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Belarus to approve national anti-corruption strategy
MINSK, 23 December (BelTA) – Belarus is going to approve its national anti-corruption strategy, Prosecutor General Andrei Shved told the media ahead of the 25th session of the national coordination meeting on fight against crime and corruption on 23 December, BelTA has learned.
The strategy is designed to systematically counteract corruption by identifying and eliminating its root causes and conditions. This will be done through establishing a common platform for cooperation between citizens, public organizations, the state, its bodies and officials.
According to Andrei Shved, this is a new document to be adopted in the country for the first time. The draft document contains seven main blocks. “The main focus is on involving the public, first of all, the labor collectives, in the fight against corruption,” he said.
The prosecutor general stressed that according to the latest amendments to the law on combating corruption, law enforcement officials are now required to inform employers, officials about the facts of corruption and demand that they take effective measures not only to eliminate the consequences of such crimes, but also to prevent them. “On the other hand, we expect that the collectives themselves will actively inform the law enforcement agencies that there are signs, information that requires verification, relating to the fact that individual officials are living beyond their means,” he said.
Belarusian experience in combating corruption over the past few decades has been systematized while the document was drafted. The country also took into account international experience, including that of Kazakhstan and Russia. “We came to the conclusion that when an algorithm of actions is written in a language understandable to all segments of society, there will be an effect. We are not the first country, adopting such a strategy,” said Andrei Shved.
According to him, even if such an effect at the initial stage is insignificant and seems ineffective, but it is important that it is there and it is positive.
“We are taking all possible measures to ensure that these kinds of documents encourage people (not only officials) to get more actively involved in the process of combating corruption. The events of August 2020 have shown that bribery of officials and corruption in general, with finances coming from outside, is a rather serious and dangerous weapon. We also took this sad experience into account,” said the prosecutor general.
Plans are also in place to approve a comprehensive plan to fight crime and corruption for 2023-2025. The plan has been developed jointly with the government in fulfillment of the law on the activity to prevent offenses and provides for each agency a specific plan of action.
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