Transparency of state financial support for civil society organizations in Russia

Gatsolati Viktor Eduardovich ORCID: 0000-0002-4063-0061 Graduate student, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 gatsolati.viktor@gmail.com

Gatsolaeva Aleftina Khadzibekirovna PhD in Law Associate Professor of the Department of the History of State and Law of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "North Ossetian State University named after K.L. Khetagurov" 362025, Russia, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Vladikavkaz, Butyrina str., 27 aleftina.57@gmail.com

Introduction The interaction of executive authorities with civil society organizations includes a wide range of relationships within which the exercise of public powers takes place, based on certain principles, one of which is the principle of transparency.

The implementation of the principle of transparency in the law enforcement activities of executive authorities, local self-government, as well as other persons with public powers, ensures free access of citizens to reliable information about this activity. The availability of this information in the public domain is an additional guarantee of the legality of public administration, respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens in its implementation, as well as high productivity and efficiency of the activities of public administration bodies, as well as other persons with relevant public powers.

High risks of violation of the law, citizens' rights and freedoms, as well as failure to achieve the goals of exercising public powers exist in the sphere of state financial support for civil society organizations in the form of subsidies from the federal budget in the form of presidential grants, which is one of the forms of interaction between executive authorities and civil society organizations. The study of the current administrative and legal regulation of the legal relations under consideration aims to determine its impact on the transparency of financial support for civil society organizations in the Russian Federation, which largely determines the effectiveness of public administration in this area of public relations.

Main part 1.

     Transparency of the functioning of public authority Principles of public administration.

The implementation of public powers by public authorities and local self-government bodies is carried out on the basis of certain principles, among which, as a rule, the following are distinguished: legality, objectivity, accessibility, publicity, comprehensiveness, timeliness, competence, etc. ^[4]. A special place in the system of principles of the functioning of public power is occupied by the principles of openness and transparency, which are the fundamental democratic principles of a modern rule of law state ^[3]. According to O. A. Vorobyova and I. R. Sharafutdinov, the practical implementation of the principle of transparency is a prerequisite for the formation of a rule of law state ^[2].

The transparency of the functioning of public power lies in the legislatively fixed and guaranteed accessibility to reliable information about the activities of public administration for individual citizens and collective subjects of civil society ^[1]. It is the availability of information that is singled out by Russian scientists as a criterion for determining the degree of transparency of the activities of public authorities. The development of Internet technologies and digitalization of all spheres of social activity make it possible to concretize the position adopted in scientific circles regarding the main criterion for transparency of the functioning of public authorities, which should indicate the availability of free access of individuals to information about the activities of public authorities in the information and telecommunications network "Internet".

The practical implementation of the principle of transparency in the functioning of public administration without proper administrative and legal regulation seems impossible. Consequently, the administrative and legal regulation of the activities of public administration should create the necessary conditions to ensure free access to information about the activities of executive authorities and local self-government, which can be guaranteed by fixing in the legislation the requirement for public posting of relevant information on the information and telecommunications network "Internet".

The right to information. The availability of information on the activities of executive authorities in the field of providing various measures of state support, including in the field of financial support to civil society organizations, is currently not sufficiently ensured. Various state resources in the information and telecommunications network "Internet" contain a rather meager amount of information, which is limited to information about the recipients of financial support and the amount of assistance provided^[1]. The lack of freely available information on monitoring the activities of organizations receiving financial support carried out at the expense of the federal budget indicates improper fulfillment by the state of its obligation to ensure conditions for citizens to exercise their subjective public right to access information about the activities of state authorities and local self-government. It is the subjective public right of citizens of the Russian Federation to access reliable information about the activities of the public administration and its officials that underlies the principle of transparency of public administration.

It seems that ensuring free access of individuals to information about the provision of financial support by executive authorities to civil society organizations should not be limited to information about the recipient of assistance and its amount. The true value is represented by data on the results of financial support, on the basis of which it is possible to form an objective assessment of the activities of both the executive authority (another entity endowed with appropriate public powers) that selects organizations or projects to provide assistance, and the activities of the recipient of state support.

Also important is the very course of the development by civil society organizations of the amounts of state subsidies or grants received. The analysis of the results of the current activities of organizations receiving financial support from the state is an integral element of the system of performance indicators of this type of interaction between executive authorities and civil society organizations.

