In anticipation of the sowing campaign, law enforcement officers of the Vitebsk region are conducting raids on agricultural facilities
Under police supervision are workplace drunkenness, negligent attitude towards property safety, fuel theft, and the technical condition of vehicles.
"Dormant mode" under scrutiny
It would seem that the equipment is just coming out of conservation mode and is not yet widely used in the fields, but it is precisely this off-season period, as it turns out, that is a time of increased risk.
– Employees of the Department of Internal Affairs visit agricultural enterprises daily to check the storage conditions of fuel, spare parts, and fertilizers, as well as to assess the physical condition of workers, – noted the Deputy Head of the Public Order Protection Department of the Gorodok District Department of Internal Affairs, Alexander Yarmola.
OAO "Gorodok Poultry Farm" is one of the key enterprises in the Vitebsk region, so law enforcement officers are particularly focused on monitoring its mechanical yard.
Why now? The police explain: when sowing begins, the farm will switch to an emergency work mode, and it will be too late to eliminate deficiencies. At the moment, there is an opportunity to identify weaknesses without waiting for them to lead to offenses.
– We are checking the inventory of available equipment in order to monitor its condition through the database throughout the sowing campaign, – explains the senior operational officer of the Economic Crimes Unit of the Gorodok District Department of Internal Affairs, Alexander Zakharov.
Opening the hood and checking the "iron health" of the tractor, mechanic Viktor Ivanov notes that although the equipment is not new, it is ready for sowing: everything was repaired and adjusted during the winter.
Sober calculation
Operatives pay special attention to the human factor, particularly to cases of agricultural workers being at their workplaces while intoxicated.
– Preventive raids show that the problem of such violations remains relevant. Information about each such case is immediately transmitted to the farm managers. For violators, this threatens not only an administrative protocol but also serious disciplinary actions, up to dismissal, – stated Alexander Yarmola.
The Gorodok poultry farm is actively developing, new workshops are being launched, and modern technologies are being implemented. At the enterprise, where hundreds of people work, discipline issues are under special control.
– Last year's season was very difficult. To restore the equipment, the machine operators worked through the winter. We have all the conditions for this. If the weather permits, we plan to start sowing in the near future, – noted Yevgeny Kovalenko, engineer-mechanic of the machine and tractor fleet.
Seeing the commission, the enterprise employees were not scared: work is in full swing here. A traffic police officer checked the drivers for the number of permille. He recorded in the report: "No remarks."
But the raid was not limited to this; the state traffic inspector requested the logs of departure and return of agricultural machinery, and inspected the transport: its technical serviceability is one of the most important components of the success of the sowing campaign.
– We not only check documents but also talk to drivers about the availability of necessary spare parts. We pay attention to the presence of reflective elements to exclude road traffic accidents in the dark in the future, – said Alexei Yemelyanov, acting senior state traffic inspector of the traffic police department of the Gorodok District Department of Internal Affairs.
Theft begins with holes in the fence
Analysis of past years shows that the agro-industrial complex is a tempting place for those who seek easy money. Fuel and lubricants and spare parts are most often the subject of encroachment. Therefore, police officers are now checking how strong the locks on the warehouses are, whether there is lighting around the perimeter, and whether the guard service is working. Inadequate technical security of storage facilities is a direct signal for potential thieves.
– The Department of Law Enforcement will issue a representation to the enterprise to eliminate the damage to the fence and improve the lighting of the territory where ferrous metal scrap is stored, which may be subject to theft, – noted Alexander Yarmola.
District Police Department raids are already standard practice. Law enforcement officers emphasize: their task is not only to punish violators but also to preserve the harvest, which has not even been sown yet. And for the Gorodok Poultry Farm, which sets records for the production of high-quality products, the preservation of property and labor discipline is a direct contribution to the country's food security.