changes2.
During 1997-2002 the rate of corruption in the Russian business environment increased from 0.31 to 1.93. After 2002, there can be traced a downward trend regarding the rate of corruption in the business environment along a rising rate of bribery in the same period4. Perhaps this is due to the absence of a unified approach to combating corruption in the state, while anti-corruption policy was aimed primarily at the public sector.
Analysis of the data5 on people convicted of corruption in the business environment6
identifies the following trends: in the first three years since the introduction of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation only every 5th person was convicted annually as regarding the whole number of initiated criminal proceedings. In subsequent years (since 2000) there has been a tendency of reduction in the number of prosecuted persons. This trend is negative, as according to official information "up to 90 % of the cases of corruption in the business environment remain unsolved and unknown to the public"7.
The analysis of court indictments8 for corruption crimes in the business environment reveals that the most widely used means of corruption in the region was cash - 71 %, in other cases the means of corruption was property-related services (7 %) and other assets (17 %). The sum of a bribe in 18 % of cases was determined as a certain percent of the amount or value of the contract service9. In most cases (79 %) the amount of money given as a bribe was equal to a certain sum in the business environment.
The minimum amount of a bribe in the business environment, according to an analysis of verdicts, was 200 rubles - for the production of a new diagnostic card for a vehicle without indication of faults detected during the vehicle technical inspection. Analysis of verdicts showed that the average amount transferred as bribery in the business environment was 250 thousand rubles in any single case of the crime. The maximum amount that the respondents are ready to spend on bribery amounted to 200 thousand rubles. An opinion poll conducted during the study shows that the volume of corruption in the business environment depends on the status of the organization. These figures are comparable with the data that the average size of bribe and corruption in the business environment reaches 293 thousand rubles; the data were collected by the Main Department of Economic Security and
Anti-Corruption of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation10.
Analysis of verdicts delivered according to Article 204 of the Criminal Code allows making some conclusions about the personality of the offender who commits an act of corruption in the business sector. At the moment, one cannot suppose anything about the personal characteristics of the offender who commits an act of corruption in the business sphere in its entirety, as we believe that his/her personality is in no way different from the personality of a man committing economic crimes.
According to the analysis of verdicts carried out in the study, the proportion of women and men committing crimes under Article 204 of the Criminal Code is almost equal (52.7 % - women, 47.2 % - men), which corresponds to the data of the Federal State Statistics Service on the overall distribution of the Russian population by gender (men - 46 % women - 54 %>)". The data, in our opinion, can be explained by the fact that women now increasingly start to hold positions in the management of various structures, including those relating to the implementation of organizational and administrative works (e.g., the head of personnel) or administrative and economic functions (e.g. , the chief accountant).
All those convicted of taking bribes in the business environment have secondary (16.6 %) or higher education (82.3 %).
Corruption in the business environment is characterized by the commission of the offense for the first time. Were the person convicted previously, this conviction was related to other types of crime. The number of persons under the age of 21 years in the total number of persons convicted for commercial bribery does not exceed 25 %. Commercial bribery was committed mostly by persons aged 28 and older (73 %).
Thus, acts of corruption in the business environment are made mostly by the person
aged 28 and older, who has higher education and performs administrative functions in the organization, and has no previous convictions for similar crimes. A type of corruption in the business environment in this case is a given sum of money, the average size of which ranges from 250 rubles to 293 rubles for a single case of the crime.
In order to obtain more knowledge about the studied object we conducted a study in the periods of July, 1-August, 1, 2011, and July, 1-August, 1, 201312. It was aimed at identification of opinion of the public and experts on corruption in the business environment in Krasnoyarsk.
We shall note that the findings reflect not so much the facts as attitude to corruption; they show trends in changing public opinion on corruption in the business environment.
According to the survey, 53 % of respondents said that corruption is a real problem that must be addressed. The number of respondents, who called corruption an integral part of society being impossible to fight, accounts to almost 25 % of the responses. The remaining respondents either hesitated in answering the question (5 %) or told that corruption is an effective way to solve the problems of corruption in commercial organizations. Such data suggest the absence of a common understanding of the dangers of this phenomenon among the population.