Ensuring the transparency of the activities of executive authorities in the field of providing financial support to civil society organizations by creating an appropriate administrative and legal framework is by no means an end in itself. Achieving transparency of financial support provided by executive authorities is necessary in order to increase the effectiveness of this type of activity, create obstacles to the implementation of corruption schemes and create conditions for citizens to exercise their subjective public right to access information about the activities of public authorities.

Transparency in the exercise of public powers. At the moment, various models have been formed for providing financial support to civil society organizations, including with the involvement of non-profit organizations and the transfer of appropriate public powers to them, which allow allocating budget funds in accordance with the established procedure. It seems that along with the transfer of public powers, private organizations should also be given the responsibilities of the public administration to ensure conditions for free access of citizens to information about their activities in accordance with the principle of transparency. In this case, we should talk about the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers, which should be guided by all subjects of legal relations endowed with appropriate rights.

The principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers should be understood as a legally fixed and guaranteed access of citizens to reliable information about the exercise by the public administration and other persons of powers of a public legal nature, which they were endowed with by law, by-laws, administrative contracts, as well as other legal means.

The principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers is broader in relation to the principle of transparency in the functioning of public authority, therefore it also includes it. This principle should become the basis for the activities of non-profit organizations to which public powers have been transferred. The introduction of this principle is necessary in connection with the change in public administration in modern states, when private individuals are involved as performers of certain functions of public authorities and local self-government. It seems that the legislative consolidation of the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers and its further implementation in the law enforcement activities of relevant persons will have a beneficial effect on public administration in Russia, namely, it will become an additional guarantee of the legality of the activities of public administration and will serve as a means of increasing its effectiveness, including when providing financial support to civil society organizations.

2. Grants of the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society Types of state financial support for civil society organizations.

The main types of financial support for civil society organizations in the Russian Federation are subsidies and grants, which are allocated within the framework of programs implemented by the following groups of public administration bodies: federal executive authorities, executive authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local self-government bodies. Thus, financial support to civil society organizations in our country is carried out at three levels: federal, regional and local.

In the period from 2015 to 2021, there is a tendency in the Russian Federation to increase the volume of financial support for civil society organizations, especially in the form of state grants.

The category of "state grant" is fixed in the legislation, in accordance with Article 17 of Federal Law No. 82-FZ of 19.05.1995, it recognizes the targeted financing of "certain socially useful programs of public associations at their request." Consequently, state grants are allocated for the implementation of socially useful projects, and participation in the grant competition is declarative. A special place in the system of grant support for the activities of civil society organizations is occupied by grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society (hereinafter, presidential grants), which are distributed annually on a competitive basis between non-profit non-governmental associations.

The provision of presidential grants is carried out by the authorized executive authority within the framework of the relevant administrative proceedings jointly with the Presidential Grants Fund (hereinafter, the Operator Fund).

Administrative proceedings to provide financial support to civil society organizations. The provision of financial support to civil society organizations in the form of presidential grants is carried out within the framework of three administrative proceedings: administrative proceedings for the provision of subsidies from the federal budget by the Office of the President of the Russian Federation (hereinafter, the Office of Affairs) to the Operator Fund, administrative proceedings for the provision of presidential grants by the Operator Fund to civil society organizations-winners of the competition, administrative proceedings for the provision of The Foundation is the operator of presidential grants in an out-of-competition manner.  The listed proceedings form a separate type of administrative proceedings for providing financial support to civil society organizations, the content and theoretical and legal foundations of which have yet to be explored by modern legal science.

The main objective of the study is to answer the following question: does the current administrative and legal regulation ensure transparency in the implementation of public powers in the field of providing financial support to civil society organizations in the form of presidential grants at each stage of the relevant administrative proceedings in Russia?

Subjects of production for the provision of presidential grants. Financial support of civil society organizations in the form of presidential grants to the winning organizations of the competition in Russia is carried out according to a three-subject, hierarchical model of interaction (Fig.1): Fig. 1. The subject model of presidential grants by the Federal Executive authority authorized to annually provide subsidies to the Operator Fund is the Office of the President of the Russian Federation (hereinafter, the Office of the affairs of the president).

  The administrative and legal status of the Presidential Affairs Department, including its powers in interaction with civil society organizations, the rights to distribute funds from the federal budget are fixed in the Regulation "On the Administration of the Affairs of the President of the Russian Federation", which was approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 17.09.2008 N 1370.

In addition to providing subsidies from the federal budget to the Fund Operator, the Presidential Administration establishes the procedure for granting grants to civil society organizations and carries out a number of control and supervisory measures. Firstly, the Presidential Affairs Department carries out a number of control measures over the activities of the Operator Fund for the expenditure of allocated subsidies, including by checking financial reports. Secondly, the Presidential Administration takes into account the size and timing of grants to civil society organizations.

