Combating economic and corruption-related crimes related to the distribution and use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs

Mangasarov Ruslan Anatol'evich PhD in Law Senior Researcher at the Research Center of the Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 125130, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Z. i A. Kosmodem'yanskikh, 8 ubep-ak@mail.ru Other publications by this author

There are serious economic problems in the Russian Federation at the present stage of development, primarily related to economic sanctions (trade sanctions and financial sanctions) and others. For timely rapid response and stabilization of the economy, the Russian Federation annually allocates significant budgetary funds for state and municipal needs.

In accordance with Federal Law No. 380-FZ of 02.12.2019
(ed. from 03/18/2020) "On the Federal budget for 2020 and for the planning period of 2021 and 2022" the total amount of federal budget revenues of the Russian Federation in 2020 amounted to 20.6 trillion rubles, and the total amount of federal budget expenditures amounted to 19.7 trillion rubles, including: national issues – 1.4 trillion rubles; national defense – 1.1 trillion rubles; national security and law enforcement – 1.5 trillion rubles; national economy – 2.5 trillion rubles; housing and communal services - 0.3 trillion rubles; environmental protection – 0.3 billion rubles; education – 0.9 trillion rubles; culture, cinematography – 0.1 trillion rubles; healthcare – 1 trillion rubles; social politics – 5 trillion rubles; physical culture and sports – 74.5 billion rubles; mass media – 94.3 billion rubles; servicing of state and municipal debt – 0.9 trillion rubles; inter-budgetary transfers of a general nature to the budgets of the budgetary system of the Russian Federation - 1 trillion rubles. It is worth noting that in the budget for 2020, the leading role of spending on the social sphere - education, medicine and other areas - has been preserved. According to them, it was decided to allocate 35% of expenses, almost 7 trillion rubles. ^[1].

At the same time, the federal budget of the Russian Federation provides for the financing of national projects established by
and approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin
No. 204 dated May 7, 2018 "On National goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024" ^[2]. National projects have been developed in order to ensure breakthrough scientific, technological and socio-economic development of Russia, improving the standard of living of citizens, in three areas: "Human capital", "Comfortable living environment" and "Economic growth". For the implementation of national projects until 2024, it is planned to allocate more than
26 trillion rubles .

Key threats to economic security, in accordance with the Strategy of Economic Security of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030, approved on May 13, 2017. By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 208, there is a high level of corruption and criminalization
in the economic sphere. At the same time, the strategic objectives of ensuring Russia's economic security are: combating embezzlement of public funds, corruption, shadow and criminal economy ^[3].

The growth of economic and corruption-related crimes related to the distribution and use of budget funds has a negative impact on all aspects of public life: it destabilizes the rule of law, disorganizes public relations, undermines trust
to the highest state authorities, as a result of which it has a corrupting effect on the administrative apparatus, leads to budget depletion, etc. In this regard, the priority task is to organize proper control over the distribution and expenditure of budget funds in all areas of the economy.

At the same time, the general analysis of modern economic crime indicates its increasing social danger, here are some signs indicating this:

– the expansion of the territorial boundaries of economic crimes, economic crime is no longer only interregional, but
and the transnational nature, which continues to intensify
in recent years;

– further active merging of traditional criminal crime with economic crime, with the explicit priority of the latter;

– strengthening of organization and professionalism in the commission of economic and corruption crimes, they are committed, as a rule, by professionals;

– the manifestation in the illegal activities of the leaders of economic crime of persistent efforts in various forms to corrupt employees of the state apparatus, especially law enforcement agencies at all levels of the hierarchy of management, in the most significant sectors of the economy and important economic and geographical regions;

– active counteraction of organized criminal formations to law enforcement agencies in the fight against economic crime (creation of their own security services, conducting criminal "counterintelligence" work, etc.);

– organization of a system of professional and technical support by organized criminal formations for their illegal activities (selection of special personnel for this, training them, use of technical means, up to the most modern, conducting research and experiments in this direction with the expenditure of significant financial resources);

- the provision of economic influence by the leaders of the criminal world
and the impact on the political spheres of society and the state.

An important role in the fight against embezzlement of budget funds is played by the economic security and anti–corruption units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (hereinafter - EBiPK), which carry out a set of operational investigative measures to identify and suppress the facts of embezzlement of budget funds allocated for state
and municipal needs, for the implementation of national projects (programs)
and federal targeted programs.

The Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti–Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - GUEBiPK), together with the divisions of the EBiPK, within the competence, in cooperation with the Control Department of the President of the Russian Federation, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Treasury and other interested ministries and departments, implements a set of organizational and practical measures aimed at prevention and disclosure of embezzlement of budget funds.

