Negligent attitude towards official duties: what is negligence under Art. 293?

Concept and characteristics

Negligence - what is it?

Negligence is considered to be the improper performance (or failure) by an employee of his job duties.

This is a crime for which the perpetrator will have to be punished.

However, this only happens if this situation entails certain consequences that violate the rights of third parties. This could be material losses to the victim, or harm to his health and life.

The concept of criminal negligence, as well as the degree of responsibility for it, is regulated at the legislative level, and the more serious the negative consequences that occur, the more severe the punishment the perpetrator will face.

How does practice work out?

In the process of studying the practice of courts, it becomes obvious that heads of educational institutions, personnel of medical institutions, bodies of inquiry, and investigation most often become the perpetrators of this type of crime. In addition, most of them have positive characteristics from their place of work, have no previous convictions, repent of their actions and help the investigation.

It is difficult to give a scientific explanation of the reasons for this pattern - a frivolous attitude towards the performance of their tasks by staff, the confidence that they will “get over it”, but responsibility will not come at all. Perhaps the reason for this phenomenon is the lack of professional development activities, the lack of real certification of management employees, the workload of other tasks, or simple indifference?

Here are just some examples:

The Berdsk City Court of the Novosibirsk Region sentenced Mr. Kh. to criminal punishment due to his guilt in negligence. Convict Kh., appointed head of the health camp, was careless about creating safe conditions for children in the medical institution, directly related to the safety and health of children. The result of such irresponsibility was an accident - the child fell from the second floor, which caused injuries that resulted in permanent disability.
In the Perm region, a court acquitted the director of an orphanage on charges of negligent failure to perform duties on the basis that there was no real opportunity to fulfill the relevant duties. The bus driver, transporting children to the competition site, set off ahead of schedule and was involved in a traffic accident, which resulted in the death of several students. Despite the fact that the director was responsible for ensuring the safety of transportation, the citizen could not influence the events, since she was not notified of the change in the bus departure time.
The court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug sentenced police officer N. to liability under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the case materials, victim G. was taken to the police station for committing an administrative offense, namely being drunk in a public place and minor hooliganism. The victim complained about his health condition; in response, N. called an ambulance, acting in accordance with internal instructions. Later, N. wrongfully canceled the call of medical workers, explaining that he did not realize the severity of G.’s condition, since he violently resisted arrest, attempted to attack employees, and only after being taken to the department fell to the floor without the ability to move independently. Such passivity in N.’s actions became the basis for the city court’s decision to punish him with a fine of thirty thousand rubles, supported by the appellate court.
There are often cases where negligence borders on fraudulent activities. Thus, guests of a hostel in the Astrakhan region repeatedly complained about the dilapidation of the building and the collapse of the walls. However, after reconstruction under the leadership of P., people from dilapidated houses located in a prestigious area were moved into the hostel. After which P. received permission to build a shopping center on the vacated site, in which investigators saw signs of fraud. In 2009, a span of the building collapsed, causing death and serious injury to many people. The chief specialist of the housing inspection service of the construction and housing supervision service, who recognized the house as suitable for habitation, was convicted of a crime under norm 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

It is obvious that the carelessness shown by officials, managers and other employees whose decisions affect our rights leads to very sad consequences, because their actions encroach on the constitutional rights of citizens, the normal functioning of government institutions and entities. Thorough criminal proceedings, establishing all the circumstances of what happened is the basis necessary for the correct qualification of the act and a fair court decision.

Composition and participants

Negligence, like any other offense, has a subjective and objective side.

The immediate object is the dishonest performance by a person of his official duties.

Additional – the interests of the third party who suffered in this situation. This could be material assets, personal information that was made public as a result of negligent actions and this resulted in adverse consequences for the victim, as well as the life and health of third parties.

In addition, it is important to understand whether the employee had a real opportunity to do his job efficiently , or whether the adverse consequences occurred as a result of reasons beyond his control.

The subject of an unlawful act is a responsible employee who, as a result of his own inattention or other unjustified reasons, does not carry out his activities properly.

Moreover, this employee did not have any intent to cause harm to other people. However, due to certain factors, this employee did not take any action to prevent the adverse situation from occurring.

Also, an offense of this type should be spoken of when the employee did not foresee the danger, but this only happened due to his inattention.