The above responses vary according to the age of the respondent and sources of information:
- the answers of the respondents aged 18 to 24 can be divided into almost equal parts: 44 % answered that "corruption is a real problem that must be addressed", 42 % admitted that "corruption is an integral part of our society, which cannot be fought". The answers of four groups aged 25 and over are the same: according to the majority, corruption is an integral part of our society, with which it is impossible to fight.
These results suggest that, in contrast to the "adult" citizens in the "student community" the view of the impossibility of combating corruption does not prevail;
- 58 % of those, who received information about corruption in the commercial organizations from personal experience, believe that corruption in the business environment is an integral part of society, with which it is impossible to fight. For other categories of respondents, who received information about corruption from other sources, corruption in commercial organizations is either a real problem that must be addressed, or an integral part of our society, with which it is impossible to fight. Only 9 % of the respondents, who answered the question about the popularity of corruption in commercial organizations, believe that there is an effective way to solve the problems of corruption in the commercial organizations. The majority of respondents (60 %), who are aware of such facts, assume that corruption is a real problem that must be addressed.
According to our data, 48 % of respondents believe that the practice of transferring money or other property instead of decision-making in a commercial organization is often; 22 % consider that it happens almost always; 19 % - that it happens sometimes. These data are consistent with a general trend in public opinion about the high degree of corruption in Russia.
Curiously, the opinion on the practice of illegal transfer of remuneration does not depend on the source used by respondents for information on corruption in the business environment, no matter what age group they belong to. However, it is worth noting that in the age category of 4 and over there is a high percentage of those who admitted not knowing how to answer this question.
Interestingly, 19 % and 26 % of respondents gave a negative answer to the question whether
there is any criminal responsibility for a director or an employee for receiving illegal remuneration of a commercial organization in the sake of the conclusion of the contract or certain actions within the organization. They presume that criminal responsibility for these actions is not provided.
Also almost an equal number of the respondents indicated that such criminal liability is provided, but only if the organization is a natural monopoly - 30 % of the responses, or if this organization is the city-forming enterprise, which takes decisions determining the fate of an entire town or city, - 29 % of the responses. Any other answer was chosen by 6 % of the respondents.
More than half of the respondents, who answered that there is no criminal responsibility for the receipt of illegal remuneration and for the conclusion of the contract, gave the same answer to the question about responsibility for such actions within the organization. A similar situation can be observed in other cases, which indicates the relative consistence of personal responses to these questions.
It is believed that one of the indicators of public opinion about the public danger of a certain crime is the image of the correspondent perpetrator. To draw such an image the respondents were asked two questions: 1. Will you change your attitude to the person with whom you communicate if you know for sure that he/she takes money for making decisions or acceleration of decision-making process in a commercial organization? 2. Will you change your attitude to the officer with whom you communicate if you know for sure that he/she takes money for making decisions or acceleration of decision-making process?
Only a few of the respondents answered that "their attitude will change and for the better, like he/she is the person who knows how to live in market relations". This response is similar both
in terms of an official - 2 %, and in terms of an employee of a company - 3 %. Most of the respondents "will changed their mind", and it is interesting that they are ready to change it even for the complete break-up (often in relation to an official - 31 %, than to an employee of a commercial organizations).
As for the answer that "the attitude will change and for the better, like he/she is the person who knows how to live in market relations", the numbers of respondents, who have and do not have information on acts of corruption for the actions within the organization, are almost equal - 43 % and 41 % respectively. Over 50 % of the respondents, who answered that their attitude "will change for the worse with the ultimate break in relations", have information about the facts of the illegal receipt of remuneration for activities within the organization or for the conclusion of a contract.
At first glance the data above suggest that the low impact of the application of Article 204 of the Criminal Code is not related to the underestimation of the social danger of corruption in the business environment by the public and the professional community, as people evaluate the situation reasonably.
However, in connection with the aforesaid facts, the following questions arise: what do respondents mean by corruption; do they know what commercial bribery is; what actions does it entail? Here we will present the respondents' answers to these questions.
Less than half of those surveyed (47 %) defined corruption as the use of official position in order to obtain the benefits of property and non-property character. Only 13 % of the respondents define corruption as having non-property character. These results are consistent with a general trend in public opinion. A common stereotype is the notion that corruption is linked solely to getting some property benefits.
