On the organization of prosecutorial and supervisory support for the implementation of the national project “Ecological Well-Being”

Usov Aleksei Yur'evich PhD in Law Associate Professor; Department of Prosecutorial Supervision and Participation of the Prosecutor in the consideration of civil and Arbitration cases; Irkutsk Law Institute (branch) University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation 664035, Russia, Irkutsk region, Irkutsk, Shevtsova str., 1 alexus_555@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The implementation of national projects in the Russian Federation was initiated by the President of the Russian Federation in 2018, and significant results have been achieved by 2024, including in the implementation of the national Ecology project. Immediately after the approval of national projects in 2018, Palamarchuk A.V. expressed the idea that "supervisory support of the entire complex of measures for the breakthrough development of the country is an absolute priority of the work of the prosecutor's office for the next six years" ^{[1, pp. 3-10]}. In May 2024, the President of the Russian Federation approved Decree No. 309 dated 05/07/2024 "On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and for the future up to 2036", according to which the implementation of the national project "Environmental well-being" is planned in the environmental sphere. In this regard, we agree with the opinion of the authors, who believe that "the supervisory support of national projects by prosecutors does not lose its importance, during which violations of the law are identified and suppressed, and human and civil rights are protected" ^{[2, pp. 6-9]}. Moreover, the approval of a new Decree of the President of the Russian Federation defining targets and main directions for the implementation of national projects for the period up to 2036 necessitates the systematization of the experience of organizing and implementing prosecutorial supervision of the implementation of laws in this area. In this regard, this article examines the organization of supervisory support for national projects, and, in particular, the problems that arise in the course of working with sources of information about violations of laws, the organization of systematic information interaction with the objects being checked, the distribution of responsibilities among prosecutors, the formation of departmental reporting, interaction with specialists (experts) during the audit, as well as during inspections at various stages of the implementation of national projects.

One of the main features of prosecutorial activity in the field under study is "the implementation, taking into account the tasks currently assigned to the prosecutor's office, of systematic supervisory support for the implementation of national projects, which in practice means that prosecutorial inspections are proactive and, of course, are not related to the receipt of specific information about violations of the law" ^{[3, pp. 8-13]}. Therefore, the prosecutor, first of all, has the task of conducting timely monitoring of all available sources of information on the implementation of national projects (including the website "national projects.the Russian Federation", passports of national and regional projects, state and municipal programs, a unified information system in the field of procurement "www.zakupki.gov.ru ", the SPARK information resource, the unified portal of the budget system of the Russian Federation "Electronic Budget", the federal targeted investment program), as well as systematically analyze data posted on the official websites of public authorities control (supervisory) and law enforcement agencies, media data, appeals from citizens and legal entities, materials of criminal and administrative cases, judicial practice. If there is no or insufficient information in open sources, it is necessary to request it in accordance with the established procedure.

In this regard, the next problematic issue from the point of view of the organization of supervisory support is the organization of systematic information interaction with supervised facilities ^{[4, p. 127]}. So, back in 2020, an attempt was made to challenge the prosecutor's demands for systematic (weekly) provision of information by economic entities involved in the implementation of national projects over a long period of time. However, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not support these requirements, recognizing that the prosecutor makes a corresponding claim within the limits of the powers granted to him and does not violate the legitimate interests of the applicant (Ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 03/23/2021 No. 303-ES21-1938 in case No. A73-6464/2020). The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed its position in Resolution No. 65-AD23-1-K9 dated 03/09/20203, indicating that conducting an audit is not the only possible way to perform the functions assigned to the prosecutor's office, respectively, information and documents are sent to the prosecutor's office both as part of the audit and in the implementation of other tasks assigned to the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation functions.

