Work with citizens' applications in the context of digitalization: departmental aspects

Mayakova Elizaveta Olegovna ORCID: 0009-0005-7617-1118 Graduate, Department of Administrative Law, Saint Petersburg University of the MIA of Russia 198206, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Pilyutov Pilot str., 1 liza_mayakova@mail.ru

The ability of citizens to exercise and protect their rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation is constantly under control. Taking into account the steady trend of a significant annual increase in citizens' appeals received by the internal affairs bodies, work on all incoming applications should be aimed at prompt, objective, timely and comprehensive consideration of them. It is necessary to respond correctly to incoming appeals, to provide real assistance to people in restoring their legitimate rights and interests. The 21st century is officially considered the century of digital technologies. They change the usual way of communication, receiving and processing information. At the same time, the productivity of computer technology began to increase many times, its accessibility to the consumer, which led to a fairly rapid penetration of information technology into everyday life, the development of the Internet and social networks. For example, mobile traffic in the Russian Federation has doubled over the past year, and over 60 percent of our citizens access the network from mobile devices ^[1]. The level of development of the Internet and telecommunications infrastructure in Russia is one of the highest in the world. A real data revolution is taking place, associated with the growth of computing power, with the emergence of completely new classes of self-learning algorithms, with mobility, with connectivity ^[1]. The translation of all types of information (text, audio-visual) into digital form, hence the process of digital transformation of society, is denoted by the term digitalization.

Successful adaptation to digital developing platforms in relation to the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is an important task for the Ministry. This is confirmed by the words of Vladimir Putin's official speech at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on February 28, 2019: "This should be additional assistance to the leadership of the relevant structure, the relevant ministry, so that problems reach them directly, to the leaders ... and modern digital technologies allow this to be done efficiently, quickly and without delay. It should be an effective, working mechanism that will ensure the protection of the interests of citizens, and increase the efficiency and transparency of the law enforcement agencies themselves" ^[2]. All these changes contribute to the emergence of a number of topical theoretical problems in administrative and legal science, the future of which depends on the correct analysis of the relevant changes.

According to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 890 of September 6, 2012 "On measures to improve electronic document management in public authorities", all federal executive authorities must switch to the exchange of electronic documents when interacting with each other and with the Government of the Russian Federation. The basis for the work and the transition to the exchange of electronic data was the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation 1/2147 of 14.03.2014 "On measures for the transition to electronic document management", and directly in relation to the internal affairs bodies - the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation 1/8640 of 18.09.2014 "On the acceptance of applications in the form of an electronic document registered in the DDO of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia".N. G. Kiper in his research comes to the conclusion that Federal Law No. 59-FZ of May 2, 2006 "On the procedure for considering appeals of citizens of the Russian Federation" to the types of appeals of citizens in addition to proposals, statements, complaints, which were enshrined in Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 12, 1968 No. 2534-VII "On the procedure for considering proposals, applications and complaints of citizens", added a new type of appeal, namely, oral appeal ^{[3, p. 4]}. Following the logic, we can say that the form of electronic applications and complaints is gradually being transformed into a new type of appeal – electronic. In support of this opinion, we draw attention to the fact that since November 12, 2020, an experiment has been conducted on the use of a Single portal of Public Services for citizens to send messages and appeals to government bodies, state and municipal institutions, other organizations performing publicly significant functions, and their officials, as well as to receive answers to them [About conducting an experiment on the use of the federal state information system "Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services (Functions)" for sending messages and appeals by citizens and legal entities to state bodies, local self-government bodies, state and municipal institutions, other organizations performing publicly significant functions and their officials, as well as for sending messages and appeals by such bodies and organization of responses to these messages and appeals: Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1802 dated 10.11.2020 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. At the same time, paragraph 6 of the said document defines that "appeals of citizens and legal entities received using a Single portal are sent and considered in compliance with the requirements established by the Federal Law "On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation". We can say that the administrative and procedural procedure for the consideration of applications and complaints by the internal affairs bodies has reached a new informational level. Increasingly, citizens are using the electronic form of submitting appeals through the use of the Internet information and telecommunications network, the official portals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the unified portal of state and municipal services. For 9 months of 2022, 32637 appeals were received on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which is 42% of the total number of registered appeals. If we talk about the overall figures for the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, only in the 4th quarter of 2022 the number of requests from the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia reached 33324. Receiving appeals from citizens in electronic form increases the efficiency of receiving and processing information, reduces costs and increases the productivity of employees, while ensuring a clear fixation accelerates the speed of service and the approval of a positive image of the organization. The transition to electronic document management, taking into account the available opportunities, becomes relevant not only in view of achieving the goals of improving the efficiency of information support for the operational and official activities of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation, but also taking into account the conditions of the modern sanitary and epidemiological situation. Such forms may become a more preferable way for citizens to protect their rights than traditional written appeals. At the same time, in order for a citizen to successfully exercise his constitutional right, an effective mechanism is needed to consider such appeals, including applications, and respond to them.

