Officials must be more responsible in handling citizens' appeals - A.Lukashenko

November 10, Minsk /BELTA/. Identified shortcomings in the work of Belarusian state bodies with citizens' appeals must be eliminated by the end of the year. This task was set by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on November 9 at a meeting on improving the effectiveness of work with citizens' appeals, BELTA was informed by the press service of the head of state. "Today's event should be a starting point for further improving the effectiveness of this multifaceted and large-scale activity," the President said. According to him, the event will allow us to finally determine at what stage we are now and where we should move forward in terms of working with citizens' appeals. A meeting at this level is held for the first time in the history of our state. Its timing, according to the President, is due to two main factors. "Firstly, this is the relevance of the topic for the entire population of the country from the point of view of the declared policy of 'the state for the people'. It is necessary to clearly understand that for people, not so much GDP indicators are important, but rather that large-scale state programs affect their lives and contribute to solving pressing everyday problems," Alexander Lukashenko emphasized. He added that, in turn, it is vital for the entire system of state power to improve the feedback channel on the most pressing issues that concern people. "And secondly. Today, we have accumulated considerable, and it must be said, significant experience, which allows us to draw well-founded conclusions about the effectiveness of our work in this direction. And based on these conclusions, we are able to make the necessary adjustments. Life does not stand still. What was good yesterday already needs improvement today," the head of state said. Alexander Lukashenko paid special attention to the bureaucracy present in this work. "Bureaucracy is multifaceted and tenacious. As soon as we overlook this problem somewhere, it intensifies and spoils the lives of many people. It will take a lot of time and effort to eliminate its manifestations, but it is already evident today that the results of this work are finding a wide public response, which indicates the timeliness of the steps we have taken. Appeals to state bodies are confirmation of this," the President noted. He also added that during his working trips to the regions, direct communication with people allows him to judge the attitude of representatives of authorities to the needs and aspirations of ordinary people. This applies to the entire spectrum of issues, from social support for families to problems of education and healthcare. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko noted: "Often, issues do not require significant financial costs. Only one thing is needed – attention to the person and a desire to help him." However, in practice, this is precisely what is lacking, the head of state believes. "The top echelons of power easily pass citizens' appeals down to the local level or, as they say, send people on a wild goose chase through a large circle of instances. And at the local level, they get off with mocking dismissals or, worse, send a complaint for response to the very person people are complaining about. No objectivity or attention can be expected here, and people are hoping for the justice of the authorities," Alexander Lukashenko said. Addressing the officials invited to the meeting, the head of state demanded: "There is no need to talk about your understanding of the importance of this issue. The very level of the meeting indicates the significance attached to the issues of debureaucratization in our state." Alexander Lukashenko stressed that the conversation would be serious and principled. It is no coincidence that all top officials, government members, and heads of media outlets were invited to the meeting. In short, precisely those officials who are responsible for the level and quality of work with the population. The head of state proposed to communicate with citizens gathered in the public reception of the Administration of the President of Belarus via video conferencing. A resident of Braslav district complained to the President about the unwillingness of local authorities to provide assistance with equipment for harvesting on her personal plot. The appeal of a resident of the agro-town of Zhemchuzhny, Baranovichi district, concerned the lack of lighting on the streets. A resident of the Mogilev city of Krichev spoke about the dilapidated state of the house where her family lives, and the fact that a long-closed and abandoned shop is located on the first floor. Appeals to local authorities regarding major repairs of the house and tidying up the non-residential premises had no effect on resolving the residents' problem. A Minsk resident complained to the head of state about the private company "LeGrand," which has not been able to pay dismissed employees for more than six months, having paid them only symbolic amounts. Alexander Lukashenko gave no more than a week to resolve all the problems of the citizens who appealed and sternly pointed out to the officials that such complaints should not be sent to the Presidential Administration in principle, as this is the level of local authorities. "Did the person have to go to Minsk to solve this issue?!" the head of state addressed those present. "They appeal to the Presidential Administration with elementary issues. This should not happen! These are not even issues for the governor, but for the level of the village council, the head of the enterprise." "Why do people come to me with these issues? These are issues for district executive committees! Why such callousness towards people? They are asking for elementary things to be resolved!" the President emphasized. Alexander Lukashenko instructed the Chairman of the State Control Committee to take control of the fulfillment of the requests made and to deal with those officials who did not resolve them at the time, up to and including their dismissal. Annually, about 1 million people appeal to state authorities, which is almost every tenth citizen of the country. The topics of appeals cover a wide range of problems, the vast majority of which concern the social sphere, about 30% – courts and law enforcement agencies. Complaints about the work of housing and communal services organizations are leading. Citizens are dissatisfied with the quality of current and capital repairs (39%), water supply organization (35%), territory improvement level (16%), and others. However, the greatest indignation among people is caused by the irresponsibility, sloppiness, and non-fulfillment of duties by housing and communal services workers, which is indicated in more than 80% of complaints. For several years, there has been an increase in the number of complaints regarding housing construction. Over 9 months of 2010, more than 25,000 such appeals were received. Land use issues cause serious concern among the population, especially in large cities and suburbs, given the high cost of land plots, as well as insufficient social protection of the population. The provision of medical care to the population remains a sphere of increased social tension. This year alone, over 25,000 appeals were received by the Ministry of Health and its subordinate organizations. Violations in the fields of education, transport, communications, trade, and consumer services for the rural population have a chronic character. The share of such appeals is about 10% of the mail. There is also a steady increase in the number of appeals regarding the activities of law enforcement agencies and courts. In their letters, citizens express disagreement with court decisions in criminal, civil, economic, and administrative cases. Since the adoption of Directive No. 2, much has been done in the country to work with