The government denied officials the right to receive gifts worth more than 3 thousand rubles

The government commission on legislative work did not support the proposal to increase the cost of folk art crafts to ten thousand rubles, which can be presented to officials of different levels. This will not help artisans, and it may require additional funds from the budgets, according to the draft recall of the Cabinet of Ministers to the initiative. For some reason, its authors did not consider it necessary to extend the relaxation of anti-corruption restrictions to teachers or doctors …

The bill was submitted to the State Duma at the end of 2022 by Senator Pavel Tarakanov and Deputy Nikolai Brykin (“ER”), both representing the Tyumen Region. In 2008, according to the explanatory note to their initiative, Russia ratified the UN Convention against Corruption and the Convention on Criminal Liability for Corruption Offenses, and adopted the federal law “On Combating Corruption”. After that, the cost of the permissible so-called. “ordinary gift” to certain categories of officials and civil servants was reduced from five minimum wages to 3 thousand rubles (at that time this amount was equal to one minimum wage, now it does not reach 20% of the minimum wage). But the level of cumulative inflation from 2008 to June 2022 amounted to about 190%, the authors of the bill continue, the cost of consumables and wages for craftsmen has “significantly increased” – accordingly, the cost of the products themselves has “significantly increased”.

The market for gifts for official and symbolic purposes is “quite significant” for manufacturers in this industry, but rising prices “do not allow many products to be given to state and municipal employees.” If we raise the allowable threshold for the value of such gifts to 10,000 rubles, this will not lead to an increase in corruption risks, the deputy and the senator believe. In their opinion, if before the pandemic and the start of a special military operation with subsequent sanctions, foreign tourists bought up significant volumes of products of artistic crafts, but now this cannot be counted on, and other ways to stimulate and support the industry are needed.

Recall: now Article 575 of the Civil Code (“Prohibition of gifting”) does not allow giving gifts to anyone worth more than three thousand rubles on behalf of minors and incapacitated parents or guardians, and employees of educational, medical and social institutions – those who are under their treatment or care. It is still impossible to give gifts more than 3,000 rubles to “persons holding public positions of the Russian Federation, public positions of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipal positions, civil servants, municipal employees, employees of the Bank of Russia in connection with their official position or in connection with the performance of their official duties.” But with a caveat: officials and civil servants can receive gifts worth more than 3 thousand rubles, but only “in connection with protocol events, business trips and other official events.” If a gift worth more than 3 thousand rubles is received by an official in such a situation and on an official occasion, it is recognized as “federal property, property of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation or municipal property”, depending on what level the official or official was, and is transferred to the employee under the act to the authority in which it serves.

So, Messrs. Tarakanov and Brykin propose to raise the cost of an “ordinary gift” for officials and civil servants from 3,000 to 10,000 rubles if they gave a handicraft product included in the list established by the government. It means that such Zhostovo trays, teapots from Gzhel and Orenburg downy shawls, which cost more than 10 thousand rubles, received in connection with the execution of powers, will have to be handed over to the treasury.

As follows from the draft review approved by the government commission on legislative work (available to MK), the initiative did not find support from the departments. Feedback is negative. Why?

The document recalls that the law “On the State Civil Service” prohibits federal and regional officials from receiving, in connection with the performance of official duties, “remuneration from individuals and legal entities (gifts, monetary rewards, loans, services, payment for entertainment, recreation, transportation costs and other remuneration). Similar prohibitions are established by other laws in respect of officials – for example, those who hold public office in the Russian Federation. The list of such positions is approved by presidential decree, and it includes the president himself, and the prime minister, and ministers with deputies, and judges of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts headed by chairmen, and auditors of the Accounts Chamber, and governors, and senators with State Duma deputies headed with a speaker, etc., etc. This is considered one of the anti-corruption measures. Giving gifts worth more than 3 thousand rubles to officials at official events is not prohibited, the document reminds, but, as already mentioned, on condition that they are then handed over to the treasury.

But “in some cases” the purchase of gifts is carried out at the expense of budgets of different levels, the document reminds that it is true: all federal and regional authorities have a gift fund with such souvenirs. Therefore, the statement of the authors of the bill that it would not entail any additional costs from the federal budget may be questioned: if the authorities want to support folk crafts by buying more expensive gifts from them, then they will have to increase the cost of their purchase. If they don’t want to, it means that no additional support will work.

In addition, the government reminds that support for enterprises and organizations of folk crafts is carried out within the framework of the relevant federal project and those included in the list approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade receive subsidies from the federal budget.

The specialized Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation has not yet considered the bill.