Contracts and Agreements as Grounds for Expenditure Obligations: A Legal Aspect

Abstract

The paper analyzes the provisions of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, stipulating that expenditure obligations in the Russian Federation arise, among other things, as a result of the conclusion of contracts and agreements. The study revealed that the provisions of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation contain broad definitions that allow for the emergence of expenditure obligations from contracts that do not have regulatory properties, in particular from contracts concluded on behalf of a public legal entity by a state institution. The paper substantiates that such regulation does not take into account the legal standing of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation according to which the expenditure obligation must be established in a normative form. It is revealed that the budget legislation regarding the regulation of expenditure obligations is not synchronized with the legislation regulating the organization of public power. The paper provides arguments proving the need to specify that only public law contracts should act as the grounds for the occurrence of expenditure obligations. According to the results of the study, it is proposed to adjust the Budget Code of the Russian Federation in terms of specifying a specific list of types of contracts and agreements, because of which expenditure obligations arise.