The lawyer warned about the risks of canceling the annual declarations of civil servants

The proposed changes to legislation regarding the procedure for anti-corruption control in the civil service may lead to a weakening of key mechanisms for verifying officials. Alexander Khaminsky, a lawyer and head of the Law Enforcement Center in Moscow and the Moscow Region, told Izvestia on December 11.

"The proposed amendments provide for the abolition of mandatory annual declarations of officials and the transition to a digital anti-corruption control system. Declaration will remain mandatory only upon admission to public service and upon appointment to public positions. In addition, the declaration will be necessary when transferring to another authority and being included in the personnel reserve," the expert said.

As Khaminsky noted, the authors of the initiative believe that constant digital monitoring will make it possible to continuously monitor changes in the financial situation of officials. To do this, it is planned to use the Poseidon system, integrated with the databases of the Federal Tax Service, Rosfinmonitoring, Rosreestr, Rosimushchestvo, the Bank of Russia and other departments.

However, the lawyer said that the cancellation of the annual declarations may not lead to increased control. He stressed that the declaration is a basic verification tool, since it is filled out by civil servants themselves, and it is important to compare its data with the results of digital monitoring.

"The proposed transition to a digital anti-corruption control system should complement rather than cancel the filing of declarations. Thus, it is possible to compare information provided by civil servants independently with information obtained as a result of constant digital monitoring. Such a multifactorial check would make it possible to increase the effect of anti—corruption activities," the expert concluded.

Common grounds: criminal cases will be initiated against five Rostov judges

They are suspected of taking bribes and imposing unjust sentences.

On December 10, deputies of the State Duma introduced a bill to improve the system of declaring officials' own income. In particular, the initiative involves moving from annual declarations to requesting them for specific cases. As part of the proposed amendments, information on income and expenses will be required only when specific circumstances arise.

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