GOMEL, 16 November (BelTA) – The number of corruption crimes in Belarus has dropped this year, BelTA learned from Prosecutor General Alexander Konyuk in Gomel on 16 November.
According to the source, slightly more than 1,280 corruption crimes and delinquencies were registered in Belarus in January-October 2016. Those are corruption delinquencies that have been investigated and forwarded to courts. As many as 1,390 corruption delinquencies were registered in January-October 2015 or 110 more than in January-October 2016. “You can see downward trends,” said the official.
Taking bribes remains the most widespread type of corruption crimes. Bribe taking crimes represent nearly half of the total registered number of corruption crimes. Abuse of office is quite widespread, too, with about 390 abuses of office registered so far this year. Versatile kinds of embezzlement are registered as well. “For instance, the prosecution service in association with other agencies is now looking into accounts receivable of Belarusian commercial entities. In 70% of the cases the accounts receivable are created using corruption schemes. Merchandise is sold to customers, who have no intention of paying up, without prepayment. By the way, a major crime like that was registered in Gomel Oblast. It involved meat sales by state-run enterprises,” said the Prosecutor General of Belarus.
Speaking about the purpose of his working trip to Gomel Oblast, Alexander Konyuk noted he intended to hear out complaints from citizens at premises of OAO Gomel Meat-Packing Plant. Apart from that, the Prosecutor General intends to personally look into the case involving a large amount of meat going bad at premises of the company. The relevant investigation is going on. He went on a tour of several manufacturing divisions of the company and was made familiar with the technology the company uses to make meat products. “I have a hard time understanding how over 100 tonnes of meat went bad when such powerful refrigerators are available. By the way, specialists have failed to give me an answer either. In order to prevent such things from happening again, we need to find out whether flagrant negligence is to blame or these actions were taken to cover up a more serious crime,” stressed Alexander Konyuk.
