Types and classification of administrative control and supervisory procedures in Russia

Morozov Sergei Andreevich Assistant of the Department of Administrative and Financial Law of the Faculty of Law of the National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky 603115, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Ashkhabadskaya str., 4 sergeymorozov@jur.unn.ru Other publications by this author

Administrative control and supervisory procedures are an integral part of the administrative process as an activity of public administration for the application of administrative and legal norms (i.e., administrative process in a broad sense), as indicated by various authors. For example, Yu. A. Tikhomirov distinguishes them as control procedures ^{[1, p. 615]}; the subject of scientific interest of A.V. Martynov were administrative and supervisory procedures ^{[2, p. 334]}; I. M. Lazarev identified control and supervisory procedures in his classification ^{[3, p. 9]}; R. S. Tikhy in the framework of his dissertation The author proposed to consider control and supervision along with licensing and registration as procedures for performing legal actions by executive authorities; as a kind of administrative and supervisory procedures (within which control and supervision exist), I. M. Masharov highlighted ^{[4, pp. 176-177]}.

The adoption of Federal Law No. 248-FZ dated 07/31/2020 "On State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control in the Russian Federation" (hereinafter – the Federal Law "On State Control" has significantly transformed domestic control and supervisory activities. Let's consider both the external and internal sides of these changes.

First, it is worth paying attention to the reconfiguration of the types of state control (supervision) in the Russian Federation. As a result of amendments to more than one hundred federal laws regulating issues of state control and supervision in certain areas of society (Federal Law No. 170-FZ dated 06/11/2021 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Connection with the Adoption of the Federal Law "On State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control in the Russian Federation") some types of state control (supervision) have been abolished, and new ones have taken their place. For example, federal state transport supervision and federal state supervision in the field of road safety were abolished and the following types of state control (supervision) were established instead:

federal state control (supervision) in road transport, urban land electric transport and in the road sector;

federal State control (supervision) in the field of civil aviation;

federal state control (supervision) in the field of railway transport;

federal State control (supervision) in the field of merchant shipping and inland waterway transport;

federal state control (supervision) in the field of road safety;

supervision of compliance by road users with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on road safety ^{[5, pp. 14-15]}.

Secondly, attention should be paid to scaling up the system of state control and supervision in Russia. According to the Higher School of Economics, the number of types of state control increased from 208 types in 2013 to 241 types in 2020 (that is, the appearance of 4-5 new types of control is recorded annually, while, as we saw earlier, this happens against the background of the abolition of a number of types of state control) ^{[6, pp. 11-14]}. The functions of state control (supervision) are currently carried out by more than 40 federal executive authorities, both federal services and federal ministries and federal agencies, as well as the state corporation Rosatom (in terms of construction supervision during the construction and reconstruction of facilities of federal nuclear organizations).

Thirdly, with regard to the transformations "inside" the administrative control and supervisory procedure, the forms of state control (supervision) have radically changed: a new form of state control (supervision) has been established - a control (supervisory) event, including new forms that were not previously used (monitoring procurement, inspection visit, field inspection) ^{[7, p. 205]}. In total, since 2009, when the only form of control and supervision was verification, their number has increased to ten ^{[6, pp. 11-14]}. The administrative control and supervisory procedure develops within the framework of successive stages ^{[8, p. 114]}, and the control (supervisory) event is the central stage, as it were, the "core" of the procedure.

Thus, changes in the legal regulation of the organization and implementation of state (control) supervision in the Russian Federation have significantly changed the existence of administrative control and supervisory procedures, which actualizes the need to systematize knowledge about them.

The purpose of the research conducted by us in the framework of this article is to identify the types of administrative procedures existing in Russia that are implemented by state control (supervision) bodies in the course of performing their functions.

The object of this study is social relations that develop during the organization and implementation of control and supervisory administrative procedures by federal executive authorities, territorial bodies of federal executive authorities and their officials. The subject of the study is the legislation of the Russian Federation, subordinate normative legal acts, administrative and legal norms regulating the control and supervisory activities of federal executive authorities, their territorial bodies, officials, as well as scientific developments in this field.

