Russia moves against corruption

Only one MP voted against the bill

Russia's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a Code of Conduct for Civil Servants at its first reading on Friday.

The code is modelled on a blueprint for European governments suggested by the Council of Europe as a legal framework for stamping out corruption.

It was proposed by a group of liberal members of the State Duma who argue that corruption is suffocating the country.

Russian liberals say the bill is much-needed

But representatives of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Government have expressed reservations about the bill, which still has to go through two other readings in the Duma.

The bill was passed in its first reading only days after the prosecutor general railed against abuses by bureaucrats.

"Verifications show that individual civil servants have established commercial organisations and receive profits from businesses not connected with their official work," Vladimir Ustinov was quoted as saying.

The prosecutor general admitted that most of the 2,500 corruption cases involving civil servants which came to court in 2001 involved petty bribe-takers.

One of the legislators who proposed the bill, Vladimir Yuzhakov, said that officials in Russia "abuse their position en masse to improve their own living standards".

Only one deputy voted against the bill in the Duma on Friday which lays down strict rules:

• Civil servants should not hold positions outside the service, either commercial or political, if that may lead to a "conflict of interest"
• They "should neither request nor accept presents, services, invitations and any other benefits"
• They should not use their civil service status when looking for a job after their stint in office is completed
• When signing an employment contract with a government agency, future applicants are required to take a pledge to abide by the Code and face sanctions if they breach it

The BBC's Moscow correspondent, Nikolai Gorshkov, notes that no punishment is envisaged for anyone who knowingly fails to blow the whistle on rogue colleagues or improper practices within their departments.

The Communist system of denunciation is still fresh in people's memories, our correspondent says.

Putin's own bill

Mr Putin's official envoy to the Duma, Alexander Kotenkov, predicted that the Code adopted by the Duma would become obsolete by the time it reached its third reading.

He said that a bill on state bodies proposed by the president himself was near completion.

But he added that certain clauses in the Duma's bill could be incorporated into the president's.

The government's representative in the Duma, Andrei Loginov, said parliament should pass a Code of Conduct for its own members first in view of frequent press allegations against MPs.

But a leading liberal MP, Boris Nemtsov, defended the Duma's bill, saying it would hit hard at corruption.

"The Code will work against those who sit and quietly cut into the state budget for their own ends," he said.