Legal Nature of Civil Servants Responsibility for Corruption Offences

Abstract

The Federal Law «On State Civil Service of the Russian Federation», along with the general rules on the disciplinary responsibility of civil servants for committing disciplinary offenses, contains special rules governing penalties that can be imposed for committing corruption offenses. In this context there are different approaches to the nature of responsibility for such offences. It is well-known that the nature of legal responsibility for certain offences is determined by the nature of the acts underlining such responsibility. When comparing the elements of a disciplinary offence and a corruption offence we can come to a conclusion that shows their considerable similarity, though, at the same time, a corruption offence contains certain specific elements. Thus, a corruption offence is a special kind of a disciplinary offence when a civil servant does not comply with civil service restrictions and prohibitions, requirements to prevent or resolve conflict of interest issues or issues concerning the failure to carry out obligations established under the law in order to prevent corruption. The authors claim that there are no sufficient grounds to declare civil servants responsibility for committing corruption offences as a separate type of legal responsibility. Such responsibility can be dealt with as disciplinary responsibility for corruption offences prescribed under the law as one of legal tools used to prevent and overcome corruption in the sphere of civil service.