At the same time, the lack of consolidation of the concept of the corresponding definition and a single mechanism for its implementation in modern federal legislation significantly complicates the implementation of the electronic application form. Doctor of Law, Professor A. I. Kaplunov writes about the legal problems arising in connection with the introduction of digital technologies in the order of filing and consideration of applications and complaints of citizens in his works, emphasizing the need for further improvement of the procedure for receiving citizens' appeals in electronic form ^{[4, p. 59]}. Currently, the significance and relevance of this form is due to the transformation of the state, aimed primarily at the digitalization of all processes, including document management, which determines the creation of a clear administrative and legal mechanism aimed at ensuring effective protection and restoration of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of not only citizens, but also all participants in economic activity, as indicated by members of the scientific community ^{[3, p. 4; 5, p. 11; 6, p. 157; 7, p. 64]}.

It should be noted that currently existing regulatory documents do not provide for the use of any universal automated information system from a specific developer, therefore, the subjects of consideration of appeals can use any software that meets their needs and allows them to perform reporting functions provided for by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 171 of 17.04.2017 "On monitoring and analysis of the results of consideration Appeals of citizens and organizations" [On monitoring and analysis of the results of consideration of appeals of citizens and organizations: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 17.04.2017 No. 171 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. In accordance with this document, public authorities provide information on the results of consideration of appeals from citizens and organizations, as well as on the measures taken on them, in the prescribed form, which is filled out electronically on the Internet on the website of the CSTU.RF (Network Reference Telephone Node) in the section "Results of consideration of appeals". The information is entered on behalf of the user (an official of the authority) responsible for this area of activity, and who was previously authorized to log in to the CSTU portal.The Russian Federation was issued a unique login and password upon request ^[8].

The transition to the electronic document management system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was implemented taking into account the existing capabilities of the electronic document management service of the unified information and analytical support system for the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. All incoming applications and complaints are registered through the specialized section "Citizens' Appeals" of the electronic document management application service (SED ISOD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia). They are appeals received from the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, through the interdepartmental electronic document management system (MEDO) and directly from paper. In this section, all functions are implemented in accordance with the requirements provided for by the Instruction on the organization of consideration of citizens' appeals in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (registration and initial consideration of citizens' and organizations' appeals, filling in the addressees of documents, displaying related appeals, attaching an electronic image of the appeal, creating resolutions, creating a response/ notification to the initiator of the appeal, printing a cover letter, sending a response to a citizen, including to the specified e-mail addresses, etc.) [On approval of the Instructions on the Organization of consideration of Citizens' appeals in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation: Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated September 12, 2013 No. 707 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)].