The second subject in the hierarchy of the legal relations under consideration is the Operator Fund. It should be noted that according to some scientists, foundations are the best organizational and legal form of non-profit organizations to fulfill the role of a grant operator ^[6].

Since 2007, competitions for the provision of presidential grants have been conducted by authorized NGOs-grant operators. Then, from April 3, 2017, the Presidential Grants Fund begins to act as a single operator of grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society. The founders of this foundation were the following organizations: the Union of Women of Russia, the Russian Union of Rectors, the National Health League, the Union of Pensioners of Russia, the National Charitable Foundation, the Civil Dignity Movement, the Pokrov Charitable Foundation^[4].

The third subject of the legal relations under consideration are recipients of presidential grants – civil society organizations, which should be understood as non-profit, self-governing, voluntary associations of individuals whose activities correspond to public interests and are aimed at achieving socially useful goals, improving the efficiency and ensuring the legality of the activities of public authorities, protecting and protecting human and civil rights and freedoms. According to Russian legislation, not all civil society organizations can participate in the competition for presidential grants, but only those that have been registered as a legal entity.

Thus, the subjects of the legal relations under consideration are:

1)                 The executive authority is the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

2) A state-formed civil society organization endowed with public authority to allocate budgetary funds – the Presidential Grants Fund.

3)                 Civil society organizations that have the legal capacity of a legal entity.

3. Provision of a state subsidy to the Operator Fund Financing the activities of the Operator Fund.

The first stage of granting presidential grants to the winning organizations of the competitions is the launch and conduct by the authorized executive authority of administrative proceedings on the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund and giving it public authority to allocate budget funds.

The procedure for granting subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund is established by Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation dated 03.11.2020 No. 358 (hereinafter Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358). The conditions for granting subsidies are established by an agreement on the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to a non-profit organization that is not a state (municipal) institution, concluded between the authorized executive authority (the Presidential Administration) and a state-formed civil society organization (the Operator Fund).

The amount of subsidies allocated in accordance with the provisions of Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 30 of 30.01.2019 (hereinafter, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 30) is equal to the amount of "budget allocations provided in the federal budget for the corresponding financial year to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation to support non-profit non-governmental organizations involved in the development of civil society institutions."

Figure 2. The amount of subsidies allocated by the UD of the President of the Russian Federation from the federal budget of the Fund-operator.Information on the amount of subsidies allocated to the Operator Fund from the federal budget for the period from 2017 to 2020 indicates an increase in the volume of state financial support for the activities of civil society organizations, which means that the state recognizes the importance and social effectiveness of their work.

So, in 2020, the Department of Affairs allocated a little more than 38 billion rubles, which exceeds the total amount of subsidies provided over the previous three years.

In addition to the provision of subsidies from the federal budget by the Operator Fund, the fund has the right to attract funds from extra-budgetary sources. However, according to publicly available data, during the existence of the Fund, not a single ruble of extra-budgetary funds has been received to its account. This fact indicates that, for unknown reasons, the Grant Operator Fund does not use this right and it is currently exclusively declarative. Thus, the budget of this organization is formed exclusively at the expense of public funds, which indicates that there is a clear imbalance in the ratio of sources of financial resources to the Fund's budget. The formation of the budget of civil society organizations solely at the expense of state revenues increases the risk of this association losing autonomy in carrying out its activities.

Agreement on the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund.  The provision of a subsidy from the federal budget by the Department of Affairs to the Operator Fund consists of the following stages:

1)                 Submission by the foundation to the authorized executive authority of the full list of documents provided for in Article 9 of the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358.2) Consideration by the Office of the President of the documents submitted by the organization within 10 working days.

3)                 Adoption by the Presidential Affairs Department of a decision to conclude a subsidy agreement with the Fund, or to refuse to allocate a subsidy.

4)                 Transfer of the subsidy to the Fund's account in case the Presidential Affairs Department makes a positive decision. The subsidies allocated by the Presidential Administration, spent by the Operator Fund in violation of the established goals and conditions, are subject to return to the federal budget within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the relevant request.

After the Presidential Affairs Department makes a decision to conclude a grant agreement with the Operator Fund, these entities proceed directly to the conclusion of the relevant agreement, which is drawn up on the basis of the standard form established by the Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 28.07.2017 N 121n.