The next question is what corruption in the business environment implies as an offense (according to the respondents). Only 1 % of the respondents offered two possible answers as the answer to this question. The meaning of the answer lies in the presumption that corruption in the business environment is both illicit transfer of remuneration and its illegal getting by a person in charge of some managerial functions in a commercial organization. The absence of a single answer - "both options" in the text of the questionnaire was deliberate as to determine the actual thoughts of the respondents. For example, 45 % and 42 % of the respondents respectively excluded from the concept of what is corruption in the business environment either receiving illegal remuneration or its transfer.
Only 2 % of respondents answered that they know what commercial bribery is; they consider it a single corruption act involving both offer and receipt of illegal remuneration. A similar answer was received from a little more than 2 % of the respondents who claimed they do not know the definition of corruption in the business environment. The respondents, who answered that they are familiar with the concept of commercial bribery, take it either as illegal transfer only or as unlawful receipt of such remuneration only; the figures here are almost equal -49 % and 46 % respectively.
Thus, we can say that the respondents under the concept of corruption in the business environment mean different things. This phenomenon confirms the trend: corruption in the business environment as a fundamental phenomenon is perceived as not socially dangerous for citizens; one part of the society even thinks it is only illegal remuneration and another part - what is illegal only is taking this remuneration.
An important role in shaping public opinion is played by the media that are the spokesmen of
the society reporting about topical issues. The media in the case of rising interest in society in a particular issue begin to actualize it, because it affects their rating and the number of people in audience.
For the purposes of the study, we counted the media mentions of commercial bribery as it is the most common form of corruption in the business environment13. The study analyzed 547 sources, published in the period from May 22, 1997 to November 30, 2014 on the territory of the Russian Federation14.
According to the results of content analysis we can conclude about the general trend of increasing interest in the media regarding this topic since 2006 (the rate rose from 16 to 121 mentions). In our opinion this is due to the start of large-scale anti-corruption company in Russia. However, this trend cannot be observed in the newspapers and magazines as well as in the radio broadcasts, newsletters and magazines. In 2010-2011the number of the Internet mentions of the studied topic increased by almost 2 times (from 22 to 50).
A stable source of information on commercial bribery as a form of corruption in the business environment is the newspaper. From 1997 to 2014 annually they had publications about commercial bribery or corruption in the business environment.
At first thought, in Russia there is a tendency to the rapt media attention to the subject. However, in the case of a detailed review of the information taking into account the regional factor, we get the following: the Moscow media contribution to the overall picture of increasing attention to corruption in the business environment is the greatest. And in some years it could reach up to more than 50 %. In most cases the publications on the subject were in the newspaper "Kommersant" - 14 publications, in the second place - Gazeta.ru, Regions.ru, in the third place there is "Rossiyskaya Gazeta"
with its 11 publications. The vast majority of publications were made in the center (Moscow press). Guided by the facts given above, we can say that the relevance of the topic of corruption in the business environment in most cases is associated with Moscow (central) press and there is virtually no active coverage of this topic in other regions. It may, in particular, bear witness to the lack of readers' interest in this issue, and as a consequence - the lack of information in the media.
Summing up the analysis of the media on can mark the general trend of the intense interest in the topic of corruption in the business environment. However, the media interest is mainly kindled by corruption in the public sector. Interest in the topic of corruption in the business environment remains consistently low in traditional media (newspapers, radio, television), while the increase in the number of publications happens thanks to the Internet resources. In addition, such topic as the commercial subornation occurs most often in the federal media with virtually no coverage in the regional media.
Information on the status and trends of corruption in the business environment should be taken into account in decision-making. It should allow creating norms, social base of which would not cause any doubts in the society, the professional community and the law enforcement system. The absence of such doubts will accelerate the process of the decision affirmation and the implementation of the moral rules, as they meet the expectations of the above subjects. Moreover, in terms of the complexity of the issue of social danger and the fight against corruption in the business environment, taking such information into consideration would make conditions for a responsible approach to the development of anticorruption measures in the studied area.
Next, we will provide information on what the official statistics is and data from various
expert surveys and studies carried out in 20112015. They allow drawing some conclusions about the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies in government bodies.
The level of corruption crimes in the government bodies is estimated using three indicators: the number of registered crimes; the number of unsolved crimes; the number of criminal cases sent to the court.
The modern source of information on criminal situation in various regions of the Russian Federation and the country as a whole is the information-analytical portal of legal statistics of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as Portal). It gives information about a number of key indicators that characterize the criminal situation and also provides the raw data in open formats15.