As a tool that systematizes the accounting of all incoming appeals from citizens and organizations, including electronic ones, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 171 dated 17.04.2017 "On monitoring and analysis of the results of consideration of appeals from citizens and organizations" [On monitoring and analysis of the results of consideration of appeals from citizens and organizations: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 17.04.2017 No. 171 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. To classify appeals by subject, the order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Dealing with Appeals of Citizens and Organizations dated November 30, 2017 No. 104 developed the structure and content of a Standard All-Russian thematic Classifier of appeals of citizens, on the basis of which public administration bodies and organizations develop appropriate thematic classifiers of appeals in accordance with the areas of activity and specifics [Thematic Classifier of appeals of citizens of the Russian Federation Of the Russian Federation, foreign citizens, stateless persons, associations of citizens, including legal entities, the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Dealing with Appeals of Citizens and Organizations: Order of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Dealing with Appeals of Citizens and Organizations dated November 30, 2017 No. 104 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. In the system of internal affairs bodies, Order No. 360 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was issued on June 30, 2016, Appendix No. 6 of which approved information on the subject of the final results of consideration of citizens' appeals by divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia [On the procedure for organizing work on the submission by bodies, divisions and organizations of the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia of information on office work, consideration of appeals of citizens and organizations, the state of protection of state secrets : Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia No. 360 dated 30.06.2016 [Electronic resource] // Access from the automated information retrieval system "Normative legal Acts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. The classification of appeals by subject is carried out using the thematic classifier of the section "Appeals of citizens and organizations" of the SED ISOD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, consisting of a topic, a sub-topic and a clarification of the sub-topic. At the stage of registration of the request, an employee of the office management department fills in the mandatory fields about the request in the information card. The information about the appeal provides for filling in questions on the appeal (blocks with questions), which provide the opportunity to work separately on each of the topics of the appeal. When working with blocks, it is necessary to take into account that adding a new block or editing it is available only to the first registrar of the appeal or the head executor.

In the block with questions, the required fields are:

– "Thematic classifier" – selection from the list;

– "Thematic classifier code" auxiliary field for searching and selecting the subject of the appeal. To select a value, you must enter one or more of the first characters, after which the SED will offer a list of suitable values starting with the entered characters. After filling in this field, the "Thematic Classifier" field will be filled in automatically;

– "Type of appeal" selection from the list. If you select the type "Application", then another field "Subspecies of the request" will be added;

– "The place of the event".

It should be noted that when choosing a subspecies of treatment, the primary registrar can choose one of the most appropriate items from the closed list. These subspecies are combined rather conditionally and do not reflect the legal nature of the appeal. In addition, upon receipt of an appeal to a territorial body or a structural subdivision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, an even more limited list of subspecies of appeals is available to the clerk of the specified subdivision, depending on the type of activity and the specifics of the subdivision. When determining the type of appeal, the primary registrar needs to focus on the very essence of the letter, what caused the appeal, or what prompted the author to apply to the internal affairs bodies, regardless of how the applicant calls his appeal. For example, the author can designate a complaint as a statement, petition, or request. Thus, the quality of the initial registration of applications and their distribution by subspecies directly depends on the professionalism of the clerk, his experience with appeals and skills of working with information and analytical systems.

According to information on the subject of appeals received by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region for 12 months of 2022, a total of 295109 applications were registered. It should be taken into account that 710 of them relate to issues that are not within the competence of the internal affairs bodies. Within the framework of the study, we took as a basis the topics, subtopics and refined subtopics of the general thematic classifier without specifying specific indicators for individual types. For example, a block of statements about "shortcomings in the work of state bodies, local self-government bodies and officials, or criticism of the activities of these bodies and officials" is combined into a general subject of appeals, mainly depending on the department in respect of which the author sends his application. For 12 months of 2022, 13961 applications were registered in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, falling under the classification of "Shortcomings in the work of internal affairs bodies". The vast majority of applications relate to the activities of investigative units (3675) and traffic police units (1243). The topic of violation of procedural deadlines when considering applications (for a crime or an administrative offense), lack of (untimely) response to statements (messages) about a crime, offense or incident and unreasonable verification of documents is highlighted separately. According to the reference information "On some issues of the organization of consideration of appeals" developed by the Department of Record Keeping and work with appeals of citizens and organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, these statements may include information provided to the authors about shortcomings in the criminal law policy in the field of combating crime, about the level and state of crime in certain regions or spheres of society, about the quality of implemented measures aimed at reducing it.