This agreement undoubtedly refers to the varieties of an administrative contract. The content of this agreement is a combination of the following elements:

1)                 The subject of this agreement is the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to a non-profit non-governmental organization.

2)                 The object of the agreement is a subsidy, the amount of which is established by the contract.

3) The purpose of this agreement is to achieve the results of the federal project, or another goal specified in the contract.

4)                 The parties to the agreement are an authorized executive authority, or another entity endowed with appropriate public authority, and a non-profit non-governmental organization.

5)                 The agreement is concluded in writing.

6)                 The prerogative powers of the public authority subject of the agreement are to establish the significance of the results of the allocation of subsidies and their assessment, control through scheduled and unscheduled inspections, making decisions on changing the terms of the agreement, suspending the provision of subsidies.

The contract in question, according to the classification of types of administrative agreements proposed by Yu.N. Starilov and K.V. Davydov ^[9], refers to:

1) Complex contracts, since both parties have mutual rights and obligations.

2) Gratuitous contracts, which fully corresponds to the nature of management relations regulated by this agreement.

3) Property contracts, since funds from the federal budget are subject to transfer.

4)       Bilateral agreements. An executive authority on the one hand and a civil society organization on the other.

5) Subordinated administrative contracts.

6)       Law enforcement administrative contracts. The norms stipulated in this agreement are binding only for its parties.

7) Administrative agreements, the conclusion of which is mandatory for one of its parties.

According to the method of agreement of conditions, the authors propose to distinguish mutually agreed agreements and accession agreements. However, in the case of the agreement under consideration, none of the highlighted methods of agreeing on the terms are applicable. The basic conditions of this type of administrative contract are established by the standard form and by-law and the parties have no right to change them. A similar point of view is also held by A.Yu. Melekhova, who writes that the parties to a contract having a standard form should draw up an agreement taking into account the terms of a standard contract, or by fully reproducing its text ^[5]. In addition to the conditions of the standard form of this agreement that are mandatory for the parties to take into account, the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358 also establishes conditions that are mandatory for inclusion in the contract.  In this case, we cannot say that any of the parties to the agreement is the developer of its terms. Therefore, we propose to supplement the classification of administrative agreements according to the criterion of the method of agreeing terms with a contract, the essential terms of which are determined by the standard form of the agreement and regulatory legal acts. It should be mentioned that although the recipient of the subsidy does not participate in the development of this agreement, he has the right to make proposals to change the conditions on the amount of the subsidy.

Thus, an agreement on the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to a non-governmental non-profit organization should be understood as a complex, gratuitous, property, subordination, law enforcement, bilateral administrative agreement between an authorized executive authority and a state-formed civil society organization concluded on the transfer of funds from the budget of the Russian Federation, the essential conditions of which are determined by the standard form.

Control over the compliance of the Operator Fund with the terms of the agreement on the provision of subsidies from the federal budget. Returning to the analysis of the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358, it is necessary to pay attention to the mandatory conditions of the contract for granting subsidies to the Operator Fund established by him. The existence of these conditions guarantees the possibility for the authorized executive authorities to monitor the proper execution of the contract by the Operator Fund, as well as to amend the agreement or terminate it in the presence of certain circumstances.

The main forms of control over the compliance of the Operator Fund with the relevant obligations are: the provision of reports by the Operator Fund (on the implementation of expenditures and the achievement of the results of the grant) and the implementation of various kinds of inspections by authorized executive authorities.

If the Operator Fund fails to achieve the results of the grant, the latter is held liable for property liability in accordance with paragraph 21 of the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358, which indicates that the accessory and basic obligations of this type of administrative agreement are of the same nature.

The above-mentioned by-law establishes a closed list of expenses for which subsidies are allocated, the main of which is the provision of grants to civil society organizations that meet the requirements of this Order.

The provision of subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund is carried out on the basis of the provisions of an administrative agreement, the conclusion of which between the authorized executive authority and a state-formed civil society organization is aimed at holding competitions for the provision of presidential grants.

4. Competition for grants of the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society In accordance with paragraph 20 of the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation dated 03.11.2020 No. 358, the result of providing subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund is to hold at least two competitions for the provision of presidential grants.

In case of failure to achieve the specified result, the Operator Fund is held liable for property liability.