For estimating corruption crimes there can be used three traditional structures: Article 285 of the Criminal Code "Abuse of power"; Article
290 of the Criminal Code "Bribe-taking"; Article
291 of the Criminal Code "Bribe-giving".
The Krasnoyarsk Territory according to the data of 2014 ranked 20th in Russia in terms of reported crimes under Article 285 of the Criminal Code, 9th - in terms of reported crimes under Article 290 of the Criminal Code, 20th - in terms of reported crimes under Article 291 of the Criminal Code. The peak year in terms of falling in the number of recorded offenses was 2012, which led to that the Krasnoyarsk Territory moved down in the ranking to 48th, 16th and 24th places respectively. We can make a point that the region has traditionally been at a relatively high place as regards the number of recorded offenses, which may indicate both the high level of corruption in the region and the high level of crime detection.
High positions in the first ranking are significant for the region. However, there is a
rating of the unsolved crimes, in which the region was in the leading position in 2014.
These rankings suggest that the region has traditionally been among 10 regions with the highest number of unsolved crimes under Article 291 of the Criminal Code since 2010 (except 2013); under Article 290 of the Criminal Code since 2012 (N.B. in 2014 the Krasnoyarsk Territory had the first place in the ranking); and the number of unsolved crimes under Article 285 of the Criminal Code is still relatively high, according to statistics.
At the end of 2014, according to the number of court referrals of criminal cases on corruption crimes under Articles 285, 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code, the Krasnoyarsk Teritory occupied 26th, 20th and 17th places in the ranking respectively. It should be noted that the dynamics changes depending on the year, for example, in 2010 the region held a 10.8th and 14th places, while in 2012 the number of court referrals of criminal cases under Article 285 of the Criminal Code was the lowest during five years time.
When considering different ratings it is required to provide not only the relative numbers, but also absolute ones. For a more detailed description of the situation in the region the author further will give some information on the above Articles.
The highest number of the registered crimes under Article 285 of the Criminal Code was recorded in 2010 - 90; the increase during this year was 28.6 %. The lowest number was recorded in 2012 - 17. Meanwhile the highest increase in the number was recorded in the following year, in 2013 - 247.1 % (59 registered crimes).
The number of registered cases of bribe-taking has not decreased for 5 years below the figure of 117 crimes. The situation is the same as with the number of crimes committed under Article 285 of the Criminal Code: the maximum number was recorded in 2010 (194) and the
minimum - in 2012 (117), but next we see the growth of rate.
The offenses committed under Articles 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code, in terms of the criminal law imply compulsory participation, i.e., it is impossible to pass a bribe if it is not accepted.
Given this rule, the number of cases of transfer of bribes has always attracted attention, in comparison with the number of cases of bribe-taking. In the case where the number of cases of bribe-giving is less than the number of cases of its receipt, the professional environment is to indicate a high possibility of instituting criminal proceedings as a result of artificial provocation of bribery, via using the mechanism of investigation activity involving special agents-provocateurs.
In the Krasnoyarsk Territory the difference between the number of giving and receiving bribes is as follows: in 2010 - 135, in 2011-54, in 2012 - 80, in 2013 - 41, in 2014 - 76. The highest discrepancy was recorded in 2012, apart from it, the number of facts themselves was the minimum during 5 years (37).
Rating of the unsolved crime does not allow making any conclusions about their number in the region. According to the data in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the number of crimes committed under Article 285 of the Criminal Code has not been more than 3 crimes for 5 years. At the same time all crimes in 2011, 2013, 2014 years were fully solved.
The largest number of the unsolved crimes is due to the crimes committed under Article 290 of the Criminal Code (54). We should also remember that the maximum number occurred in 2014 (47), which brought the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the 1st place in the rankings. However, one cannot but take into account that for 5 years period only in 2012 and 2014 there were unsolved crimes.
In contrast to the above-mentioned components, almost every year (except for 2013)
statistics discloses unsolved crimes committed under Article 291 of the Criminal Code. The maximum number of unsolved crimes was in 2012 (6).
The third indicator of the level of corruption crimes is the number of criminal cases sent to the court. In total, in 2010-2014 the courts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory received 192 criminal cases under Article 285 of the Criminal Code. The maximum number of cases occurred in 2010 (84). The maximum increase occurred in 2013 (307.7 %).
