Bribery in the modern Russian army is still very high. According to Colonel of Justice Konstantin Belyaev, the level of crimes related to corruption in military structures is not decreasing, while there is an increase in the number of bribes. In total, in 2010, 2,400 cases of corruption were noted in the Russian armed forces, so the number of bribes, mercenary abuse of office increased by almost one and a half times, and the number of frauds increased. All this is happening against the background of a decline in all other types of crime in the army. Fighters against corruption pin special hopes on the army's transition to a cashless settlement system and expect a positive effect.
In the Russian army, millions are being stolen today. So Nikolai Konon, the head of one of the research institutes of the Ministry of Defense, together with his two subordinates, under fictitious and forged contracts with one-day firms, stole more than 23 million budget funds. Now an enterprising boss will spend 7 years behind bars, where he will have enough time to comprehend his actions.
According to Konstantin Belyaev, corruption crimes in the army are facilitated by omissions in control and audit work, weakening of discipline, imperfection of Russian legislation, and sometimes outright mistakes in the selection and subsequent placement of personnel. Last year, the main military prosecutor's office convicted more than 300 military officials of "forgetfulness." So they "forgot" to indicate their income and property in their declarations. All such facts are associated with hiding information about their income.
So, one of the heads of the directorate of the High Command of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation turned out to be so "forgetful" that he did not indicate in the declaration that his unemployed wife owned 11 land plots, apartments in Moscow, several out-of-town buildings and a bank account of 10 ki million rubles. Currently, this story is already being dealt with by law enforcement agencies.
In January of this year, Sergei Fridinsky, the chief military prosecutor, answering questions about corruption in the military environment, admitted that the scale of the problem "is sometimes striking." According to the prosecutor, it seems that people have already lost their sense of proportion and have completely forgotten about their conscience, and the amount of embezzlement is sometimes shocking. As an example, the prosecutor cited a case that was initiated against a group of officials from the State Order Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry and the Main Military Medical Directorate. Representatives of these two structural divisions of the Ministry of Defense signed a state contract with a certain commercial firm for the purchase of medical equipment for an amount exceeding 26 million rubles. As it turned out later, the cost of the purchased medical equipment was almost tripled, and the direct damage to the state amounted to more than 17 million rubles. The money was returned, but the military officials who made this deal will still have to answer before the law. At the same time, these organizations were repeatedly checked by controllers who overlooked these violations. Apparently they have something with aptitude or vision fails, and maybe with a bad conscience, said Sergei Fridinsky.
The main hopes for a turning point in the current situation in the Ministry of Defense are identified with a complete transition to a system of non-cash payments in the RF Armed Forces this year. Settlements will be carried out through the territorial financial authorities (TFO) of the ministry. This innovation entered into force on January 1, 2011 and affected all financial operations of military units and formations of the army and navy and is carried out through the TPO of the Ministry of Defense. In this regard, all military financial bodies, financial and economic departments and services (from the level of military units to military districts) will be liquidated within a year.
All day-to-day activities of the army and navy will be carried out using non-cash payments, including the purchase of weapons and military equipment, its current repair, the purchase of spare parts, the organization of combat training, and the purchase of food. Now all military and civilian personnel of the Ministry of Defense will deal with money only through plastic cards, receiving salaries and allowances from ATMs. Experts believe that the transition to a non-cash form of payments will minimize corruption and theft of budget funds. In addition, significant savings will occur due to the reduction in the staff of the military financial bodies, reduction of the time for the receipt of funds from military budgets to the final recipients, etc.