Since the effective and systematic implementation of supervisory support by one prosecutor's employee in relation to all national projects implemented in the supervised territory seems problematic even at the level of city (district) prosecutor's offices, one of the most important issues to be addressed in the organization of prosecutorial activities is the issue of the correct distribution of responsibilities in the prosecutor's office. Currently, there are two main approaches to this issue in the law enforcement practice of the prosecutor's office. The first of them is that the supervisory support for the implementation of national projects is carried out by prosecutors in accordance with how certain types of prosecutorial supervision are distributed in the prosecutor's office, respectively, the prosecutor overseeing the implementation of legislation in the environmental sphere ensures the implementation of supervisory support for the implementation of the national project "Environmental well-being", the formation of appropriate departmental reporting and the preparation of memos. The second approach is that, in addition to distributing supervisory support for the implementation of individual national projects, a responsible person is additionally appointed among prosecutors (as a rule, this is a deputy prosecutor), who accumulates all incoming information on the results of supervisory support, is responsible for preparing summary memos and forming a unified report on the results of supervision of the implementation of legislation by the prosecutor's office national projects. It should be noted that due to the fact that a new Decree of the President of the Russian Federation has been approved, defining a new structure, targets, and the name of national projects, the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation is currently updating organizational and administrative documents, including those providing for the distribution of responsibilities in the prosecutor's offices of cities and districts, equivalent prosecutor's offices.

The next closely related issue of the organization of prosecutorial supervision over the implementation of legislation in the implementation of national projects is the rules for the formation of departmental reporting on the results of the prosecutor's activities in this area. The problem lies in the fact that often when forming a report on the results of supervisory support for the implementation of a national project, there is a risk of including in the relevant report violations of legislation identified by the prosecutor that are not related to the implementation of national projects. In the environmental sphere, a huge number of such examples can be given: illegal logging of forest plantations, unauthorized occupation of land, illegal use of a water body and other violations, which, of course, have a negative impact on the general state of legality in the field of ecology. However, in accordance with the letter of the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation dated 08/01/2019 No. 73/1-531-2019 the report on the results of supervision over the implementation of laws in the implementation of national projects can reflect only those measures of prosecutorial response that were taken as a result of the detection of violations related to the expenditure of budgetary funds, which are determined by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation budget classification codes. In the field of implementation of national projects, the budgetary funds used to finance national projects have been called "colored money", which means that such money has a certain target character. It should be noted that the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation periodically reviews budget classification codes, moreover, the adoption of Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 05/07/2024 No. 309 entails a revision of the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, which defines the procedure for the formation and application of budget classification codes, their structure and principles of appointment, which should be taken into account in the further organization of prosecutorial activities.

The next problem of the organization of prosecutorial supervision over the execution of laws in the field of implementation of the national project "Environmental well-being" is the high need for the use of special knowledge during the prosecutor's inspection. The fact is that often when the prosecutor conducts an inspection, it becomes necessary to take samples, conduct expert studies, assess the damage caused to nature and the effectiveness of restoring the original state of the environment, etc. In this regard, special attention should be paid to the interaction of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation with the federal state budgetary institution "Center for Laboratory Analysis and Technical Measurements" (hereinafter – FSBI "TSLATI"). FSBI "TSLATI" is an organization subordinate to the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management (Rosprirodnadzor), which provides laboratory support for federal state environmental supervision, operating at the expense of subsidies allocated from the federal budget. However, in 2020, a letter from Rosprirodnadzor dated 04/21/2020 No. PH appeared-11-03-31/12522 "On participation in inspections of the Prosecutor's Office", according to which it is prescribed that the further participation of the Central Bank institutions in inspections conducted by the prosecutor's office should be stopped, and in the future laboratory support should be carried out when paying for the relevant services at the expense of the prosecutor's office. At the same time, one of the results of the inspection of the activities of Rosprirodnadzor by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in 2022 was the sending to the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation of a letter from the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation dated 04/13/2022 No. 75-06-2022 "On violations of legislation in the activities of Rosprirodnadzor", according to which it was proposed to exclude the facts of ignoring the requirements of prosecutors for the gratuitous referral of specialists Apply for participation in prosecutor's inspections and cancel the letter of Rosprirodnadzor dated 04/21/2020 No. PH-11-03-31/12522 . However, it should be noted that despite the proposals made by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, problems in the interaction of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation with specialists of FSBI "TsLATI" remain, as the best model of interaction today is the provision of specialists only after coordination with the central office of Rosprirodnadzor, which often takes a very long time, and, accordingly, is used Not that often. As a scientific proposal to solve this problem, I would like to express the idea of creating an All-Russian Expert Center with branches in all federal districts of the Russian Federation, the main purpose of which should be to carry out laboratory support for state control (supervision), municipal control, prosecutorial supervision and preliminary investigation, since the need for the existence of such an organization is acutely felt not only in the field of Moreover, the activities of the proposed expert center cannot be subordinated to the interests of only one of the authorities. It is proposed to use the funds allocated for the implementation of national projects as a source of funding for the creation of the All-Russian Expert Center.