The total number of materials concerning Article 290 of the Criminal Code, sent to court during five years, amounted to 699. The maximum number of cases was investigated in 2011 (204). One should take into account that these rates made the region occupy one of the first places in the correspondent ranking of the Russian Federation. The following year there was a decline of 58.8 %.
We have already said that what is important in crimes of compulsory participation is ratio of these two elements (taking and giving). During this period the number of bribe-takings was almost half bigger (376), which indirectly confirms our hypothesis, expressed in relation to these data earlier. This situation is no different for the Russian Federation as a whole. This state of affairs has traditionally attributed to a) either provocateurs' activities, or to b) the criminal law providing the possibility of exemption from criminal liability of a person who gave a bribe, if he/she actively helps solve and (or) investigate the crime and either has had a request for a bribe from an official, or has voluntarily reported about the fact of committing bribery to the bodies entitled to initiate criminal proceedings16. We can also assume that in the remaining cases there were cases of extortion or voluntary reporting, but official statistics do not provide any data to support or refute this assumption. It is noteworthy
that 2013 was the year of maximum growth -308.7 %.
Information on the number of crimes along with other factors affects the formation of community representation on the level of corruption and anti-corruption security in the region. The open-source data17 supply very limited information on the evaluation by the population of the Krasnoyarsk Territory of corruption; this could be put down to the delays in the official presentation of data, and therefore the lagging publication of these sociological studies and reports on the official website www.krskstate. ru. While preparing the materials we found information for the 2011-2013 (in % of the whole number of the respondents). The overwhelming majority of people in the region (69 %) believed that the level of corruption is generally high. We should emphasize that for 3 years time the respondents' opinion did not change. This attitude of inhabitants towards matches the all-Russian tendency.
When answering the question of the attitude to the fact that in Russia citizens have to pay bribes to solve their problems, in 2009-2013 local people expressed the expected socially conditioned opinion that bribery should be avoided, since corruption corrupts us and our authorities (from 40 % to 58 %). Note that there were people who believed that this can be avoided, but using bribes it is easier to solve problems (about 29 % per year). This number of responses suggests that in the public consciousness of the population there was a firm conviction about the high level of corruption dangers in the region.
When it concerns the level of corruption risk, we need to clarify, which structures of the region are exposed to it to a greater extent in the opinion of the population.
Rating of agencies that are prone to corruption has a large composition. For our work we have selected five the most corrupt subjects as
according to the respondents and presented the dynamically changing estimates for the period from 2010 to 2013. The top five structures were: universities, the police, businessmen, prosecutor's office and courts. We deem that such data may be associated with highly frequent relationships with the said structures in normal life of people. In addition, the media and television hold these structures in the form of "centers of corruption". Let us recall that since 2012 entrepreneurs (unlike other subjects) have worsened their image in public opinion; the number of respondents who believe that there is the level of corruption in the business environment is increasing. At the same time as for corruption in the universities the respondents are changing their opinion toward the response about the low level of corruption. In experts' views, this is due primarily to the improvement in the control system during passing Unified State Exam, which is reported by the media during the examination time.
As the key players in the management of the region are the executive authorities, it is important to estimate the distribution of public perceptions concerning corruption in power structures of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Data for 2008-2013 show that the respondents consistently believed that most officials take bribes (from 34 to 58 %). Herewith, the number of responses "About half of the officials take bribes, and half don't do that" did not change dramatically and remains at 25 % level. At the same time in 2012 there was almost threefold increase in the number of people who believed that "only a minority of officials take bribes".
One can proclaim a variety of reasons for this level of corruption in the region, but the public opinion has 5 main reasons:
- Vague laws, contradictory laws;
- Insufficient punishment for corruption;
- Lack of proper control of officials' actions;
- Immorality of officials;
- The possibility of officials to take individual decisions;
- Poor performance of law enforcement agencies.
The population of the region shifted from the belief that the main cause of corruption is "the lack of punishment for corruption" to the opinion that this cause is "the lack of clarity of laws, contradicting each other".
Having said so, let us note that the same cause as one of the key reasons is named by experts in the field of combating corruption. Modern methods of anti-corruption expertise of legal and regulatory acts and their projects was supplemented in 2015 by such related to corruption criterion as "regulatory collisions -conflicts, including internal, between the rules, which create for government agencies, local governments or organizations an opportunity of the arbitrary choice of rules to be applied"18.