During the research, both general and private scientific methods were used, among which the classification method stands out, which is one of the methods of scientific knowledge of the surrounding world, including legal reality. In the absence of classification of the things under study (objects, phenomena), the theoretical significance of the research is incomplete. In this regard, it seems necessary to conduct a full study of administrative control and supervisory procedures without classifying them, determining their types.

As I. V. Ponkin and A. I. Redkina clarify, classification is also a method of organizing and presenting knowledge, a method of conducting research ^{[9, p. 253]}.

The authors, who identify control and supervisory (and synonymous with them) procedures in the system of administrative procedures, approach the issues of their classification in different ways.

Yu. A. Tikhomirov, in the group of control procedures, identifies the general control procedure, monitoring the implementation of laws and other legal acts, special and thematic forms of control, the intra-system control procedure, evaluation control procedures ^{[1, p. 615]}. A positive feature of this classification, which is undoubtedly worth noting, is its focus on the various forms in which these procedures can be clothed.

A. I. Stakhov, in the course of characterizing the control and supervisory administrative proceedings, highlighted the procedures for preparing an audit, conducting an audit, and evaluating the results of inspections ^{[10, p. 3]}. These types of procedures are well connected with regulatory material (for example, administrative regulations, where administrative actions and administrative procedures are presented synonymously). Nevertheless, in our opinion, this division is too fractional.

It is impossible not to note the contribution of S. M. Zubarev to the classification of control procedures, who drew attention not only to various forms of procedures, but also divided them depending on the body implementing them (the Government of the Russian Federation, federal executive authorities, heads of subjects of the Russian Federation, etc.) ^{[11, p. 187]}.

A.V. Martynov conducted a classification of administrative and supervisory procedures, dividing them into general (verification, revision, supervision, monitoring) and special (sending requests, inspection, survey, and others) administrative and supervisory procedures, as well as classifying them according to the scope within which administrative supervision is carried out, as well as its regulation by administrative regulations (procedures for conducting inspections of insurance business entities, in the field of atmospheric air protection and others) ^{[2, pp. 390-391]}.

This approach seems to us to be the most correct from a theoretical, normative and practical point of view:

1) a wide range of regulatory material in the form of by-laws (regulations on types of control (supervision), administrative regulations) regulating various types of administrative control and supervisory procedures gives us a reliable basis for classification;

2) the composition of state control (supervision) bodies, special principles, the legal status of participants in control and supervisory legal relations, the composition of administrative actions performed and a number of other signs differ for different types of state control and supervision;

3) daily law enforcement activities for the implementation of the functions of control and supervision of authorized bodies and their officials are based precisely on the established regulatory procedure, and not on doctrinal guidelines.

Analyzing the presented points of view, it can be noted that the authors, highlighting various types of procedures, focus on the form of state control (supervision), the scope of its implementation, as well as control and supervisory authorities directly implementing the procedures.

Summarizing the above, we consider it necessary to identify the following grounds for classifying administrative control and supervisory procedures:

the form of the control (supervisory) measure underlying the administrative procedure;

bodies implementing the functions of state control (supervision);

the area of state control (supervision).

1. So, the first basis of classification for us will be the composition of control (supervisory) measures implemented during the control and supervisory procedure. The differences in the central part of the procedure allow us to distinguish between standard administrative control and supervisory procedures and special procedures.

The main standard procedures are control (supervisory) measures established by the Federal Law "On State Control": control procurement, monitoring procurement, selective control, inspection visit, raid inspection, documentary inspection, on-site inspection, which are carried out in cooperation with a controlled person, as well as monitoring compliance with mandatory requirements (security monitoring) and on-site examination (conducted without interaction of the state control (supervision) body with the controlled person).

For example, within the framework of federal state control (supervision) of collection organizations, it is permissible to carry out control in the form of an inspection visit, documentary inspection and on-site inspection (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2272 dated 12/23/2023). Each of these measures is characterized by its own timing and composition of control (supervisory) actions that officials of the state control (supervision) body are entitled to perform:

- within the framework of an inspection visit, it is allowed to carry out an inspection, interview, receive written explanations, instrumental examination, request documents, the duration of the inspection visit may not exceed one working day;

- within the framework of a documentary check, it is allowed to receive written explanations, request documents and conduct an examination, the deadline for conducting a documentary check is set within ten working days;

- during the on-site inspection, it is allowed to conduct an inspection, interview, receive written explanations, request documents, instrumental examination and examination, the duration of the on-site inspection, as a general rule, is ten working days.

