RB 29

105 supervised the voluntary overtime activities of the clerks and scribes so that the supplicants “are not burdened by their whims.” It is, and was, sometimes difficult to distinguish between perquisites or tips, such as those described above, and outright bribes. An article entitled “Concerning bribes” (O vziatkakh) had been included in the first draft of the General Regulation, but it was altered in the second draft to read “Concerning perquisites, or income for work. The acceptance of bribes had been widespread in the prikazy, and this had weakened the political reliability of the state administration vis-a-vis the government. The introduction of permanent and uniform salaries as an element in the new, rationally designed, and, it was hoped, more efficient administrative system was a move to create an instrument by which to control the activities of the civil servants so that they would tend to their duties as defined by the government, rather than expedite such matters as would provide them private income. It was expected of civil servants that they would be satisfied with their prescribed annual salaries, and it was against this background that Pick found it necessary to explain that perquisites were not the same thing as bribes. Perquisites were legitimate forms of compensation in return for extra work, while bribes were unacceptable forms of income derived from the improper use of public positions of confidence and responsibility. Pick pointed out that civil servants in Sweden could. In principle, be punished for receiving gifts, but that there were instances when scribes did receive small ones. “But,” argued Pick: in ten years there have not been two scribes or other civil servants in the Swedish realm who have acted contrary to their official duties in return for gifts, since they know howto perform their duties so cleverly that the king and the supplicants do not suffer any losses, and therefore there are no accusations or supplications against them, nor any interrogations, and if the scribes who in any way receive small gifts and the supplicants who give them these gifts were all driven away with such a prohibition and regulation, within three years there would not remain a scribe or supplicant in all of Europe.” In addition. Pick wrote that the perquisites received by Swedish civil servants did not influence the ordinary salary budget; salaries were to be paid at the nominal rate even if some members of the college staffs had significant extra income in the form of perquisites. Pick explained that this was because the perquisites were directly related to the individual civil servant’s ability to work, since “he who has little to do must be satisfied with little pay, while he who has much to do or to copy thus receives ” 272 27a 2-1 Ibid., 1. 94. 2-2 2A (no. 400), 442. 2-2 TsGADA, f. 248 delo 58 1. 98v.

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