Information technologies as a means of combating corruption in the Russian Federation

Ageev Vyacheslav PhD in Law Associate Professor of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Linguistics, National Research University "MEI" 111250, Russia, Moscow, Krasnokazarmennaya str., 14 ageev_fksu@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Corruption as a systemic and pervasive phenomenon has an extremely detrimental effect on the work of public authorities at all levels, undermines the trust of citizens in these bodies and, ultimately, can lead to absolutely unpredictable consequences, up to the destruction of the public administration system.

It is no coincidence that the state has been actively developing its policy in this direction for more than a decade. Prior to the adoption of Federal Law No. 273-FZ of December 25, 2008 "On Combating Corruption" (hereinafter referred to as the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption"), there was no clear legislative anti–corruption framework in the country. With the advent of this law, the regulatory framework for the fight against corruption received a new impetus in development, many legislative acts were amended, a sufficient number of by-laws appeared, one way or another developing the provisions of the newly adopted law.

In this case, it is quite appropriate to apply the statement of the President of the Russian Federation, which he uttered during his speech on December 20, 2023 at the solemn meeting of the Council of Legislators dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. According to him, in Russia "the legal foundations of a new statehood have been created. And then we gradually managed to establish constitutional order, the necessary discipline, and compliance with these laws on this legal basis" ^[1]. 

Information technologies are actively used by the state in all spheres of public life. The Internet has become an integral part of citizens' lives. In addition, it has become an excellent tool for obtaining public services of various levels, ensuring accessibility and transparency of obtaining such services, which becomes an effective means of combating corruption.

According to Y.A. Repina, "numerous examples clearly show that the Internet can be used to fight corruption, since it promotes transparency of government actions, and can also help solve many problems in anti-corruption prevention" ^{[2, p. 66]}.

Digital technologies make it possible to supplement the principles established by the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption" with new semantic content, since the introduction of information and digital technologies greatly increases the likelihood of compliance with one of the principles established by this law – the principle of openness and publicity of public administration.

In 2019, deputies of the Samara Provincial Duma submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation a draft federal law No. 688581-7 "On Amending Article 3 of the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption", which contained a proposal to establish "digitalization" as one of the principles of state policy in the field of combating corruption.

The explanation to the draft law indicates that the main goal of creating a digital state is to make it more open, transparent and accountable. At the same time, the transparency of all administrative actions directly depends on the comprehensive digitalization of document management at the state and municipal levels, which will make bureaucratization impossible and block a significant part of corruption schemes," the explanatory note to the bill says.

The subject of this study is information technology as a means of combating corruption in the Russian Federation. The importance of the research is attached to the fact that in modern reality information technologies have a huge impact on all spheres of government activity and public life. The state's anti-corruption policy is also influenced by new trends. Moreover, the introduction of information technology, the so-called "digitalization", remains one of the most relevant areas in the fight against corruption today. The above has determined the subject and relevance of this study. 

Russian scientists are actively engaged in studying the problems of combating corruption, means and methods of combating it. Moreover, this problem is becoming an area of interest not only for lawyers and economists, but also, especially in connection with the development of information systems in the anti-corruption field, for specialists in technical professions.

The works of many well-known Russian scientists are devoted to the problems of combating corruption, in particular such as V.V. Astanin ^[3], P.A. Kabanov ^[4], A.B. Kurakin ^[5], A.F. Nozdrachev ^[6], T.Ya. Khabrieva ^[7].

Many works are devoted to the use of information technology as a tool to combat corruption. Thus, Yu.A. Repina explores the effectiveness of information technologies in the fight against corruption in Russia and abroad ^[2]. D.V. Menyailo and K.K. Krupennikova study the issues of combating corruption in the context of digital transformation ^[8]. A.I. Ovchinnikov analyzes the opportunities, prospects and risks of countering corruption in the context of digitalization ^[9]. The work of D.M. Farakhiev ^[10] and others is devoted to a detailed consideration of the issues of the device and operation of Poseidon GIS. In our opinion, these works are not enough to fully assess the anti-corruption potential of information technologies and information systems. In this regard, the conducted research seems to be the most in demand.

The purpose of the study is to explore the possibilities of information technology in the Russian Federation as a means of combating corruption.

To achieve this goal in the study, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

- to analyze the normative legal acts on the specified problem;

- consider the possibilities of digitalization as a tool to combat corruption;

- to explore the possibilities of the Poseidon state information system;

- develop recommendations on the problem under study.

