12.10.08

Among the anticorruption measures introduced into the State Duma by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is one to place a two-year “quarantine” on officials who want to leave the civil service and enter the business world. Only special permission from the former state employee’s former employer will circumvent the requirement. The employer will face punishment in the event the rule is broken. This is the first time the concept of conflict of interest has been applied to civil servants in Russian labor law. The rule will go into effect in 2009.

The new requirement will apply to civil servants at the level of deputy department head and higher. Those former civil servants will be required to inform their former employers of the labor contracts they enter into. A state commission will then examine the contract. The employer must inform the new hire’s former employer independently within ten days. The deadline for the employee is not indicated. The draft law does not make reference to corresponding sections of the Code of Administrative Procedures or the Criminal Code that prescribe punishment for violations of the new procedures or that describe the procedures for the state commission.

For municipal employees and employees of the Central Bank, the same restrictions will apply, but contracts those former officials enter into will be considered legal until they are dissolved through procedures described in the new law.

Observers say the new rules are reasonable and logical, but they warn that special permission is itself always an invitation to corruption. They also noted that the rules will reduce the attractiveness of government service in professions that are badly needed by the state. Former deputy minister of economic development and trade Andrey Sharonov, now managing director of Troika Dialog, commented that there is often a silent understanding that state service will lead to a position in the business world.

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Source: "Kommersant"