“We can’t say we’ve rooted out corruption”
Summary of anti-corruption inspections of functionaries
Six functionaries have prematurely left their posts after corruption inspections since the beginning of the year in Tatarstan, as it was said at a briefing in Kazan on 12 November. When examining public workers' financial disclosures, concealment of money and property in 190 out of 276 cases was detected. Moreover, 2,5 times fewer people’s servants have been inspected than the previous years. The Tatarstan President’s Administration for Anti-Corruption Policy explained this reduction in the number of inspections saying that their quality improved. Chief Adviser of the Anti-Corruption Inspections Department Salavat Rakhimov provided a preliminary report on the performance for the first nine months of 2019.
Minus six functionaries
Six Tatarstan functionaries have been prematurely fired after anti-corruption inspections in the first nine months of 2019. There have been 44 inspections since the beginning since January. Moreover, not suspicions of bribery were the reason as much as incorrect information about income or not regulation of a conflict of interests. Chief Adviser of the Tatarstan President’s Administration for Anti-Corruption Policy’s Anti-Corruption Inspections Department Salavat Rakhimov talked about it at the briefing. According to the specialist, inspections of the top management of republican ministries didn’t detect violations.
Apart from this, the ministries and local government have had 276 inspections of information about income since the beginning of 2019, according to the supervisory agency’s data, 190 of them didn’t provide full information. Rakhimov didn’t name the fined functionaries and the ministries with the biggest number of corruption violations and stressed that the administration would provide a more detailed report for nine months of 2019 at the final session on 26 November.
2,5 times fewer corruption inspections of functionaries’ financial disclosure
Over 700 criminal cases on corruption have been launched in Tatarstan this year. 50% of them went to the court, and 30% of them had convictions, judge of the Tatarstan Supreme Court Irek Ibragimov provided this data last week. He called strict control over functionaries’ financial disclosure one of the most effective methods to fight corruption.
Meanwhile, according to the data provided by Salavat Rakhimov at the briefing, there can be seen a manifold reduction in all corruption inspections in the ministries and local government in 2019 than during the first nine months in 2018. Last year, there were held 717 inspections of financial disclosures, this year — just 276, that’s to say, their number has been 2,5 times less.
“We can say it happens because inspections aren’t just formal anymore. We are talking about a kind of refinement, improvement of the quality of inspections,” the chief adviser of the Tatarstan President’s Administration for Anti-Corruption Policy’s Anti-Corruption Inspections Department claimed.
According to the speaker, there were found violations during 175 inspections only last year — not full or wrong information, there were found 190 violations during 276 inspections in 2019.
“In other words, one in four inspections detected not full or false information last year, during nine months this year, two in three inspections end with detection of not full or false information. This mainly happens because some accounts aren’t included, there can also be technical errors, the property isn’t included, the cases are completely different,” Rakhimov added.
Apart from the reduction in inspections of financial disclosure, the number of inspections of compliance with anti-corruption legislation requirement decreases as well — regulation of a conflict of interests. Ministries and the local government have had 44 inspections of this kind since early 2019 — according to the administration’s information, there were found violations in eight cases, moreover, in five cases functionaries were held accountable.
“We are quite self-critical and perfectly understand that there are still enough problems”
Public surveys show nowadays that corruption isn’t in the top problems that concern Russians anymore, the chief adviser of the Tatarstan President’s Administration for Anti-Corruption Policy’s Anti-Corruption Inspections Department claimed. 8-9% of respondents have faced corruption in the last three years. According to date for 2010-2011, one in five respondents faced corruption, which is about 21%.
“In this respect, we can say that the situation improved, but the examples that will be provided by the ministries on 26 November, court decisions in Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan, corresponding convictions show that the problem exists. We can’t say we’ve rooted out it. We can see corruption risks in any sphere. We are quite self-critical and perfectly understand that there are still enough problems. And we can’t claim everything has improved despite some numbers,” Salavat Rakhimov concluded.