Interpretation of Elements of Crimes Connected with Abuses in the Sphere of Public Procurement

Current legal norms of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, aimed at struggle against abuse of power in regard to public procurement, are rarely implemented, in spite of the fact that there are many socially dangerous acts in this sphere and a lot of cases. The paper is devoted to the Article 200.4 of the Russian Criminal Code and contains its interpretation based on purposes of that Article. The author states that the crime is targeted at public finances and connects this statement with the range of perpetrators limited by the legislator. The specific target of the act proscribed in the Article 200.4 of the Criminal Code is the procedure that is established by public procurement legislation. Problems of large-scale damage are discussed (for instance, whether it is possible to consider civil liability of the company as damage or to include expectation loss in the amount of damage). It is claimed that principals are those who as a rule have some administrative, management functions, but while committing that crime do not realize them. This conclusion is exemplified with public procurement managers and other possible perpetrators. Causation between the act and the damage creates difficulties because of the interference of innocent actions of third parties. It is necessary to admit that this crime is in fact a specific kind of crimes perpetrated through innocent agents, otherwise the requirement will never be satisfied. As for mens rea, the crime is committed knowingly. Author concludes that liability for abuses in regard to public procurement requires a difficult detailed inquiry of all its elements by law enforcement agencies though the sphere of public procurement is extremely important and has to be protected from abuses by means of criminal law.