The specificity of appeals to law enforcement agencies is that they are devoted to the protection of life, health, rights and freedoms of citizens, combating crime, protecting public order and property. The Federal Law establishes that an application as a type of appeal means, among other things, "a report on violation of laws and other regulatory legal acts" [On the procedure for Considering appeals from Citizens of the Russian Federation : Federal Law No. 59-FZ of May 2, 2006 [Electronic resource] // Access from the legal reference system "ConsultantPlus" (accessed 12.02.2023)]. This phrase is in the middle of the text of the norm-definition, revealing the concept of the statement (paragraph 3 of Article 4 59-FZ). Most of the statements related to this type fall under the topic "Issues of countering offenses within the competence of the internal Affairs bodies (Administrative Code)" - 71957. According to the subject of the appeals, this topic is classified according to the following subtopics: law enforcement activities; violation of public order; violation of migration legislation; offense in the field of entrepreneurship and activities of self-regulating organizations; violation of legislation in the field of road safety.

The specified type of statements also includes "Issues of combating crime that are within the competence of the internal affairs bodies (CC)." For 12 months of 2022, 69401 statements were registered in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, having the following classification by subtopics: countering criminal manifestations against the person (2817); countering criminal manifestations in the economic sphere (23070); countering criminal manifestations against public security and public order (2239); countering extremism, incitement of ethnic, inter-confessional discord and enmity (3962); countering criminal manifestations against state power (160).According to the reference information "On some issues of the organization of consideration of appeals" developed by the DDO of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the specified topic of statements "Issues of combating crime within the competence of the internal affairs bodies (CC)" is understood as systemic activities aimed at ensuring compliance with the norms of criminal law, preventing harm to the interests and benefits protected by it, characterized by the identification, prevention, suppression and disclosure of crimes and offenses. It is emphasized that these statements may include information provided to the authors about the existence of organized criminal groups and communities, a description of their alleged activities, about the possibility of criminal activity of individual individuals and legal entities. 

The thematic classifier separately identifies the following topics that fall under this type of statements and are reflected in the information on the subject of appeals to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region for 12 months of 2022: unjustified refusal to initiate criminal proceedings - 183; unjustified initiation of criminal proceedings, unjustified criminal prosecution – 12; unjustified bringing to administrative responsibility – 3219; violation of the procedure for considering citizens' appeals and holding a personal reception – 1708; violation of legality by law enforcement officers (presence of signs of a criminally punishable act of corruption) - 245; violation of legality by law enforcement officers (presence of signs of a criminally punishable act unrelated to corruption) – 230. Their peculiarity is that the violation of laws and other regulatory legal acts occurs directly by employees of the internal affairs bodies. For example, statements of disagreement with the imposition of disciplinary penalties, unjustified dismissals and layoffs are registered on the subject of "Issues of staffing of internal affairs bodies". Statements related to violation of official discipline, disclosure of information constituting a state secret fall under the same subject.

Applications also include a citizen's request for assistance in the realization of his rights and freedoms or the rights and freedoms of others. For example, the author makes a request to issue a document, to make a decision regarding him or another specific person, without appealing against the actions or inaction of the employees of the internal affairs bodies. At the same time, the rights of a citizen are not violated. An innovation is the registration of vacation reports to employees who have a valid electronic signature through the section "Citizens' Appeal" of the SED ISOD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. They relate to the topic "Issues of staffing of internal affairs bodies". In this subject, applications for employment, transfers, admission to educational institutions are also registered, as well as the provision of certificates confirming the term of service in the internal affairs bodies, the issuance of duplicate workbooks, certificates of "Combat Veteran". Thus, employees by means of applications exercise their rights within the framework of service in the internal affairs bodies. A large block consists of statements on award issues. Thus, 557 applications were registered in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in the subject of "Gratitude to employees of the internal Affairs bodies" for 12 months of 2022.