In our work, we occasionally mentioned sources of information about the level of corruption in the region. Next, we will show what information sources are used by respondents as the basis for their judgments. For many years the absolute leader has been the media (80 %), at the same time respondents receive much information from the Internet (40 %) and from their friends (50 %). These data suggest the traditional importance of media coverage not only of information concerning acts of corruption, but also of information about combating corruption, the positive actions of employees. The prominent one is the fact that most people are not aware of the anti-corruption measures taken by the authorities in this area.
Whenever it comes to the role of media in combating corruption, there appears a problem the region's openness concerning anti-corruption matters. In open sources of information you can obtain some data about the level of this openness
in the Krasnoyarsk Territory for the first half of 2014. The region ranked 19th out of 21regions with a total of 1079 publications on the topic.
The data submitted above allow predicting the respondents' answers to the question of what the regional authorities do to combat corruption. If the majority of the population is not aware of anti-corruption measures taken by the authorities in this area, these people apparently believe that the authorities do nothing (36-64 %) or make little contribution (25-52 %).
At the same time while answering the question about the effectiveness of anticorruption measures, which are known to the respondents in their everyday life, the latter often give the answers like "these measures are rather inefficient - completely inefficient".
Thus, based on an analysis of official statistics, criminal cases, the population survey and the experts' poll as well as media content analysis, we can make the following conclusions on the status and trends of anti-corruption security in the region:
- number of officially registered facts of corruption in the business environment, the crime rate and the number of persons prosecuted, against the backgroun of a high level of latency of the act, is gradually reduced. At the same time representations of the public and the professional community about the danger of corruption in the business environment in general and corruption in the business environment in particular are heterogeneous, depending on the age, personal experience of coming into corrupt relations and sources of information about corruption. Most of these people believe that it is common practice in commercial organizations to give illegal remuneration for decision-making, but the possibility of bringing the person to criminal liability for those actions is not obvious for them rather it can depend on the status of the organization, in their view;
- since 2012 entrepreneurs in public opinion (unlike other subjects) have worsened their position; the number of respondents who suppose that there is a high level of corruption in the business environment is increasing. Meanwhile answering about corruption in the universities, the respondents are changed their opinions toward the low level of corruption;
- the number of reported cases of bribery for 5 years has not decreased below the figure of 117 crimes. As for crimes committed under Article 285 of the Criminal Code, their maximum number was in 2010 (194) and the minimum one - in 2012 (117), but then the rate continues to grow. The number of cases of bribe-giving is less than the number of cases of bribe-taking. The largest number of unsolved crimes accounts for the crimes committed under Article 290 of the Criminal Code (54). We should also note that the maximum number of these crimes occurred in 2014 (47), which brought the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the first place in the rankings. However, one cannot but take into account that for the period of 5 years only in 2012 and 2014 there were unsolved crimes;
- in most cases illegal remuneration is the funds, the amount of which is most often determined by the specific sum depending on the status of the organization. This trend was reflected in the stereotype of the professional community and the public that corruption is linked solely to getting some property benefits (money, etc.);
- the characteristics of the person involved in commercial bribery have not changed. The number of men and women is equal; these are people mostly aged 28 years and older, who have higher education, previously not subjected to criminal prosecution for the same act. The image of the corruptionist in the business environment is negative for the majority of the population and the professional community, but to a lesser extent negative than the image of the corruptionist in the government;
- among other factors information about the number of crimes affects the formation of the community representation about the level of corruption and anti-corruption security in the region;
- the interest in the topic of corruption remains permanently low in traditional media (newspapers, radio, television), and the increase in the number of publications is due to online resources that are most often the federal media;
- there is a firm conviction in the public consciousness of the population about highly dangerous corruption in the area. Obviously, as the majority of the population is not aware of anti-corruption measures taken by the authorities in this area, these people apparently believe that the authorities do nothing or only little things;
- the region's population has shifted from the opinion that the main cause of corruption is "the lack of punishment for corruption" to the belief that the main cause is "the lack of clarity of laws, contradicting each other".
References
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (1996), available at: http://www.consultant.ru/popular/ ukrf/ (accessed 5 November 2015).
Federal State Statistics Service, available at: http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat/ rosstatsite/main/population/demography/ (accessed 5 November 2015).