Employees of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia are actively working to combat embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects, as noted by the head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs A.A. Kurnosenko of Russia: "For us, all national projects are equivalent, and all of them, when implemented from the point of view of law enforcement, have similar problems… I would like to emphasize the fact that, despite the considerable efforts being made to stop the embezzlement of state budget funds, the attackers are acting very, very ingeniously. Where it is necessary to obtain contracts, they underestimate their initial amounts, in other cases, on the contrary, they inflate prices, but already during the work. They use the slightest loopholes in the legislation. In this sense, one of the latest developments of the service in the Stavropol Territory is indicative, which resulted in the initiation of a case under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of a criminal community). A criminal group of ten people for several years organized competitions for the supply of equipment for the Olympic Reserve school and eight other state institutions, and they did it in such a way that strictly defined firms controlled by them received orders. As a result, about 40 million rubles were stolen due to overpricing. Now some of the defendants are under arrest, the organizers are wanted. In addition, two criminal cases have been initiated
in relation to the first deputy head of Novotroitsk, Orenburg region, who received bribes totaling 4 million rubles. The money was paid for failure to take measures to hold the contractor accountable for improper execution of the municipal contract for street improvement implemented under the national project "Housing and urban Environment", as well as for unhindered acceptance of work under the national project "Safe
and high-quality highways" ^[4].

The allocated budget funds arouse increased interest among criminal structures. According to the FKU "GIAC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia", in 2021, employees of the EBiPK units revealed more than 9 thousand economic crimes related to embezzlement of budget funds. The material damage caused amounted to more than 200 billion rubles (in 2017 – 8,412, in 2018 – 7,095, in 2019 – 6,839, in 2020 – 7585)^[5]. Despite the efforts made by the internal affairs bodies to protect budgetary funds, a high level of criminalization of the budgetary sphere remains at present.

It is worth noting that official departmental statistics only partially characterize the criminogenic situation and represent digital indicators by which the activities of law enforcement agencies are evaluated (the number of crimes detected, the number of persons brought to criminal responsibility, etc.), while the total number and consequences of embezzlement in the public sector in the country are extremely difficult to assess due to their high latency. The fight against embezzlement of budgetary funds is a serious problem for law enforcement agencies.

As part of the study, we analyzed the materials of pre-investigation inspections and criminal cases on the facts of committing crimes of an economic and corruption orientation related to the distribution and use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs, as a result of which, the main structures were identified for which the persons who committed the crimes in question, namely: Article 159 of the Criminal Code, Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code and Article 160 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, we highlight related crimes, including: Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,
Article 285 of the Criminal Code, 286 of the Criminal Code, 290 of the Criminal Code, 291-291.2 of the Criminal Code, 293 of the Criminal Code, as well as Article 324 of the Criminal Code, Part 1 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code, Part 3 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code and others.

Taking into account the specifics of the crimes under consideration, including the specifics of economic activity and the presence of managerial functions of the subjects, they can be divided into several groups:

1. Crimes against property:

- Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Fraud", Article 159.2 "Fraud in receiving payments";

- Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Appropriation or embezzlement".

These crimes are committed by citizens and officials out of selfish motives, realizing the intent to illegally enrich themselves by stealing budget funds allocated for state and municipal needs, for the implementation of national projects (programs) and federal targeted programs. An example is a criminal case initiated under Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, on the fact of embezzlement of budget funds allocated in the form of subsidies for reimbursement of costs for the arrangement of a workplace for a disabled person ^[6]. So, the director of LLC A. having intent on embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated in the form of a subsidy for reimbursement of part of the costs for the arrangement of workplaces for the disabled, produced fictitious accounting documents on the purchase of equipment from the sole proprietor for the arrangement of workplaces for the disabled and a video surveillance system. Subsequently, A. stole funds allocated in the form of a subsidy to reimburse part of the costs for the arrangement of workplaces for the disabled, providing a package of documents, including fictitious accounting documents to the regional Ministry of Social Protection. At the same time, A. did not purchase any equipment, did not equip the workplaces of employed disabled people. A. was convicted under Part 3 of Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ^[7].

2. Crimes against state power, interests of public service and service in local self-government bodies:

- Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Abuse of official powers";

- Article 285.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Misuse of budget funds";

- V. 285.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Misuse of funds of state extra-budgetary funds";

- Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Abuse of official authority".

Crimes from this group are committed by officials who are civil servants and are endowed with appropriate authority, they are directed against the interests of the civil service in various spheres, including in the sphere of spending funds intended to finance the tasks and functions of the state and local self-government.

3. Crimes in the sphere of economic activity:

- Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime".

