Public Funds as an Object of Forensic Economic Expertise

Having chosen a democratic development path, Ukraine is actively working to improve the quality of public finance management. Generally, public funds are not objects of forensic economic expertise. However, funds of the different institutions and associations operating within limits implemented by legislative norms become such objects due to numerous economic crimes. The article aims to reveal the essence and content of the concept of public funds, which will serve as the basis of special knowledge when performing a forensic economic expertise following the goals formed during pre-trial or court proceedings. The heuristic potential of public funds was revealed by clarifying the types of public funds recorded in the legislative field. The types of public funds were analyzed according to their classification features and characteristics in the economic and legal sense, which contributes to the organization of the research of public funds based on this classification and the tasks of forensic economic expertise. It was substantiated that the concept of "public funds of resources" is broader in content than the "public funds of cash resources". Therefore it is proposed to distinguish them given their corresponding content component during the forensic economic expertise of operations with such objects of expert research. Mandatory criteria for the publicity of funds have been identified, such as public interest, the common (public) purpose of operation, non-commerciality, public-legal regime of operation of the fund of funds established by law, defined as a special object of public financial control, legally defined sources of income, forms distribution and form of use of the monetary fund. Additional classification features of funds of public funds have been established, which allows for their classification in the legal field.