Scientific Journal of the National Academy of Internal Affairs

The purpose of the article is to introduce a hypothesis about the existence of such a phenomenon as “corruption of redundancy”, which causes increase in corruption risks and is observed with conditionally excessive legal income of public servants. In order to achieve this goal, the article fulfilled the following tasks: it refuted the thesis that the increase in salaries of civil servants was one of the unconditional factors for reducing the level of corruption. It has been proven that controlling a person to not have such temptations is actually not a measure to deter corruption. It is emphasized in the article that, with a large amount of wages, there are usually great opportunities for enrichment through the commission of corruption offenses. It is substantiated that the opportunity to receive “conditionally excessive income” leads to an increase in corruption risks. It is emphasized that the level of salary should be determined by the qualifications and achievements of the official. The article analyzed the government’s approach to combating corruption in the Republic of Singapore, which was to reduce and eliminate the incentive to take corrupt actions. The experience of this republic proves that officials should receive the amount of wages that is needed only to attract and retain in the state system employees with the necessary talents and abilities. Despite the fact that in the developed countries, higher-ranking officials receive higher salaries than Ukrainian officials, nevertheless in all states they have many cases of corruption. The article gives the examples of imprisonment on corruption charges of ministers of different countries. It is concluded that the phenomenon of corruption of redundancy is observed at conditionally excessive legal income of officials. The methodological basis of the work is the dialectical approach to the analysis of the remuneration system of civil servants in Ukraine and in the world. There were used the following methods of formal logic: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, abstraction, as well as such methods as system-structural and prediction. The scientific novelty of the article is that for the first time in Ukraine it is substantiated that excess wages (conditionally excessive legal income) are the cause of increased corruption risks. The authors introduce into the scientific circulation the concept of “Conditionally excessive sustainable income”, which is one of the factors of increasing corruption risks. The phenomenon referred to in the article was named by the authors as “Corruption of redundancy”, which is observed in the case of conditionally excessive legal income of public servants. The conclusions refute the argument that insufficient wages lead to corruption. It has been proven that the possibility of earning “conditionally excessive income” leads to an increase in corruption risks