The Operator Fund carries out a set of measures aimed at achieving the result of the grant with the participation of the Coordinating Committee formed by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 137 of April 3, 2017. Among the functions of this Committee, it is necessary to highlight the function of coordinating the list of civil society organizations submitted by the Operator Fund - winners of competitions for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society the company, taking into account the results of an independent examination of socially significant projects submitted for competitions and projects in the field of protection of human and civil rights and freedoms. In fact, the Coordinating Committee acts as a control and supervisory body with which the Operator Fund is obliged to coordinate all important decisions.

Acceptance of competitive applications. The procedure and conditions for holding contests are established by the following regulatory legal acts:

1.                  The annual Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, which since 2019 has been called "On grants of the President of the Russian Federation provided for the development of civil society".

2.                  The Regulations on the ongoing competition for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society, which is approved by the order of the Operator Fund.

3.                  The announcement of competitions for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society.

After the announcement of the competition, the acceptance of applications for participation, the Operator Fund checks them, including for compliance of the applicant with the established criteria: the presence of state registration as a legal entity and the implementation of activities in specific areas. A civil society organization, at the time of the end of accepting applications, must have the status of a legal entity for at least a year (6 months, if the requested grant amount does not exceed the amount established by the rules of the competition). In addition to the legal capacity of a legal entity, a civil society organization must participate in the development of civil society institutions, implement socially significant projects and projects in the field of protection of human and civil rights and freedoms and carry out activities in the areas listed in Article 2 of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation N30. Along with the requirements for the participants of the competition, there are also general conditions for the terms of implementation of the claimed projects, which should not exceed 3 years.

Thus, the main requirements for the participants of the competition are reduced to the availability of state registration, the direction of the organization's activities and the timing of the implementation of the funded project. The absence in this list of requirements for the availability of communication channels in the information and telecommunications network "Internet" in the conditions of digitalization is one of the gaps in the legal regulation of this sphere of public relations. The absence of a winning civil society organization in the digital space automatically distances it from modern society, determines the closed nature of its activities and practically deprives ordinary citizens of the opportunity to assess the social effectiveness of the transformations carried out by a non–profit non-governmental organization. Therefore, in order to increase the openness of the activities of civil society organizations, it seems necessary to include the requirements for the presence of communication channels in the digital space in the relevant section of the Regulations on holding competitions.

Examination of competitive applications.Applications that meet the requirements of the competition regulations are allowed to participate in the competition and are subject to independent examination.  The legal basis for conducting an independent examination of projects is fixed in the Regulation "On the procedure for conducting an independent examination of projects submitted to the competition for Grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society", which is approved by the Joint Expert Council.

Independent examination of applications consists of two stages: evaluation of applications by experts of the competition and consideration of applications by the joint expert council, which determines the final rating of projects. The evaluation of competitive applications is carried out by independent experts taking into account methodological recommendations and on the basis of evaluation criteria established by the regulations on the competition. Independent experts provide comments on project evaluations.

Based on the results of the project evaluation, independent experts give conclusions about the unconditional recommendation of the project for support, about the absence of the possibility of forming an unambiguous assessment of the project, or about the non-recommendation of the project for support. Thus, each project, after its evaluation, receives a certain number of points, which form the basis of the preliminary rating of applications to be taken into account by the joint expert council when considering applications. The result of the consideration of applications by the joint expert council is the formation of the rating of each of the applications, as well as the determination of the minimum threshold value of the application rating for the recognition of the organization as the winner of the competition.

Civil society organizations whose competitive applications have received a rating exceeding the minimum threshold value are subject to inclusion by the joint expert council in the draft list of organizations – winners of the competition. This project is considered by the Coordinating Committee, which decides on the approval or refusal to approve the list of winners of the competition, the draft of which was prepared by the joint expert council. This decision is formalized by a protocol and the Operator Fund is obliged to send to the Presidential Affairs Department a copy of the protocol (within 10 days after the meeting) and a schedule for submitting final reports on the implementation of subsidy expenditures by civil society organizations - winners of the competition (within 15 days after the meeting).

The examination of competitive applications is currently closed, none of its stages is covered on the official website of the Presidential Grants Foundation in the Internet information and telecommunications network. Consequently, the organizations participating in the competition and the public do not have the opportunity to get acquainted with the results of the work of independent experts, as well as the joint expert council. The absence of this information reduces the public's confidence in this form of state support for the non-profit sector, which reduces the pace of development of civil society in our country.

The operator Fund enters into a grant agreement with the recognized winners of the competitions by civil society organizations. The information specified in these agreements on the amount and timing of grants is subject to accounting by the Office of Presidential Affairs when drawing up a cash plan for the execution of the federal budget.