The crimes listed above, committed in the budgetary sphere, are predicate to the legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime. Criminal actions consist in the commission by an individual of financial transactions and other transactions with funds or other property acquired by him as a result of the commission of a crime, the purpose is to legitimize these funds. This crime violates the general principles of the established procedure for carrying out entrepreneurial and other economic activities ^{[8, p. 204]}.

Concomitant crimes in the public sector, of course, can also be called corruption-related crimes. As a rule, this is the performance for illegal remuneration of certain actions included in the official powers of officials who commit them out of selfish motives, realizing the intent to illegally enrich themselves by patronizing individuals and business entities or providing them with benefits of a property or financial nature.

In the course of studying the identity of a criminal committing embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs, we found that every second embezzlement is committed by the head or employee of an organization receiving state support, in every fifth case of embezzlement is committed by an official who distributes budget funds, the remaining number includes officials performing control functions.

The subject of criminal encroachment in the theft under consideration are payments provided for by regulatory legal acts from the federal budget, budgets of subjects of the Russian Federation and municipal budgets, as well as payments from state extra-budgetary funds of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the funds allocated to the recipient directly from the budget for targeted expenditures are plundered by presenting false and unreliable documents, when registering the receipt of budget funds, official powers are often exceeded.

As part of the analysis of materials of pre-investigation checks and criminal cases, on the facts of the crimes under consideration, we have identified typical methods of embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs, including:

1. acquisition of fictitious documents;

2. production of fictitious documents by the recipient of budgetary funds independently;

3. production of fictitious documents by bribing officials;

4. production of fictitious documents by deceiving officials.

As part of our research, we conducted a survey of EBiPK employees, during which we identified some problems arising in the fight against economic and corruption crimes related to the distribution and use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs, including, almost 80% of respondents identified along with "traditional" problems associated with a significant reduction in the number of staff of the EBiPK units and the lack of clear interaction with investigative bodies, prosecutor's offices in the field, such a problem as the formal system of protection of budgetary funds allocated for state and municipal needs for the implementation of national projects (programs) and federal targeted programs, as well as the resulting from it, the problem associated with formal interaction with law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the current employees of the EBiPK units note the fact that the currently functioning system of protection of budget funds, as well as the level of interaction between state bodies-managers of budget funds and law enforcement agencies, does not meet modern realities and needs to be transformed. It seems that protection against embezzlement of budget funds,
first of all, the controlling state bodies should be engaged, which, in the process of monitoring (verification), can simultaneously identify shortcomings and other offenses that contribute to the commission of crimes, and transfer them
to law enforcement agencies ^{[9, p. 174]}. It is also noted that at present there are no systemic mechanisms and effective response measures, primarily related to timely appeals to law enforcement agencies with statements about the commission of illegal actions, while on the part of the managers of budget funds, there is a clear disinterest in assisting law enforcement agencies.
in determining the amount of damage caused by criminal actions.

These facts negatively affect the fight against embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for state and municipal needs, for the implementation of national projects (programs) and federal targeted programs, while a fairly long period of time passes between the commission of embezzlement and its detection by law enforcement officers, during which the perpetrators manage to hide the traces of the crime and dispose of the stolen in cash, including to withdraw them abroad.

At the same time, the fight against economic and corruption crimes related to the distribution and use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs in the Russian Federation is regulated by a significant number of regulatory legal acts. On the one hand, this provides a fairly solid legal basis for anti–corruption activities, on the other hand, this fact makes it difficult to make strategic and tactical decisions, since law enforcement agencies are required to strictly comply with legal requirements.

According to A.M. Tsirin, an important condition for solving emerging problems is the mechanism for forming strategies and tactics, combating economic and corruption crimes, in the implementation of which it is necessary to involve a wide range of subjects with different levels of competence. At the same time, in our opinion, the statements of A.M. Tsirin, P.A. Kabanov and M.S. Badrutdinov are true that the fight against embezzlement of budget funds and combating corruption requires consistency, objectivity and impartiality ^{[10, pp. 47-52.]}, coordination of efforts of all levels of government and civil society ^{[11, pp. 5-8]}, coordinated control of the effectiveness of the implementation of anti–corruption policy ^{[12, pp. 227-234]}. Representatives of all branches of government should certainly participate in this activity, which will create conditions for the formation of appropriate standards of law enforcement.

Consistent and systematic solution of the considered problems and negative factors, together with the use of effective measures, in our opinion, will have a positive impact on the fight against economic and corruption crimes related to the distribution and use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of national projects and federal targeted programs, and will contribute to improving the efficiency of law enforcement agencies.