The Essence of Financial Control Over the Activities of Law Enforcement Agencies

Abstract

The article examines the essence of financial control over the activities of law enforcement agencies as a specific type of financial and legal activity aimed at ensuring legality in the process of formation, distribution and use of financial resources. It is substantiated that law enforcement agencies, due to their multifaceted activities and complex organisational structure, require considerable material and financial resources and therefore enter into numerous financial and legal relations with state authorities, local self-government bodies, individuals and legal entities. At the same time, their activities are limited by the principle of legality, according to which public authorities are obliged to act solely on the basis of, within the limits of and in the manner prescribed by law. The article analyses scholarly approaches to the understanding of the categories of “control” and “financial control” and establishes that modern legal science lacks a unified approach to defining the essence of financial control. Some scholars consider it a legal institution, others regard it as a type of public authority activity, while still others view it as a form of control exercised not only by state bodies but also by private sector entities. It is proved that financial control has a complex nature and combines legal, economic and organisational-managerial features, and therefore its one-dimensional interpretation does not make it possible to fully reveal the content of this phenomenon. Based on the conducted research, it is proposed to consider financial control over the activities of law enforcement agencies in both a broad and a narrow sense.