Control over the implementation of the project. After the conclusion of an administrative agreement between the Operator Fund and the winning organization of the competition and the transfer of the grant, the latter begins to implement the project.

The operator Fund carries out the following forms of control in the process of implementation by the civil society organization-the winner of the project competition:

1)                 Monitoring of the real account of the civil account organization.

2)                 Implementation of inspections:a. targeted use of the grant; b. compliance by the winner of the competition with the terms of the grant agreement, in the manner and within the time limits stipulated by the grant agreement;c. financial reports of civil society organizations; d.

     copies of documents confirming the fact of receipt of goods (provision of services, performance of works) paid for by the grant; 3)                

Monitoring of the project being implemented.

In case of violation of the terms of the administrative contract, a civil society organization may be brought to legal responsibility out of court. Responsibility, as a rule, is of a property nature and consists in the obligation of the civil society organization to return the allocated grant amount to the Operator Fund. If the organization refuses to return the funds, the Fund has the right to go to court. The recovered grant amount is then returned by the Fund to the Presidential Administration as the amount of the unfulfilled obligation.

Of the greatest interest is the administrative and legal regulation of the exercise of control over the organization of civil society in the form of monitoring of the project being implemented. It is on the basis of the information collected by the employees of the Operator Fund during monitoring that the project results are evaluated.

The powers of the Operator Fund to carry out monitoring are currently fixed in the regulations on the competitions held. However, the monitoring procedure is not regulated at the moment. It is likely that there is no need for detailed regulation of monitoring, however, the positive effect that legislative consolidation of the general principles of public activity has is indisputable. Accordingly, it seems reasonable to adopt a legislative act that enshrines the general principles and foundations for the exercise of public powers, including monitoring the activities of civil society organizations that are funded from the federal or regional budget. A temporary measure of monitoring regulation may be the regulation of the procedure for monitoring the progress of the project by the Fund-operator in a special provision. One of the possible variants of the name of the specified regulatory legal act may be – "The Regulation on the procedure for monitoring the progress of the projects of the winners of competitions for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society." It should be noted once again that this measure is temporary and serves the purpose of increasing the effectiveness of monitoring until the adoption of the relevant legislative act.

In addition to solving the above problem, the existence of such a regulatory legal act will clarify the rules of interaction with the Operator Fund at this stage of the project to the winning organizations. Project evaluation.

The final stage of interaction between a state-formed civil society organization endowed with public powers and non-profit non-governmental organizations-recipients of grants is the evaluation of the results of the funded project. The evaluation is regulated by the regulation "On the procedure for evaluating the results of projects of winners of competitions for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil Society", approved by Order of the Presidential Grants Fund dated 09/15/2020 No. 17. Information about project evaluations is posted on the Internet information and telecommunications network on the website "evaluation.grants.rf".

Currently, the evaluation of the project results is carried out on the basis of information collected by the Fund during the monitoring of the project implementation. One of the evaluation criteria is the degree of information openness of the civil society organization that implemented the project. In the event that the events carried out by the organization were actively covered on the Internet, and the created materials are publicly available, the grantee is assigned a level of information openness. We live in the era of the information society and the established criteria for a high assessment of the openness of the grantee organization should become the standard for the activities of these associations.

5.                  Non-competitive provision of grants by the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society Subjects-recipients of grants in an out-of-competition manner.

In addition to civil society organizations-winners of competitions, recipients of presidential grants from the Operator Fund on the basis of the provisions of the Order of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation No. 358 may also be:

1) Non-profit organizations that are recipients of subsidies from the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation for subsequent distribution among socially oriented non-profit organizations (hereinafter, SO NPOs) carrying out activities provided for by Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 12, 1996 "On Non-profit Organizations".

2)                 Authorized executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, which, on the basis of clause 9.1. of Article 26.3 of Federal Law No. 184-FZ of 06.10.1999, have the right to provide financial support to certain categories of civil society organizations.

3)                 Civil society organizations established by the Operator Fund.

Consequently, there are four types of subjects-recipients of presidential grants: civil society organizations – winners of competitions, non-profit organizations-distributors of subsidies between regional NGOs, regional executive authorities, civil society organizations, the founders of which are the Operator Fund. The selected types of subjects-recipients of presidential grants form two groups: collective subjects of administrative law, to whom presidential grants are provided for the implementation of socially useful projects, or the implementation of current activities; collective subjects of administrative law, to whom presidential grants are allocated for the purpose of further distribution of budget funds between regional civil society organizations.