Special administrative control and supervisory procedures constitute control measures that differ from those in the Federal Law "On State Control". Most often, such procedures are regulated by administrative regulations (most of them adopted before the entry into force of the above-mentioned federal law, and therefore, do not always follow its provisions). For example, within the framework of federal state supervision in the field of atomic energy use (Rostechnadzor Order No. 248 dated 06/07/2013), administrative regulations establish such a control (supervisory) event as an inspection.

2. According to the composition of state control (supervision) bodies and their officials, we consider it advisable to distinguish monosubject administrative control and supervisory procedures and polysubject administrative control and supervisory procedures.

In our opinion, monosubject procedures should include procedures in which state control (supervision) is carried out by officials of one federal executive authority and its territorial divisions. A typical example of such a procedure is the control and supervisory administrative procedure for the implementation of state supervision in the field of advertising, the authorized bodies of which are the antimonopoly authority - the FAS of Russia (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 30.06.2021).

Another category includes polysubject administrative control and supervisory procedures, in which various state bodies and their officials may be on the side of the supervisory authority. As an example of such a procedure, we can cite the control and supervisory procedure carried out within the framework of the federal state control (supervision) of grain and grain processing products imported into the Russian Federation from foreign countries, where the authorized bodies are the Rosselkhoznadzor and the Federal Customs Service of Russia (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 30.06.2021 No. 1079).

3. Finally, it is justified to classify administrative control and supervisory procedures in the field of public relations, in which mandatory requirements are established, the verification of compliance with which is carried out within the framework of state control (supervision).

The volume of the scientific article does not allow us to provide a complete classification of such procedures (especially since the Unified Register of Types of Control has only 17 categories of types of control, and each can be divided into subcategories). State control (supervision) is carried out in the field of medicine, security, transport, culture, ecology, communications, agriculture and other industries, therefore we consider it necessary to limit ourselves to certain types of administrative control and supervisory procedures.

Thus, in the field of communications and information technology, administrative control and supervisory procedures for the implementation of control (supervision) can be distinguished: in the field of communication; in the field of electronic signature.

In the field of education: administrative control and supervisory procedures for the control (supervision) of the field of education; control (supervision) of compliance with mandatory requirements for the examination of the Russian language as a foreign language, the history of Russia and the basics of the legislation of the Russian Federation and the issuance of a certificate to foreign citizens.

As part of the implementation of state federal control (supervision) over the protection of consumer rights, the following control (supervision) procedures are implemented: in the field of consumer protection; in the field of ensuring the quality and safety of food products; in the field of production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products; in the fields of natural monopolies and in the field of state regulation of prices (tariffs).

In the field of medicine and health protection, the following procedures of state control (supervision) exist: for the quality and safety of medical activities; sanitary and epidemiological control (supervision); for the circulation of medicines for medical purposes; for the circulation of veterinary medicines; for the circulation of medical devices; for ensuring the safety of donated blood and its components; in the field of treatment of biomedical cell products.

It should be noted that the system of control and supervisory administrative procedures is mobile and dynamically developing. Thus, in 2023, an administrative control and supervisory procedure was introduced for the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to exercise state control over the activities of foreign agents (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 18 dated 01/14/2023).

Thus, it is more appropriate to classify administrative control and supervisory procedures according to the following criteria:

according to the composition of control (supervisory) measures carried out within the framework of the administrative procedure: standard and special procedures;

according to the composition of state control (supervision) bodies and their officials: monosubject and polysubject (distributed) procedures;

in the field of state federal control (supervision): administrative control and supervisory procedures in the field of communications, education, transport, etc.

As a result of the conducted research, we studied the scientific points of view of leading experts on the classification of control and supervisory procedures, identified the grounds for classification, and directly identified modern types of administrative control and supervisory procedures. It should be noted that some of the grounds for classifying procedures that we have identified (for example, in terms of their division into monosubject and polysubject procedures) are new to administrative control and supervisory procedures, the rest (classification by form of control (supervision) and scope of their implementation), although they were highlighted in the scientific literature earlier, as a result of changes the entire array of regulatory regulations required an updated analysis of the content.