In accordance with the order of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation dated 03/14/2019 No. 192, prosecutors provide supervisory support for the implementation of national projects. This means, in particular, that the prosecutor must ensure the systematic receipt and analysis of information at all stages of the implementation of the national project, and, if there are grounds for this, initiate an audit. It should be noted that the implementation of any national project involves a certain stage of this activity, while at each stage certain typical violations of the law may be identified, which should be given priority attention by the prosecutor. In our opinion, as an example, the following main stages of the implementation of a national project can be highlighted: planning, organization and conduct of procurement; implementation of government contracts; payment of government contracts and other expenditure of budgetary funds; organization and implementation of subsequent maintenance of purchased equipment and constructed facilities.

Thus, during the planning, organization and implementation of purchases, prosecutors often identify:

– absence (non-compliance with legislation) of legal acts issued by state authorities and local self-government bodies;

– absence (improper accounting) of facilities requiring the implementation of a national project;

– non-compliance with the requirements of the legislation of the regulatory methodological framework for the formation of the municipal program;

– the incorrectness of determining the final results of programs, including indicators of their effectiveness;

– low level of contracting for the national project;

– low level of cash disbursement of funds for the national project;

– improper preparation of the terms of reference;

– the absence (improper preparation) of project documentation for obtaining the conclusions of state examinations (environmental, urban planning and others);

– the initial overestimation of the price of government contracts;

– provision of an inappropriate land plot for the construction of construction facilities;

– lack of assessment in the design documents of the conditions for installation and operation, storage of equipment planned for purchase;

– avoidance of competitive procedures;

– creation of preferences for individual contractors;

– conclusion of a government contract based on forged documents and other violations.

For example, the prosecutor's office of the Slyudyansky district of the Irkutsk region revealed violations related to the provision of a land plot on which a previously unaccounted-for cemetery of the early XX century was located, in connection with which, based on the prosecutor's submission, measures were taken to resume work on the design of the facility, a new land plot was determined.

Also, according to the materials of the prosecutor's office of the Slyudyansky district of the Irkutsk region, sent to the investigating authorities in accordance with paragraph 2 of part 2 of Article 37 of the CPC of the Russian Federation, a criminal case has been initiated and is being investigated against officials of the contractor on the grounds of a crime provided for in Part 5 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, upon the provision of a forged document on the availability of experience in design, construction and commissioning of a capital construction facility.

The bodies of the preliminary investigation of the Omsk region, based on materials sent by the prosecutor of Omsk in accordance with paragraph 2 of Part 2 of Article 37 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, opened a criminal case under Part 1.1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on improper performance of duties by officials of a number of departments of Omsk when making design and management decisions during the construction of a capital construction facility, which resulted in flooding of the basement with groundwater the temporary suspension of the activities of the constructed facility, and, as a result, damage to the budget in the amount of 218 million rubles.

At the stage of implementation of government contracts, the following are identified:

– non-fulfillment by contractors of obligations to carry out work (supply of equipment);

– violation of deadlines (schedules for the execution of the contract);

– violation of the requirements of the law when concluding additional agreements to contracts on extending the deadlines for their execution, providing advances.

– lack of control (monitoring, video surveillance) over the progress of work;

– posting information about the performance of the contract that does not comply with the terms of the contract and other violations.

So, for example, for violation of the terms of execution of the contract concluded by the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Reserved Baikal Region" for the construction of a fire and chemical plant in the Irkutsk region within the framework of the federal project "Preservation of Lake Baikal", at the initiative of the West Baikal Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor, the general director of the contractor was brought to administrative responsibility under Part 7 of Article 7.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation with the appointment penalties in the form of an administrative fine in the amount of 911.7 thousand rubles. The contract with the contractor has been terminated, and work has been organized to conclude a new contract.