The parties to the crime are considered to be, directly, the criminal himself, that is, the subject, as well as the victim - the person who suffered moral, material or physical harm .

The subject and subjective side of the crime

A preventive measure for negligent actions may be taken against an official who has not properly fulfilled his official duties. From this definition it follows that only a person holding a certain position can act as a subject. In this case, we can talk about the presence of a special subject.

The subjective side is expressed in another form of negligence (negligence). A frivolous attitude towards one's duties is a qualifying sign and makes it possible to distinguish, for example, negligence from abuse of power

In the latter case, the offender takes action with an understanding of the possible consequences.

The presence of a sign of frivolity in the case becomes the main qualifying factor.

The peculiarity of the subjective side helps the investigation to distinguish between negligence and official forgery. Moreover, both of these crimes encroach on the interests of the enterprise or the state. As a result of official forgery, an official may violate his job description or commit other actions that are detrimental to the institution or organization in which he worked.

Negligence is characterized by exactly the same signs.

Attention! The difference between the two acts lies in intent. In the first case, there is room for direct intent

Negligence can only be expressed by negligence, as established in the disposition of Art. 293.

Classification and forms

To determine the degree of responsibility for the offense committed, it must first be classified. There are various criteria for this. Thus, depending on the professional activity of the subject of the crime, the following forms are distinguished:

Official , in which the subjects of the offense are civil servants, officials, and persons holding high positions in the public administration system.
Official , where the subject is a person holding a leadership position in a particular enterprise with certain powers.
Professional , when the subject is people performing certain professional duties. These may be employees of educational, medical, financial, industrial and social institutions, and law enforcement agencies.

Separately, we should talk about professional negligence , since this type is considered the most common. Here one should take into account the fact that only persons with certain qualifications can be the subject of a crime.

Unqualified employees who do not have a specific range of duties and powers cannot commit this illegal act, since their activities are not reflected at the documentary level.

Depending on the actions of the subject that led to adverse consequences, it is customary to distinguish the following types of criminal negligence:

Failure to take the necessary actions to prevent the development of a dangerous situation.
Inattention , disregard for one's own activities.

For example, if a law enforcement representative did not respond properly to a signal received, and as a result an offense was committed, such actions, or rather, their absence, are considered illegal .

Or, a medical professional, trying to get the maximum financial benefit, sees too many patients without paying due attention to each of them, which led to errors in diagnosis, treatment, and, as a result, deterioration of the patient’s health.

An example from judicial practice

When performing commissioning work during the construction of a workshop for breeding valuable fish species, the head of this workshop, Gr. Petrov entrusted the installation of expensive climate control equipment to a specialist, Mr. Klyuev, who does not have the proper qualifications and experience. A corresponding order was issued on the appointment of the executor, signed by gr. Petrov.

As a result of the produced gr. Klyuev's manipulations of expensive equipment worth 2 million rubles were irreparably damaged. Owner of future production gr. Shishkin filed a statement with the police regarding the damage caused. As a result, after the court hearing, Mr. Petrov was charged under Art. 293, part 1 and a fine of 120 thousand rubles was imposed.

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Dangerous consequences

The concept of negligence always indicates that improper performance by an employee of his duties entails undesirable consequences that cause harm to third parties.

If there are no such consequences, then the elements of the crime have not been defined, which means that it is impossible to apply certain sanctions to the negligent employee.

The most common consequences of negligent crime are:

Material damage. The amount of financial damage can vary, from minor to particularly large (over 5 million rubles).
Negative consequences for human health.
Death of one or more people. Negligence resulting in death by negligence.
Disclosure of secret personal information, which resulted in moral or material harm to the victim.
Concealment of important circumstances related to other official crimes.

Part 1 art. 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Negligence, that is, failure or improper performance by an official of his duties due to dishonest or negligent attitude towards service or duties in office, if this entailed causing major damage or a significant violation of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens or organizations or legally protected interests of society or the state, is punishable a fine in the amount of up to one hundred twenty thousand rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to one year, or compulsory labor for a term of up to three hundred and sixty hours, or corrective labor for a term of up to one year, or arrest for a term of up to three months.

