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21 February 2019, 12:44

Call for elevating status of anticorruption commissions in Belarus

MINSK, 21 February (BelTA) – The Prosecutor General's Office suggests elevating the status and significance of anticorruption commissions. Amendments to the law on fighting corruption have already been prepared with that in mind, BelTA learned from Prosecutor General of Belarus Alexander Konyuk on 21 February.

The official said: “It is necessary to reformat the work of these commissions, giving them more significance and a higher status. It means giving them more authority so that they would make decisions on the fly, without delays.”

The amendments the Prosecutor General's Office suggests include the mandatory requirement for heads of enterprises or organizations to be the head of the relevant anticorruption commissions. “I would like these commissions to be headed by heads of enterprises, various executive committees, district ones, city ones, oblast ones, and so on,” the prosecutor general said. Alexander Konyuk stressed that all the amendments had been worked out taking into account the accumulated practical experience. “There are very smart, hardworking executives and officials. They gave us a few tips,” he noted.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the number of detected corruption crimes grew considerably higher in Belarus in 2018 – 31% up from 2017. More than 1,000 officials and executives faced charges, including 29 people in positions of trust. The largest number of corruption crimes was registered in transport industry, civil engineering, state administration, manufacturing sector, agriculture, and trade.

As for the crime level on the whole, the total number of registered crimes dropped by 2.9% from 2017.

The number of grave crimes went down: extreme violence robberies went down by 22%, murders by 10%, thefts by 8%, robberies by 5%. Alexander Konyuk pointed out the effectiveness of previously taken measures to harder punish people for driving under the influence. The number of such crimes went down by 14%.

The prosecutor general also stressed the effectiveness of efforts of law enforcement agencies to reduce foreign accounts receivable. “We've managed to slow down the process of creation of fraudulent schemes,” he noted.

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