The methodology of the article was compiled by the normative legal acts of the Russian Federation, the works of domestic scientists. The article used both general scientific research methods, such as the method of analysis, synthesis, systemic and functional methods, as well as special research methods - comparative legal and formal legal methods.

The legal basis of the study was the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption", as well as the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On the State information system in the field of combating corruption "Poseidon" (hereinafter referred to as GIS Poseidon and amendments to certain acts of the President of the Russian Federation" (together with the "Regulations on the State information system in the field of anti-corruption "Poseidon") dated April 25, 2022, No. 232 (hereinafter referred to as the Decree on GIS Poseidon).

Work on the introduction of digital and information technologies in various spheres of public administration and public services in order to make them as transparent as possible has been underway for several years. A number of platforms have been created that provide public services that are actively used by Russian citizens, as a result of which personal contact with officials of various levels becomes minimal or is completely excluded, and the provision of a number of public services from the moment of filing an application to their full execution takes no more than five minutes. These are, first of all, digital products of the Electronic Government platform – this is the unified portal of public services (EPSU) – Public Services, and the unified identification and authentication system (ESIA), pre–trial appeal, etc.; and the official Internet representation of the President of the Russian Federation, and the portal of the Government of Russia - Digital Government. In addition, each department has its own portals or Internet reception rooms, which citizens can contact to solve their problems. Of course, these information systems and digital products have a positive effect on reducing the level of corruption in state and municipal authorities, as well as in bodies providing public services to the population. In order to regulate these "digital products", a number of relevant legislative acts have been adopted: Federal Law of July 27, 2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", Federal Law of December 22, 2008 "On ensuring access to information on the Activities of Courts in the Russian Federation", Federal Law of February 9, 2009 "On ensuring access to information on the activities of State and Local authorities local governments", creating a regulatory framework for the implementation and application of these products.

In addition, digital tools "work" to comply with the principle of publicity and openness of the activities of state bodies and local governments, established by Article 3 of the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption". To this end, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated April 25, 2022, the state information system in the field of anti-corruption "Poseidon" was created and implemented. This information system aims to analyze and verify compliance with the restrictions, prohibitions and requirements established by regulatory legal acts for state, municipal employees and other persons holding public positions, or positions equivalent to them.

Poseidon GIS is based on the Help-BK software, which has been used for several years by state and municipal employees to fill out accounting documents. The previous system had a number of disadvantages, one of which was the provision of paper certificates by state and municipal employees. Poseidon GIS lacks this drawback, since all certificates are provided in electronic form.

The first part of the Decree defines the users of Poseidon GIS. This is the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, which is the coordinator of the system, it is also called the internal user of the system. The function of the operator is performed by the Federal Security Service of the President of Russia. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation is responsible for the methodological and consulting support of GIS Poseidon.

The Poseidon GIS Regulation defines the circle of persons who provide information for inclusion in the system – these are state bodies, public authorities of the Sirius federal territory, its control and accounting chamber and the territorial election commission, the Bank of Russia, state corporations (companies), public law companies, state extra-budgetary funds, etc. These same persons are external users of the system.

The owner of the information contained in Poseidon GIS is the Russian Federation itself. Access to Poseidon GIS by users established by the Decree is free of charge.

The main tasks of Poseidon GIS are the following tasks:  

- automation of the reception of information that will be provided by civil servants into the system, as well as the collection, accounting, storage, analysis and provision of corrupt information contained in the system at the request of relevant persons with such powers;

- information and analytical support for the activities of Poseidon GIS users, which is aimed at analyzing and verifying compliance by civil servants with the prohibitions and restrictions established by law related to their positions;

- formation and maintenance of statistical reports and information and analytical materials on anti-corruption issues;

- interaction of Poseidon GIS with other information and analytical systems that store information that allows to counteract corruption with the greatest effect.

Kirill Kabanov, giving a description of Poseidon GIS, noted that Poseidon allows you to create a digital portrait of the person being checked and find out if he has an intersection of interests, informal communication with people in which corrupt relations may be hidden" ^[11]. That is, the system allows you to track and record all the so-called "digital traces" of a civil servant, up to his friends on social networks and correspondence with them, which allows you to detect signs of both a conflict of interest and serious corruption crimes.

