Regulation of the conflicts of interest in the local government

The duty to inform about the occurrence or threat of a conflict of interest arises at a municipal employee at the time when he finds out about this. Application of this provision in practice, it is obviously going to be associated with certain difficulties, since evaluative conflict of interest does not always allow employees to realize not only a threat to his appearance, but also the conflict that occurred. It is appropriate to note that, despite the fact that the notion of "conflict of interest" in relation to the area of municipal service has been used for quite a long time and the Commission to resolve the conflict of interest created in many local authorities, the number of cases pending before them, remains relatively small.

Prior to the consideration and decision on the presence or absence of public civil servant conflict of interest in the Commission's representative of the employer is entitled to dismiss a civil servant of the state, a party to a conflict of interest, from the duties of his position on the civil service. Procedure for dealing with the issue of conflict of interests and powers of the representative of the employer suggests that the federal legislator presumption of "guilt" of the state civil servant, which can only be eliminated through a decision by the Commission on the absence of self-interest of the state civil servant in a particular activity not related to the performance of his official duties.

Thus, even if the register options situational or functional conflict of interest, it is not known what to do, because there are only two possible sanctions: suspension from duty or dismissal from the civil service - but this situation is similar to a legal strike of civil servants, and other measures are unlikely to be suitable. Even transfer to another position is extremely difficult due to the need to obtain the consent of a public servant, as well as competitive substitution of public functions.

It seems that on incidences of "situations of potential conflict of interest," the employee must inform all times. At the same time, the list of such situations should not be exhaustive. These measures will, on the one hand, to raise awareness of the municipal employee situations involving the threat of a conflict of interest, on the other - to simplify the procedure for bringing him to legal liability if the obligation to inform them about this threat was not carried out.

Firstly, it looks possible development situations of potential conflict of interest of a general nature which may arise in many municipalities. Such a situation, for example, will be the implementation of municipal employees control or jurisdictional authority over the organization in which he works, his close relatives or in-laws. A similar situation arises when close relatives (in-laws) municipal employee have any ownership rights in the organization. Securing this kind of specific situations looks much more promising in comparison with those used in the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption" vague indication of the nature of the conflict of interest and self-interest, since the actions of the employee when they occur will be clearly regulated by law. A list of situations of potential conflict of interest of a general nature can be fixed in respect of municipal employees - normative acts appropriate level.

Second, is the development of a mandatory list of potential conflict of interest situations that are associated with the specific activity of a particular local government.

Using all the above measures is within the competence of the employer representative. However, the question of the presence or absence of conflict of interest often requires large amounts clarify the circumstances and, accordingly, quite time-consuming. Therefore, to resolve the conflict of interest in certain types of public service provides for the establishment of commissions to comply with the requirements of the official conduct of civil servants and conflict of interest.

In conclusion, the author notes that today the settlement of a conflict of interest from a practical point of view, unfortunately, quite problematic. Commission for the Settlement are ineffective due to unclear language norms, gaps and conflicts in the legislation. But despite this local governments, as well as municipal employees must search for specific ways and means of resolving conflicts of interest, guided by the norms that exist.