Khlonova, N.V. Corruption in state service systems of Russia and Germany and its prevention, Vladivostok, 2011, 254 p.
- 2495 -
Krasnousov, S.D. Bribery in a profit-making organization as a form of corruption in the private sector (the concept and prevention). Moscow, 2014, 157 p.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs ofthe Russian Federation, available at: https://mvd.ru/presscenter/ statistics/reports/ (accessed 5 November 2015).
The scientific report «Evaluating the effectiveness of the state policy in the sphere of security and combating corruption in the Krasnoyarsk region» (2012), available at: http://www.krskstate.ru/dat/ bin/art/10950_korupciy_otcet_2012.pdf (accessed 5 November 2015)
Naumov, Yu. & Maximov, V. The state of corruption in Russia (1990-2008 rr.). Anti-corruption policy of the Russian Federation and its subjects: state and prospects of development, Vladivostok, DVFU, 2010, 178 p.
Neithertake, givenorpass(2011),available at: http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2011/02/16_a_3528198. shtml (accessed 5 November 2015).
Portal legal statistics of the General Prosecutor's Office Portal, available at: http://crimestat.ru/ regions_chart_total (accessed 5 November 2015).
Average size of a bribe in Russia last year amounted to 300 thousand rubles (2011), available at: http://www.rg.ru/2011/07/22/vzyatka-anons.html (accessed 5 November 2015).
Fight corruption in the Krasnoyarsk region became worsen (2015), available at: https://news.mail. ru/politic s/22999367/ (accessed 5 November 2015)
Regulatory conflicts in Russia will become factors of corruption (2014), available at: http://pravo. ru/news/view/113178/ (accessed 5 November 2015)
1 See in detail: https://mvd.ru/presscenter/statistics/reports/
2 Khlonova N.V. Korruptsiia v sistemakh gosudarstvennoi sluzhby Rossii i Germanii i ee preduprezhdenie [Corruption in public sector in Russia and Germany and its prevention]. Dissertation of the Candidate of Juridical Sciences. Vladivostok, 2011. P. 240
3 Kommercheskii podkup kak forma korruptsii v chastnom sektore (poniatie i protivodeistvie) [Commercial bribery as a form of corruption in the private sector (concept and counteraction)], Moscow, 2014, 160 p.
4 Khlonova N.V. Korruptsiia v sistemakh gosudarstvennoi sluzhby Rossii i Germanii i ee preduprezhdenie [Corruption in public sector in Russia and Germany and its prevention]. Dissertation of the Candidate of Juridical Sciences. Vladivostok, 2011. P. 240
5 Naumov Iu., Maksimov V. (2010) Sostoianie korruptsionnoi prestupnosti v Rossii (1990-2008) [State of the corruption criminality in Russia (1990-2008)]. Antikorruptsionnaia politika RF i ee sub"ektov: sostoianie i perspektivy razvitiia. Materialy nauchno-prakticheskogo seminara (Vladivostok, 26 February 2010) (Anti-corruption policy of the Russian Federation and its subjects: state and prospects of development. Proceedings of the scientific and practical seminar (Vladivostok, 26 February 2010)). Vladivostok: Publishing House of Far Eastern University, 2010,178 p. P. 77.
6 I draw attention to the fact that in this case the figure refers to the number of people, not to the number of criminal acts; the figure does not include committed but not solved crimes, as well as data on the number of minor offenses which were not passed to the court and were terminated in the stage of investigation. In addition, data on convictions reasonably exclude persons whose cases were dismissed due to the failure to prove the participation of the accused person in the crime.
7 Information of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building. See in detail: Ni dat', ni vzi-at', niperedat' [Neither give, nor take or pass], available at: http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2011/02/16_a_3528198.shtml
8 The study is focused on the analyzed 436 verdicts of courts of first instance in 7 federal districts of Russia; the verdicts were delivered in connection with Article 204 of the Criminal Code.
9 For example, according to the verdict № 1-257\2011 of Achinsk City Court of Krasnoyarsk Territory, "G.A. Linnik proposed his own scheme of receiving illegal remuneration, namely the rate of approximately 10 % of the total sum of ... rubles kopeks, thereby he illegally made demands for the amount mentioned above.