Researchers have previously noted that "programmatic identification of conflicts of interest through monitoring by search engines using artificial intelligence has great potential. Through "virtual traces" on the Internet, search queries, network services, face recognition systems, location determination, search for classmates, family ties, financial transactions using specially designed programs, conflicts of interest can be tracked and signaled to law enforcement agencies to check corruption schemes" ^{[9, p. 160]}.

As an illustration of the implementation of Poseidon GIS in the work of public authorities, an example of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia can be given. There have been changes to the procedure for checking employees and persons who apply for positions in judicial authorities for corruption.

According to the changes, employees of the Anti-Corruption Department of the Judicial Department and its structural divisions will be obliged to use Poseidon GIS in their work to verify the reliability of employees' property declarations, information from a candidate when applying for a position, as well as to control official behavior. In particular, all such requests will be sent to the prosecutor's office, other competent structures and organizations, both in the usual manner and with the help of Poseidon GIS. At the same time, only the Director General of the Judicial Department can send requests about the conduct and results of operational investigative activities, as well as to banks, the Federal Tax Service, Rosreestr and to operators of information systems for the issuance of digital financial assets.

The powers of employees of anti-corruption units during inspections are being clarified. Currently, they can study additional materials submitted by the candidate or employee, receive explanations from them, prepare draft requests and analyze the information received. In addition, they will also consider applications from employees of the Judicial Department about the inability to submit a declaration of income and property or comply with the requirements to ban holding foreign accounts for valid reasons (for example, in connection with sanctions or unforeseen circumstances) ^[12].

To date, Poseidon GIS is not without drawbacks, so D.M. Farakhiev, an operative of the Department of Economic Security and Anti–Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, notes that "the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is neither a coordinator nor an operator of the Poseidon innovation system," which can create certain difficulties. In addition, in his opinion, "it is necessary to introduce civil society institutions as a user of the system" ^{[10, p. 253]}.

Undoubtedly, the creation and implementation of Poseidon GIS is a very timely and modern step that meets the current stage of society's development. In fact, this system is the first narrowly focused information complex aimed at combating corruption and the prospects for its development are very great. One of the directions of its development may be its integration with other information systems, besides, this direction is directly fixed in the Decree on GIS Poseidon. A number of researchers propose to integrate into Poseidon GIS a system that records the movement of funds in the accounts of civil servants ^[9],[10]. In addition, the system will certainly contribute to the efficiency of obtaining data on possible or existing corruption offenses, identifying corruption risks, which will allow timely application of measures to prevent corruption crimes.

The "high-ranking" of the coordinator and operator of the system indicates that the state places high hopes on the Poseidon GIS system, moreover, the system is managed by so-called "presidential" structures, which means that it is, in fact, under the personal control of the President of the Russian Federation. In addition, this fact is a guarantee that the data obtained during the work of Poseidon GIS are under special protection.

It is quite obvious that the information technology component of the fight against corruption will be constantly developing and improving. It would not be superfluous to pay attention to the developments of research teams, for example, the staff of the RANEPA branch, Volgograd, has developed an information and analytical system "Methods and tactics of combating corruption for state and municipal employees" ^[13]. This system is primarily aimed at conducting training, both systematic and one-time, in the field of anti-corruption and testing. In addition, with the help of this system, it is possible to assess the anti-corruption environment in a public authority, as well as identify problem areas in the studied area for their subsequent elimination.

The system includes a course of video lectures by various anti-corruption specialists, many blocks of test tasks, the purpose of which is not only to control the student's knowledge, but to determine the respondent's attitude to possible corruption "temptations".

We must not forget about the existing and successfully operating digital products, which have a huge anti-corruption potential. These are the above-mentioned "e-government" services, Internet reception rooms, and other information portals and systems.

As a result of our research, it is possible to formulate the following conclusions and recommendations:

- Information technologies have a great impact on all spheres of government activity and public life. The state's anti-corruption policy is also influenced by new trends. Moreover, the introduction of information technologies, the so-called "digitalization", remains one of the most relevant areas in the field of combating corruption today;

- the information and technical component of the fight against corruption will constantly develop and improve, the state needs to take into account these trends and promptly turn them into the legal field;

- the creation and implementation of Poseidon GIS is a very timely and modern step that meets the current stage of society's development;

- it is necessary to develop the anti-corruption potential of successfully operating digital products for the provision of public services and develop new information systems, gradually synchronizing them with existing ones.