Corruption is not just about bribery. What is the penalty for excess of duties

Corruption among citizens is most often associated exclusively with bribery. However, judicial practice clearly demonstrates that no less destructive for the economy and society are crimes associated with the misuse of the administrative and managerial resources. About the crimes committed using official powers, the correspondent of the agency “Minsk-Novosti” told the judge of the Minsk city court Angela Kostyukevich.

The photo is illustrative in nature

Undermining confidence

- Possessing power, organizational-administrative or administrative-economic duties, unscrupulous officials “convert” their status into material benefits not through obtaining material benefits from third parties, but directly, explains A. Kostyukevich. This happens by unlawful disposal of entrusted property and financial flows, in the form of excess of power or official powers, including dictated by selfish or other personal interest, motives of careerism. We are talking about embezzlement through abuse of official powers (Article 210 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of power or official powers (Article 426 of the Criminal Code).

The constant position of the state against any manifestations of corruption is a strategically verified necessity. Corruption of officials has an increased public danger, because it destroys the foundations of public administration from within. When a law is violated by one whose duty and duty it is to protect and enforce, there is a devaluation of legal values in the minds of citizens.

At the same time, embezzlements committed by officials wash away the working capital and assets of enterprises, disrupting their modernization and development. Corruption within legal entities of any form of ownership undermines fair competition and destabilizes the economy.

The form of ownership is different, the responsibility is the same

The use of official position in personal interests inevitably entails the application of measures of criminal responsibility and the inevitability of punishment, and in some cases without the right to relax the regime of its serving. Corruption manifestations occur in various spheres of life. It is a mistake to believe that criminal liability for official crimes concerns only civil servants or employees of various departments.

“The offences provided for in Articles 210 and 426 of the Criminal Code apply equally to representatives of the state apparatus and officials of enterprises of any form of ownership,” the judge stressed. The decisive factor for qualification is the presence of organizational and administrative or administrative-economic duties of the person. If a manager or specialist is empowered to manage property, people or financial flows, he or she automatically becomes a potential subject of responsibility.

Directors of private companies, managers, chief engineers and financially responsible persons bear exactly the same responsibility for the abuse of the managerial resource provided to them as the heads of state-owned enterprises. The law equally protects the assets of organizations of any form of ownership.

An analysis of real criminal cases shows that the illusion of impunity and the attempt to use one’s official resources lead to career collapse and often to real deprivation of liberty, regardless of the specifics of the institution or the size of the organization.

Saved ... on quality

In the practice of capital justice, a special place is occupied by cases where the alleged desire to save hides personal and selfish interest and turns into serious economic losses.

For example, the head of the procurement department of one of the enterprises, being an official, ignored strict technological requirements and the established procurement procedure. For several years, he ensured the acquisition of low-quality raw materials by the organization. His personal interest was expressed in the desire to prove himself before the management and receive encouragement for making economically profitable transactions for the enterprise through the purchase of cheap raw materials and the formation of an imaginary savings fund.

The photo is illustrative in nature

As a result of the use of low-quality raw materials in the manufacture of products and its subsequent sale to consumers, the brand suffered significant harm. He expressed himself not only in direct financial losses from defective products, but also in the deep undermining of the image of the enterprise and its workforce.

The actions of the head of the department were qualified under part 2 of Article 426 of the Criminal Code. He was found guilty of intentional commission by an official of actions clearly exceeding the limits of the rights and powers granted to him by the service, causing significant harm to the state and public interests, committed out of selfish and other personal interest. The head of the department was sentenced to two years in prison.

The worker is not personal

An equally common factor in the commission of crimes by an official is the false belief that the abducted person will be able to return invisibly before the inspection begins. An example is a criminal case against the head of one of the post offices. Having access to daily revenue and taking advantage of the opportunity not to give money to collectors at once, she gradually took some money from the cash register, spending them on personal needs and hoping one day to close the shortfall from personal funds. The amount of shortage grew like a snowball until the fact of theft was revealed during the inspection. The head was convicted under part 4 of article 210 of the criminal code for theft of property by abuse of official position, she was sentenced to imprisonment.

Operation capture

A specific case related to a gross violation of professional duty in law enforcement practice is a criminal case where a person with a special legal status and authorized by the state to carry out anti-crisis management has committed a crime.

- We are talking about an anti-crisis manager of a legal entity, to whom the state has granted authority to conduct the procedure for the termination of the organization, which implies the highest degree of trust in its activities both from the state and from the society, says A. Kostyukevich. The anti-crisis manager had to carry out the procedure of liquidation of the economic company. He had enough property, including expensive equipment and cars, to pay salaries to employees and pay off creditors. Instead, the liquidator sold buses without paperwork, and an expensive car through forged power of attorney and fictitious employment for the enterprise during the liquidation of “his” people was issued in personal property. The pretext was the repayment of wage arrears to newly employed employees.

As a result, real workers were left without wages, the enterprise was not liquidated, but went into a protracted stage of bankruptcy, and the manager was convicted of a number of crimes, including parts 3 and 4 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code.

Answer in full

The law provides for severe sanctions aimed not only at isolating the criminal from society, but also at his complete exclusion from the administrative sphere by depriving him of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, as well as imposing a large fine. This ensures the inevitability of responsibility and destroys the illusion of impunity, regardless of the form of ownership of the enterprise.

- The maximum qualification of responsibility and preventive effect is established by the legislator for persons holding public positions whose unlawful acts directly discredit the authority of the authorities, the judge said. The key element of this uncompromising preventive policy is the provisions of Part 8 of Article 90 and Part 7 of Article 91 of the Criminal Code, according to which officials holding public positions convicted of corruption crimes are not subject to parole from punishment, they are not subject to replacement of the unserved part of the punishment with a milder one. Such a person is obliged to serve the sentence imposed by the court in full, and exemplary behavior, voluntary compensation for damage cannot affect the decision on the mitigation of the conditions of his serving. This circumstance is the most powerful factor in the overall prevention of the entire management system.

Prevention of corruption crimes begins with personal discipline and awareness of the boundaries of their legal responsibility. Official authority in any field of activity is not a privilege, but an area of increased legal and moral obligations. The only lawful way to exclude the risks of applying criminal law measures is impeccable, honest and strict compliance with the acts regulating the powers of officials.

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