Classification of presidential grants. The provision of presidential grants to both the first and second groups of subjects of the legal relations under consideration should be attributed to forms of financial support for civil society organizations, since their final result is the receipt of funds from the federal budget to the settlement accounts of the relevant associations of individuals.

At the same time, there are grounds for distinguishing the types of financial support provided in the form of presidential grants:

1)                 Depending on the territory of activity, the recipient organization of presidential grants should allocate financial support provided to all civil society organizations and financial support provided to regional civil society organizations.

2)                 Depending on the model of the legal relations under consideration, financial support of civil society organizations provided directly and financial support of civil society organizations provided through an intermediary entity should be distinguished.

3)                 Depending on the legal status of the intermediary entity assisting in the provision of financial support to civil society organizations, financial support provided with the participation of regional executive authorities and financial support provided with the participation of non-profit organizations should be allocated.

Public control. According to the above provisions of the Russian legislation, non-competitive provision of presidential grants is carried out, among other things, for the purpose of providing financial assistance to civil society organizations through an intermediary entity. The distribution by the intermediary entity of the presidential grant funds received out of competition is carried out under the control of the Operator Fund. Thus, in cases when a regional executive authority becomes the recipient of a grant, the distribution of presidential grant funds between certain civil society organizations under the control of the Operator Fund is a form of public control that has not previously been allocated in legal science - control over the distribution of budget funds by the regional executive authority. Also, the allocation of this type of public control actualizes the need to expand the list of subjects of public control established by Federal Law No. 212-FZ of 21.07.2014 (ed. of 27.12.2018) "On the basics of public control in the Russian Federation".

Information on the provision of presidential grants out of competition, and even more so on the further distribution of budget funds between regional civil society organizations, is currently unavailable to citizens, as it is not publicly available on the Internet information and telecommunications network. It seems that the reason for the lack of this information is that regulatory legal acts do not fix the obligation of executive authorities, as well as other persons with public authority to post relevant information on their official Internet resources.

Conclusions Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions were made:

1. An additional guarantee of ensuring the legality of public administration, including in the sphere of providing financial support to civil society organizations, should be the legislative consolidation of the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers, which should be understood as guaranteed access of citizens to reliable information about the exercise by public administration and other persons of powers of a public legal nature, which they were endowed with by law, by-laws, administrative agreements, as well as other legal means.

2.                  The provision of financial support to civil society organizations in the form of presidential grants is carried out within the framework of three administrative proceedings: administrative proceedings for the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund, administrative proceedings for the provision of presidential grants by the Operator Fund to civil society organizations-winners of the competition, administrative proceedings for the provision of presidential grants by the Operator Fund out of competition. 3. The subjects of the legal relations under consideration are: the authorized executive authority (the Office of the President of the Russian Federation); regional executive authorities; a state-formed civil society organization endowed with public authority to allocate budgetary funds (Presidential Grants Fund); civil society organizations with the status of a legal entity; other non-profit organizations.

4.                  The procedure and conditions for granting subsidies from the federal budget to the Operator Fund are contained in the contract of the same name, which is concluded between the Management of Affairs and the Fund. This agreement is one of the varieties of an administrative agreement, which should be understood as a complex, gratuitous, property, subordination, law enforcement, bilateral administrative agreement between an authorized executive authority and a state-formed civil society organization concluded on the transfer of funds from the budget of the Russian Federation, the essential conditions of which are determined by the standard form.

5.                  The established requirements for the participants of the competition for the provision of presidential grants do not guarantee the openness of organizations receiving budgetary funds, which is due to the absence of the obligation of the relevant associations to have communication channels in the information and telecommunications network "Internet".

6. The examination of competitive applications for presidential grants is of a closed nature, which does not comply with the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers.

7.                  Monitoring of the activities of civil society organizations within the framework of projects implemented partially or completely at the expense of presidential grants is the main form of monitoring compliance by the winners of the competition with the terms of the contract with the Operator Fund. Currently, the legal regulation of this monitoring does not establish the basics, general principles and procedure for its conduct, which cannot but affect the quality of the legal relations under consideration.

8.                  According to the provisions of the Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation No. 358, the Operator Fund also has the authority to provide presidential grants in an out-of-competition manner to the following types of collective subjects of administrative law: non-profit organizations that distribute subsidies between regional NGOs, executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, civil society organizations whose founders are the Operator Fund. The provision of presidential grants in an out-of-competition manner, depending on the recipient entity, is carried out in order for the recipient to implement financial support for a socially useful project, carry out current activities, or distribute budget funds between regional civil society organizations.