As part of the supervision of the Severobaikalsky Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office, it was established that from 06/15/2023 the construction of the facility was suspended due to a significant increase in prices for building materials in 2021-2022 and changes in the technical conditions for connecting the facility to utility networks. In this connection, the contractor decided to adjust the project documentation, followed by repeated state expertise and determination of the reliability of the estimated cost, which led to the impossibility of fulfilling the contract within the prescribed period. In terms of non-fulfillment of work under the contract within the established time limits, a warning was announced to the customer, a submission was made to the contractor (reviewed and satisfied), and an administrative offense case was initiated under Part 7 of Article 7.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

In another example, thanks to the response measures taken by the prosecutor of the Irkutsk district of the Irkutsk region, the construction of a capital construction facility was accelerated, the schedule of construction and installation works was adjusted, video surveillance cameras were installed on the territory of the construction site to monitor the progress of construction, the sufficiency of labor and equipment, the prosecutor's access to the video surveillance system for the construction process online was provided.

The stage of payment for government contracts and other spending of budget funds is often accompanied by the following violations:

– the lack of up-to-date information about government programs and the results of project implementation on the official websites of government authorities;

– misuse of budget funds;

– late delivery of funds to the final recipients;

– the use of budgetary funds to pay for expenses that should be carried out at the expense of funds coming from budgets of other levels or from extra-budgetary sources;

– payment of contracts before the actual completion of work (including the results of acceptance of actually completed works);

– payment for works performed by the customer earlier at their own expense;

– fictitious commissioning, payment without actually performing an action (for example, fictitious staff training);

– failure to take measures to collect a penalty for violation of the terms of the contract;

– failure to take measures for the recourse recovery of funds (paid penalty) from officials whose fault the payment of the contract was made untimely.

Thus, during the audit of the activities of the municipal customer in Cheboksary, facts of violations of the payment deadlines for the construction of capital construction facilities performed by the contractor were revealed, in connection with which the prosecutor's office of Cheboksary brought the head of the municipal customer to administrative responsibility under part 1 of Article 7.32.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation in the form of a fine of 30,000 rubles for each offense.

During the audit of the implementation of legislation on the implementation of national projects in terms of the organization of acceptance of works under municipal contracts in the Smolensk region, it was found that the contractor's work was not completed within the period stipulated by the contract, but the customer paid for the work actually not completed in the amount of more than 430 thousand rubles. In this regard, the district prosecutor, in accordance with paragraph 2 of Part 2 of Article 37 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, issued resolutions on sending verification materials against officials of the customer and contractor to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to resolve the issue of criminal prosecution. A criminal case has been initiated against the deputy head of the municipality, provided for in Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and a criminal case has been initiated against the general director of the contractor, provided for in Part 3 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

During the subsequent maintenance of the erected structures and (or) purchased equipment, attention should be paid to identifying the following violations of the law:

– absence of a service (operating organization);

– the absence of local regulations governing the organization of activities in new conditions, including the use of purchased equipment;

– understaffing;

– misuse of purchased equipment;

– failure to fulfill the obligation to register the purchased equipment, devices;

– improper operation (damage) of purchased equipment, including virus software;

– failure of the operators to complete training (instruction, licensing).

For example, based on the results of consideration of the submissions of the prosecutors of the Kachugsky and Balagansky districts of the Irkutsk region, the regional Ministry of Forestry and its subordinate institution organized the repair of special equipment, concluded contracts for the supply of spare parts, communications and food, for registration of CTP policies for fire equipment, measures were taken to equip forest fire stations with the necessary equipment and equipment provided for by the order Government of the Russian Federation No. 1605-r dated 07/19/2019.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Chechen Republic identified cases of inability to use the purchased equipment – quadrocopters due to the failure to send applications to the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) for registration of quadrocopters, the lack of approved documents confirming flight safety.

The inspection of the Ziminskaya interdistrict prosecutor's office of the Irkutsk region revealed cases of damage to information on hard drives of 2 system blocks, infection with virus programs of an SSD disk. The reason was the installation of a portable USB storage device (Flash drive) infected with virus software. In connection with the improper use of the property complex, a submission has been made, and measures are being taken to restore information.

Thus, the conducted research on the organization and implementation of prosecutorial and supervisory support for the implementation of national projects allows us to conclude that in the field under study there are problems of both law enforcement and rule-making nature. At the same time, the activities of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation to ensure the rule of law in the implementation of national projects are extremely important, allowing to prevent and eliminate a huge number of heterogeneous violations of the law. In this regard, we express the hope that the use of the proposals made in the law enforcement practice of the prosecutor's office will improve the effectiveness of the organization and implementation of prosecutorial supervision over the implementation of laws not only in the implementation of the national project "Environmental well-being", but also in the scope of other national projects, state and municipal programs.