Anti-corruption legal education: Conflict of interests in the public civil service and the procedure for its settlement (part 9).
Conflict of Interest in Receiving Gifts and Services.
Description of the situation:
A civil servant, his relatives or other persons with whom the personal interest of a civil servant is associated, receive gifts or other benefits (free services, discounts, loans, payments for entertainment, recreation, transportation costs, etc.) from individuals and / or organizations in respect of which the civil servant exercises or previously performed certain functions of public administration.
Prevention and control measures:
The civil servant and his relatives are advised not to accept gifts from organizations in respect of which the civil servant exercises or previously performed certain functions of government, regardless of the value of these gifts and reasons for giving.
The representative of the employer, if he became aware of the receipt by the civil servant of a gift from individuals or organizations in respect of which the civil servant exercises or previously performed certain functions of government, it is necessary to assess how the gift received is related to the performance of official duties.
If the gift is related to the performance of official duties, then disciplinary measures should be applied to the civil servant, taking into account the nature of the corruption offense committed by the civil servant, its severity, the circumstances under which it was committed, the civil servant's compliance with other restrictions and prohibitions, requirements for prevention or on the settlement of conflicts of interest and the performance by them of duties established in order to combat corruption, as well as the previous results of the performance of a civil servant of his official duties.
If the gift is not related to the performance of official duties, then the civil servant is advised to point out that receiving gifts from interested individuals and organizations may damage the reputation of the government body, and therefore is undesirable, regardless of the reason for giving.
A comment:
A ban has been established for civil servants to receive remuneration from individuals and legal entities in connection with the performance of official duties.
At the same time, the audited organization or its representatives may try to give a gift to a government official in connection with a generally accepted reason, for example, in connection with a birthday or other holiday. In this situation, the gift cannot be unambiguously considered received in connection with the performance of official duties and, therefore, it becomes possible to circumvent the prohibition established in the legislation. However, it should be borne in mind that receiving a gift from an interested organization puts the civil servant in a situation of conflict of interest. The resulting benefit can negatively affect the performance of his official duties and the objectivity of the decisions made. In addition, such actions may raise reasonable doubts among citizens about the impartiality of a civil servant, thereby damaging the reputation of the state body and the civil service in general.
The same applies to gifts received from the interested organization by the relatives of the civil servant. The current legislation does not establish any restrictions on the receipt of gifts and other benefits by the relatives of civil servants. Despite this, it should be borne in mind that in most cases such gifts are motivated by a desire to circumvent existing regulatory restrictions and influence the actions and decisions of a civil servant.