The Ministry of Labor proposed to dismiss officials and security officials for conflicts of interest of subordinates

The Ministry of Labor has developed a draft law on changing the rules for countering and resolving conflicts of interest among officials. Officials and security forces will be threatened with dismissal if they knew about the conflict of interest of their subordinates and did not take action.

The bill passed interdepartmental coordination and submitted to the government, the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation reported RBC. The Public Council supported the initiative, said Nina Kuzmina, deputy chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia.

The document assumes that officials will inform their superiors about the occurrence of “personal interest that leads or may lead to a conflict of interest.” The boss must take steps to prevent or resolve the conflict. If he does not have the authority to do this, then he must inform the higher management. Otherwise, the boss should be fired “due to loss of confidence.”

The Ministry of Labor has also developed measures that a manager should take if he finds out about a situation related to a conflict of interest from a subordinate. So, he can offer the employee to refuse the benefit received or expected to be received, to strengthen control over the performance of official duties by a subordinate, or to remove a subordinate from a controversial assignment.

As Anatoly Loginov, partner of BGP Litigation, told RBC, the current legislation also provides for punishment for the lack of measures taken by superiors to resolve conflicts of interest among subordinates. In case of failure to perform such duties, the manager faces disciplinary liability, which does not necessarily threaten with dismissal.

Leonid Uvarchev