9. Grants of the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society can be classified on the following grounds: the territory of activity of the civil society organization that is the recipient of the grant; the subject composition of the legal relations under consideration; the legal status of the person acting as an intermediary in the provision of financial support in the form of presidential grants.

10. The distribution of budget funds received in the form of presidential grants by regional executive authorities is carried out under the control of the Operator Fund, which is a state-formed civil society organization. This control should be attributed to the forms of public control, namely, the exercise of public control over the distribution of budget funds by regional executive authorities. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the list of subjects of public control established by Russian legislation.

11. Citizens of our country do not have the opportunity to receive information about presidential grants provided by the Operator Fund in an out-of-competition manner, thereby violating the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers. The first step to address this gap in the administrative and legal regulation of the legal relations under consideration is to consolidate the obligation of executive authorities, as well as other persons with public authority to post relevant information in the information and telecommunications network "Internet".

Conclusion Transparency of public administration should be considered not only in the context of transparency of the functioning of executive authorities and local self-government, but also in the context of transparency of the exercise of public powers by other persons.

The current administrative and legal regulation, in general, provides citizens with free access to reliable information about the activities of public administration bodies, as opposed to information about the exercise of public powers by private individuals, including when providing financial support to civil society organizations.

In modern conditions of the widespread practice of delegating public powers by executive authorities to private individuals, the legislative consolidation of the principle of transparency in their implementation seems to be a very timely and necessary measure to improve the administrative and legal regulation of the relations under consideration. In the sphere of providing financial support to civil society organizations, the legislative consolidation of this principle will create additional guarantees for achieving the goals of subsidizing non-profit associations of individuals carried out by the Presidential Grants Operator Fund, which is a state-educated civil society organization.

Thus, in order to ensure transparency in the exercise of public powers by non-profit organizations, including the exercise by the Operator Fund of public powers to provide subsidies from the federal budget to regional executive authorities, civil society organizations, and other non-profit organizations in the form of presidential grants, the following changes should be made to the current administrative and legal regulation of the legal relations under consideration:

1. To develop and adopt a Federal law "On the Delegation of Public Powers", in which to consolidate the foundations and general principles of the transfer of public powers by executive authorities and local self-government and the procedure for their implementation by non-profit organizations. The main principle should be the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers, which also applies to the provision of financial support to civil society organizations.

2.                  The Federal Law "On Delegation of Public Powers" establishes the general principles of conducting administrative proceedings to provide financial support to civil society organizations. In order to ensure the principle of transparency in the exercise of public powers, this law should include a provision that establishes the obligation of persons endowed with relevant rights of a public legal nature to post information about the results of administrative procedures on the Internet information and telecommunications network.

3. Paragraph 5 of the Regulation "On grants of the President of the Russian Federation provided for the development of civil society" should be supplemented with the following paragraphs: "l) ensures transparency and openness of the activities of organizations-winners of competitions."

4. Paragraph 41 of Section IX of the Regulations on holding competitions "The procedure for granting grants and monitoring their use" should be supplemented with the following subparagraph: "monitoring the activities of the winners of competitions by analyzing information and materials provided in open access on the appropriate digital platform."

5. Paragraph 17 of the Regulation "On the procedure for conducting an independent examination of projects submitted to the competition for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil Society" should be supplemented with the following content: "The expert's conclusion is subject to publication on the official website of the Presidential Grants Foundation in the Internet information and telecommunications network no later than the date of the start of consideration of applications for participation in the competition by the joint expert council".

6. Paragraph 20 of the Regulation "On the procedure for conducting an independent examination of projects submitted to the competition for grants from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil Society" should be supplemented with the following content: "The rating of applications determined by the Joint Expert Council is subject to publication on the official website of the Presidential Grants Fund in the Internet information and telecommunications network before the draft list is formed non–profit non-governmental organizations - winners of the competition".

7. Paragraph 1 of Article 9 of Federal Law No. 212-FZ dated 21.07.2014 "On the basics of public Control in the Russian Federation" should be supplemented with paragraph 5) as follows: "non-profit organizations authorized to distribute subsidies from the federal budget between regional executive authorities."

In addition to improving the quality and achieving a high level of productivity of the legal relations under consideration, the proposed measures to improve administrative and legal regulation, providing citizens with the opportunity to monitor the progress of a socially significant project, opens up new prospects for attracting additional funding from individuals and the development of crowdfunding of the non-profit sphere in our country.