10 The average size of bribes in Russia amounts to almost 300 thousand rubles. See in detail: http://www.rg.ru/2011/07/22/ vzyatka-anons.html
11 See in detail: http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat/rosstatsite/main/population/demography
12 The study was conducted among 900 respondents during 1st year (2011) and 900 respondents for 2nd year (2013) of the survey (700 people were representatives of the population, 50 - judges, police officers and business representatives -members of the Central Siberian Chamber of Commerce - 150). The results were processed using a systematic methodology and nonrandom (nonprobabilistic) sample. To conduct the survey we prepared two questionnaires - for the public and
- 2496 -
experts. The first questionnaire had 22 questions, the second one - 13. The poll was conducted in the street and in large shopping centers of the city. The poll of experts was taken by telephone, personal meetings, as well as remote filling in the forms. In addition, some of the questions included in the questionnaire were used in the 2009 joint project of the Department of Tort Law and Criminology of SFU, Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Krasnoyarsk Regional Department of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium Enterprises "OPORA ROSSII" ("SUPPORT OF RUSSIA") studying the topic "Corruption in the business sphere the in Krasnoyarsk Territory", as well as in the survey of businessmen in 2010. Data from these studies were also included in the percentages shown in this work. Comparison of the data in the text cannot be presented, as they coincide on key issues, while the basis of the questionnaire in 2011 was the questionnaire of 2009-2010 modified in view of the survey.
This part of the study was carried out using "Integrum" information system. This system is the largest so far collection of electronic information on Russia and also the most complete corpus of the Russian language. The database contains full texts of more than 5,000 newspapers and magazines (archives of many newspapers starting with the 1990s), a summary of news agencies, television and radio monitoring extracts, content of the online media.
Newspapers, online resources, magazines, data of news agencies, Internet publications, newsletters and radio programs. From the massive number there were selected 500 sources containing information of interest. Of these, 198 are the newspapers (40 %), 89 - Internet resources (18 %), 79 - magazines (16 %), 72 - news reports (14 %), 47- Internet media (9 %), 14 - newsletters (3 %), 1- radio broadcast. For comparison, using the "Integrum" information system we received information that the data on bribes were mentioned in the same period in 268,761 documents (this number exceeds the number of mentions about subornation by more than 1357 times) in 3092 sources (this number exceeds the number of sources mentioning subornation by more than 6 times). See in detail: http://crimestat.ru/regions_chart_total
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation as of 13.06.1996 № 63-FZ. See in detail at: http://www.consultant.ru/popu-lar/ukrf/
See in detail: Report on the results of a sociological survey on the topic "Evaluating the effectiveness of the state policy in the sphere of security and combating corruption in the Krasnoyarsk Territory"; Research report on the sociological study "Evaluating the effectiveness of the state policy in the sphere of security and combating corruption in the Krasnoyarsk Territory", October 2012; Reeport on the sociological study "Evaluating the effectiveness of the state policy in the sphere of security and combating corruption in the Krasnoyarsk Territory". See in detail: http://www.krskstate.ru/korrup/ page4599
In Russia, normative conflicts will become a factor related to corruption. See in detail: http://pravo.ru/news/view/113178/
13
14
18
Состояние и тенденции антикоррупционной безопасности в Красноярском крае
С.Д. Красноусов
Сибирский федеральный университет Россия, 660041, Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 79
В статье рассмотрен статистический аспект антикоррупционной безопасности в Красноярском крае, представлена информация о состоянии коррупционной преступности в регионе за 1997-2014 годы, отмечена ключевая роль СМИ в формировании среди населения представления об эффективности антикоррупционной политики в регионе. Констатируется увеличение числа нераскрытых взяток в регионе, изменение мнения жителей о причинах коррупции, эффективности проведения региональной антикоррупционной политики. В статье анализируется информация о месте региона в общероссийских рейтингах зарегистрированных и нераскрытых коррупционных преступлений. На основании полученной информации делаются предложения по совершенствованию антикоррупционной политики региона.
Ключевые слова: коррупция, рейтинг, Красноярский край, безопасность, преступность, СМИ, антикоррупционная политика.
Работа выполнена при поддержке ККФПНиНТД, проект «Методология проектирования системы регулярных наблюдений и экспертно-аналитической оценки состояния экономики, инновационного комплекса и социальной сферы Красноярского края с подготовкой макета и изданием тематического бюллетеня».
Научная специальность: 12.00.00 - юридические науки, 08.00.00 - экономические науки.