In addition to the above issues, the following elements of the standard classification fall under the subject of applications sent to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region: issues of staffing of internal affairs bodies - 9005; medical care of employees – 77; social security of employees – 707; issues of organization and road safety – 6479: migration issues – 9503.

Most of the statements are classified as "Other sub-questions concerning the activities of internal affairs bodies" - 100069. This is primarily due to the fact that according to the reference information "On some issues of the organization of consideration of appeals", developed by the Department of Record Keeping and work with appeals of citizens and organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, when determining the subject of appeals, it is necessary to choose the most specific values and put down only one topic or sub-topic or clarification of the sub-topic on one issue. If several values are selected for one question at the same time, incorrect data will be reflected in the report, which will lead to distortion of statistical indicators.

As a result of the conducted study of the classification of appeals by subject, carried out using the thematic classifier of the section "Appeals of citizens and organizations" of the SED ISOD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, it was revealed that at present, using the current algorithm of the specified system, it is not possible to automatically isolate complete statistical data for each of the subspecies of statements specified in the norm-definition, fixed In paragraph 3 of Article 4 of Federal Law No. 59-FZ of May 2, 2006 "On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation". The current classifier has a clearly defined list of issues under which registered applications should fall, and does not make it possible to classify incoming applications according to the subspecies provided for by the current legislation, reflecting the specifics of the legal nature of each of them. As an example, we can consider an application that is part of the topic "Issues of staffing of internal affairs bodies", the sub-topic "On granting leave", the consideration of which is within the competence of the departments for working with personnel. The legislator provides an opportunity to act (or not to act) at his discretion, i.e. to commit or not to commit provided for by the norm, namely paragraph 1 of Article 57 of Federal Law No. 342-FZ of November 30, 2011 "On Service in the Internal Affairs Bodies of the Russian Federation and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" [On service in the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation: Federal Law No. 342-FZ of November 30, 2011 [Electronic resource] // Access from the ConsultantPlus legal reference system (accessed 12.02.2023)], actions under the conditions defined by it. In a situation where an employee submits a report on granting him a basic vacation in accordance with the approved schedule, that is, he wants to exercise his right to rest, there is an implementation of such a method of legal influence as permission, which launches the appropriate system of procedures for the implementation of this method related to positive production. Also, this sub-topic may include the author's statement in which he expresses disagreement with the time period within which he is granted basic leave. In this case, the statement takes on the character of a report on shortcomings in the work or criticism of the activities of the personnel department employees, and we can talk about a violation of the prescription, that is, a certain procedure of actions established in appropriate conditions and in an appropriate manner (if these facts find their objective confirmation) – adversarial jurisdiction. In addition to the above circumstances, there may be a situation when an employee is denied the right to leave. Thus, a statement falling under an identical subject and sub–topic already has the character of a report on a violation of the law, namely, there is a violation of prohibitions and regulations (norms of federal legislation, orders and orders, job descriptions and regulations) - punitive jurisdiction.

Analysis of registration and control forms of the section "Appeals of citizens and organizations" of the SED ISOD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia showed the presence of factual errors when working with incoming correspondence: incorrect definition of the type of appeals (proposal, application, complaint); qualification on the subject does not correspond to the issues contained in the appeals; the characteristics of appeals are not reflected (repeated, similar, repeated); electronic images of documents (requests, responses, conclusions based on the results of the inspection of the complaint) and others are not attached. A number of authors have written about some other legal problems of the implementation of this automated information system in their scientific articles ^[9-11].

The legal problems arising in connection with the introduction of digital technologies indicate the available resources in the development of the current system of classification of incoming applications. 

It should be noted that the development of a system for receiving applications from citizens in electronic form will increase the efficiency of receiving and processing information, reduce costs and increase the productivity of employees, while ensuring a clear fixation will help accelerate the process of servicing and approval of a positive image of the organization.