citizens' appeals. The established regulatory framework concerning this issue can be considered advanced compared to neighboring countries and CIS states. At the same time, there is a huge layer of problems that need to be resolved immediately. As reported by the Head of the Presidential Administration, Vladimir Makei, the number of citizens' appeals has been steadily increasing over the past three years. Thus, their growth ranged from 10% in Minsk to 40% in the Vitebsk region. The Gomel region is the only exception. A similarly bleak situation is observed with complaints received by state bodies. Only the Presidential Administration received 15% more appeals in the first 9 months of this year than in the same period last year, the State Control Committee – almost 15% more, the Council of Ministers Apparatus – 5% more than in previous years. To objectively assess the reasons for this trend, as well as the effectiveness of debureaucratization efforts, the Administration, on behalf of the head of state, conducted a monitoring of the state of work of authorities with the population. From June to August, the activities of 140 rural executive committees, 92 district executive committees, 11 city executive committees, as well as all regional and Minsk city executive committees were studied. Control measures covered about 80% of the country's districts. The work with citizens' appeals in the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services and the Ministry of Architecture and Construction, and a number of their subordinate organizations was also analyzed. During personal receptions of citizens in the regions and hotlines held, over 4,000 citizens were heard. As Vladimir Makei noted, the monitoring was very well received by citizens; people were attracted by the accessibility of the authorities and the effectiveness of solving their problems. At the same time, some leaders and even governors reacted cautiously to this event, and sometimes perceived it, along with extensive media coverage, as a lack of trust in their work and an undermining of the authority of local government in the eyes of the population. "Governors are used to working like petty feudal lords: don't criticize me, I live as I live, and that's fine," the head of state said. "Monitoring work with people was perceived as a nuclear explosion. People just sighed: finally, the authorities have seen their hopes and needs. Therefore, there was absolutely no exaggeration here." Alexander Lukashenko reasonably noted that people come with various complaints and requests, often asking the authorities to solve even minor issues such as painting a fence or wallpapering walls. The President stressed that there should be no exaggeration here either: if a person is capable of taking care of their own housing or land plot, they should solve all emerging problems independently, without burdening local authorities with them. In cases where it concerns major repairs or a dilapidated house, i.e., problems that a person cannot solve alone, the authorities must react immediately and eliminate the shortcomings. Speaking about the results of the monitoring, Vladimir Makei stated that no radical changes have occurred in the sphere of working with citizens' appeals yet. The reasons, in his opinion, lie in several factors. In particular, it has not yet been possible to increase the level of responsibility of all officials for the quality of work with the population, and a system of inevitable punishment for ignoring the legal requirements of citizens has not been properly formed. Leaders at various levels still lack an understanding of the importance of this work and the ability to organize it. One of the alarming trends is the desire to create an illusion of problem-solving, a superficial approach to appeals, as well as disrespectful and arrogant attitude towards people. Vladimir Makei noted that the way out of the current situation is seen in ensuring prompt communication between citizens and management bodies, strict control over the work of officials with citizens, and holding them accountable for omissions. The Presidential Administration will toughen the responsibility of officials for improper work with citizens' appeals. The Presidential Administration believes that a new draft law on citizens' and legal entities' appeals will help eliminate all shortcomings. Currently, it is being processed for a second reading in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly. The new law is intended to be a comprehensive legislative act, combining in one document all the rights and obligations of citizens, responsibility for improper consideration of appeals, as well as a detailed procedure for all appeals. It is also planned to introduce a new form of work with appeals sent via the Internet and equate the procedure for their consideration with oral and written appeals. This is necessary so that citizens know that they can directly appeal to the head of state in case their problems are not resolved by lower instances. The new law also proposes to establish the obligation of officials to respond to oral appeals from citizens, as well as those sent via the Internet. In addition, the media should regularly hold hotlines with the population. Alexander Lukashenko stressed that officials must be forced to work more actively with people, to solve citizens' problems, which is precisely why they work. The President also drew the attention of the Deputy Prime Ministers to the lack of practice of meeting with citizens. "I want people to see you," the head of state said. The Chairman of the State Control Committee, Zenon Lomats, believes that the problem of fulfilling state social standards lies at the heart of a large number of citizens' complaints, and solving it can lead to a significant reduction in the number of public appeals. Zenon Lomats reported on inspections of the fulfillment of social standards. The situation was studied in 45 districts and cities, and 48 executive authorities were checked for compliance with legislation in working with the population. It was established that 6 out of 10 standards in education, 3 out of 4 in healthcare, and 1 out of 4 in communications are not met. There are particular complaints about the work of housing and communal services, where half of the 12 standards were not met at the time of the inspection. Zenon Lomats noted a formal approach to the completeness of the implementation of social standards and weak control over this by the government. The Chairman of the SCC proposed to stipulate in the new draft law, as a separate article, penalties for officials' improper resolution of issues within their competence, thereby toughening the responsibility of officials. In addition, the SCC proposes to fundamentally revise the system of state social standards, the procedure for working with them, and to strengthen responsibility for their non-compliance. Zenon Lomats also drew attention to the need to establish clear and coordinated work on communication between officials and citizens, holding hotlines and other forms of work. Alexander Lukashenko instructed to start implementing all the proposals of the Chairman of the State Control Committee before the beginning of 2011. At the meeting, the Minister of Housing and Communal Services Vladimir Belokhvostov and the Minister of Architecture and Construction Alexander Seleznev, whose departments receive the most complaints from citizens, also spoke. Vladimir Belokhvostov acknowledged the existence of problems in issues such as capital repairs of residential buildings, provision of quality drinking water, and a number of others. Alexander Seleznev reported that the majority of citizens' appeals concern the quality of housing under construction. On behalf of the head of state, hotlines were organized in all regions of the republic and in Minsk to address issues of housing construction quality. The largest number of complaints concerned