Countering Conflicts of Interest in the Field of Public Civil Service

Abstract

The relevance of the study of the institute of conflict of interests is determined by the need to increase the effectiveness of measures aimed at combating corruption. The subject of this article is the ways of representation in legislation and scientific sources of the phenomenon of conflict of interests related to the sphere of public civil service. The purpose of the work is to identify areas for improving anti—corruption legislation in terms of clarifying the provisions that disclose the legal definition and typology of the conflict of interests, as well as ways and measures to counter this socially undesirable phenomenon. Based on the analysis of the legal definition of the phenomenon of conflict of interests, an improved interpretation of it is proposed, revealing its qualitative feature — an increased likelihood of misappropriation or distribution by officials of tangible and intangible benefits for personal needs. The importance of differentiation in the legislation of three types of conflicts of interest is substantiated: actual, potential and prospective, which correspond to measures aimed at preventing them through the use of the identifier "counteraction", which, unlike the method of "regulation", to a greater extent connects the conflict of interest with anti-corruption policy. Finally, each of the designated methods of countering conflicts of interest was compared with specific measures (preventive, control, organizational and other measures), which made it possible to clarify and supplement the list of such measures presented in the legislation. Conclusions are drawn about the priority of understanding the conflict of interests as a corruption situation, which necessitates a closer embedding of the interpretation of this phenomenon in the context of anti-corruption legislation.