The Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus proposes to change the procedure for declaring property of public officials

13:06:33 25/3 RKO, RO, SAVI / 32 Minsk, March 25 /Vladimir Matveev - BELTA/. The Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus proposes to expand the list of declared property and private interests of public officials. This was reported to BELTA by the country's chief prosecutor's office. The Prosecutor General's Office has analyzed the current national legislation on the declaration of income and property by civil servants and other persons authorized to perform state functions (public officials), taking into account the experience of other countries in this area and the requirements of international legal acts ratified by Belarus. "The Prosecutor General's Office believes that it is advisable to introduce an institute for declaring income, property, and private interests for public officials in Belarus, which should play a significant role in combating corruption," the prosecutor's office stated. Private interests of a public official should be understood as any benefit for him personally or his family, relatives, friends, and close associates, as well as for persons or organizations with whom he has or had business or political relations, any financial or civil obligation that a public official bears. The scope of information declared by public officials should significantly differ from the scope of information provided by other individuals in income and property declarations. In addition, public officials should be obliged to declare funds in bank accounts, loans granted to other persons, gratuitously received services, etc. The main goal of declaring income, property, and private interests should be to identify conflicts of interest among public officials, i.e., a situation where a public official, in the performance of his duties, must make a decision related to his private interests, or participate in making such a decision. In the presence of a conflict of interest, certain prohibitions and restrictions on service should be established for public officials (prohibition of preparing or issuing administrative acts concerning persons with whom there is a conflict of interest; exercising judicial, supervisory, control, investigative, and inquiry functions in relation to these persons; concluding economic contracts with these persons in connection with the performance of duties of a public official, etc.). Taking into account the experience of other countries, the Prosecutor General's Office considers it possible to consider the issue of introducing an obligation for certain categories of civil servants in Belarus to submit declarations upon completion of their official duties. It is also proposed to introduce mandatory submission of declarations by public officials in Belarus regarding their spouse and minor children, regardless of their place of residence and whether they maintain a common household. In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office believes that declarations regarding the specified persons should be submitted by those entering public service, as well as contract military service, service in emergency services, internal affairs bodies, and financial investigation bodies of the State Control Committee. The Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus also proposes to make such declarations mandatory for heads of state organizations and heads of non-state agricultural organizations (if contracts are mandatory with them in accordance with legislation and by local executive and administrative bodies). These measures, the Prosecutor General's Office is confident, will allow for an objective assessment of changes in the property status of a public official, his spouse, children, and other dependents from the moment of appointment to the relevant position. The Prosecutor General's Office also considers it advisable to establish in the Regulations on the Procedure for Checking and Storing Declarations of Income and Property, approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers of July 26, 2006 No. 952, the following grounds on which the head (deputy head) of an organization is obliged to decide on checking the declaration of income and property. In particular, according to the prosecutor's office, this should be done in case of a clear excess of expenses of a public official (improvement of property status) over his income; the presence of information in appeals from individuals and legal entities, media, indicating that a public official has used property, including financial resources, the value (amount) of which exceeds the income indicated by him in the declaration; violation by a public official of the restrictions established by Article 17 of the Law "On Combating Corruption." If violations are detected during the verification of income and property declarations, the consideration of which is not within the competence of the head of the organization that initiated the verification, the relevant verification materials shall be transferred to the authorized bodies no later than 10 days after informing the head of the organization. At the same time, the legislation must establish the right of organizations obliged to conduct checks of income and property declarations to receive information about the income and property of the persons being checked free of charge from bodies and organizations that, in accordance with the legislation, may possess such information, including from state real estate registration bodies. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, it is advisable in the Republic of Belarus to limit the principle of inadmissibility of disclosure of information contained in income and property declarations and to introduce mandatory public disclosure of information from declarations of certain categories of civil servants holding the highest positions. At the same time, it is possible to determine which information is not subject to disclosure. A letter with these proposals has been sent by the Prosecutor General's Office to the Council of Ministers of Belarus. -0-