Characteristic signs

This offense has its own characteristic features and characteristics, which are divided into objective and subjective. This:

Poor quality work.
Causing harm to other people and violating their interests.
The connection between the unlawful act and the negative circumstances that followed it.
No criminal intent.
That is, if an employee who performs certain functions poorly did not want a negative situation to occur, but foresaw such a possibility and did not take any action to prevent it.

Who is liable?

Punishment is imposed on those persons who perform work improperly if this results in harm to third parties .

It is important to take into account that sanctions can only be applied to those employees whose functions include performing certain actions (this must be documented, for example, in an official instruction).

If it is proven that work was performed poorly and is not within the scope of the person’s duties, this is not considered negligence .

Responsibility for inattention to one’s own activities applies to the following groups of persons :

Civil servants, people holding positions in the management structure of the state.
Heads of organizations whose functions include organizational, managerial, material and economic activities in a particular organization.
Skilled workers, for example, teachers, doctors, engineers, law enforcement officers.

Who can be the subject of a crime under Art. 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

As indicated above, a person who can be found guilty of negligence is, from the point of view of criminal law, a special subject.

The specificity of the perpetrator in this category of cases is emphasized by the presence of a certain number of duties assigned to him officially and directly related to his work activities.

In judicial practice, as a rule, the following three types of negligence are distinguished:

Responsibilities performed inappropriately or unfulfilled are assigned to the culprit in connection with his position.
Such responsibilities are specific to specific types of profession.
A labor function not performed or performed in bad faith is provided for by the service performed by the culprit.

From the above categories it follows that official negligence is charged against the accused, who, in connection with their position, are obliged to perform the duty of exercising administrative functions, economic powers or actions of an organizational nature (for example, an accountant of an enterprise).
For official negligence, a court sentence is passed on people holding government positions (the subject is a civil servant).

And professional negligence is charged against doctors (for example, failure to provide necessary medical care), police officers, traffic police officers, and employees of the educational sector (for example, teachers).

Qualification problems

To classify an existing situation as criminal negligence, it must include certain qualifying features . First of all, this:

Damage to the victim.
No criminal intent .
The offense of negligence is always committed without specific intent. That is, the subject, although he foresees the possibility of adverse consequences, does not want this. If there is intent, that is, the commission of certain illegal actions in the professional sphere aimed at causing harm to third parties, such an offense will have a different qualification (for example, abuse of official position, forgery for the purpose of obtaining material benefit).

Other important points are also important. Thus, avoid punishment in the following cases:

The fact of pressure on an official has been proven. That is, the person did not fulfill his direct duties, for example, due to blackmail or death threats.
The list of duties of this employee did not include certain functions, which he nevertheless performed improperly.
The employee has insufficient experience or too low qualifications to perform certain duties.
The presence of objective circumstances that prevented the employee from performing his or her job efficiently.

Additionally, it is important to distinguish negligence from other crimes . First of all, from violations in the field of labor protection. Thus, negligence is the improper performance of professional duties by a person with sufficient qualifications.

Crimes in the field of labor protection can be committed by any employee of the organization. Negligence is also different from official misconduct.

So, if the first option is always accompanied by the onset of negative consequences, then an offense is the very fact of improper performance of duties, even if this did not cause harm to anyone.

Negligent attitude towards official duties

The most common causes of negligence are:

Lack of motivation and unwillingness of the employee to work well.

It is worth noting: this also includes poor working conditions: lack of tools for work, violations of labor regulations.

Lack of sufficient experience or qualities, manager’s mistakes when choosing an employee for this position.
Inattention of the citizen himself for some reason, for example, due to personal problems.
Lack of control: Knowing that he will not be checked, a person may be negligent in his work.

Please note: in addition to criminal punishment, the organization may limit itself to a reprimand, deprivation of bonuses or other disciplinary action. Typically, such punishment is imposed if the damage is minor or does not involve serious violations.

Negligence is the careless or inattentive attitude of an official to his duties. It can lead to both small problems (such as a client leaving or a fine) and serious problems, such as the death of people due to medical negligence.

Watch the video in which a case under the article “Negligence” is considered using a specific example: https://www.youtube.com/embed/MOgqjeZQytY

Punishment and sanctions

Of course, the punishment must be proportionate to the gravity of the crime committed.

Various types of sanctions apply :

financial liability in the form of a fine. The amount of penalties may vary;
public works aimed at fulfilling certain needs;
corrective labor service;
deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities;
deprivation of liberty.