Anti-Corruption Potential of Openness and Accessibility of Municipal Legal Acts

Abstract

The article discusses openness of the results of the law-making activities that local government performs. Currently in Russia there is an electronic platform that allows to get access to the whole system of municipal legal acts in a unified form. In turn, legal regulation in this field is quite ambiguous and is not featured with framework of categories and concepts. The “Municipal Legal Acts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai” electronic information system is offered as a possible solution to the problem. Its structure includes two user interfaces, one of which is intended for the access of the citizens of the municipal unit and other interested persons to the database of municipal legal acts. The second one is intended for municipal officers, which form this database. The functional features of the electronic information system and the logic of a database building allow users to observe the current edition of a municipal legal act, view the history of the changes made to it, as well as track the links arising between acts in the process of law-making activities of local governments. Unlike most analogues, this system allows to store and publish legal acts with individual content, as well as, if necessary, to ensure their confidentiality. The implementation of such a system in the practice of municipalities has anti-corruption potential, which is expressed in increasing the legal awareness of the population of the municipality, enhancing public control over the activities of local governments, as well as providing independent anti-corruption expertise of municipal regulations and their projects.