Prosecutor's Office in defense of state interests
In 2017, compared to 2016, the number of applications filed by prosecutors in economic courts decreased by a quarter, amounting to 446 lawsuits. This trend is consistent with the current requirements for prohibiting the mass filing of lawsuits by prosecutors in the interests of business entities and the substitution of functions of enterprise legal services.
The most active and effective lawsuit work was carried out by prosecutors of Orsha, Polotsk, Verkhnedvinsk districts, and the city of Vitebsk.
In defense of the property interests of state enterprises and organizations, 141 applications were filed with the courts for an amount exceeding 5 million rubles, 3 lawsuits were filed in defense of the interests of the state, and in other cases, prosecutors defended the interests of enterprises with a predominant share of state ownership in the authorized fund through legal proceedings.
The need for prosecutorial intervention was particularly acute when violations in the sphere of foreign economic activity were identified. Last year, the prosecutor's offices of the Vitebsk region filed 7 lawsuits in economic courts to recover external overdue debts totaling 269 thousand Belarusian rubles and 10.6 million Russian rubles.
For example, the prosecutor's office of the city of Vitebsk, in the interests of OJSC "Moloko", filed 2 lawsuits with the economic court to recover damages from LLC "Crown Trading" (Russian Federation) arising from the payment of VAT in the total amount of 183.5 thousand Belarusian rubles. The claimed demands were fully satisfied by the court, and to date, more than 151 thousand rubles have been actually recovered in favor of the Belarusian exporting enterprise.
Frequently, at the initiative of prosecutors, facts of improper involvement in economic circulation of real estate objects transferred from communal property to private ownership on preferential terms were suppressed. Following a lawsuit filed by the prosecutor of Polotsk district
the former production base of a reinforced concrete products plant, sold at auction for the purpose of opening a construction materials production facility, a sewing production facility, and creating additional jobs, has been returned to the ownership of the administrative-territorial unit. Similar claims were filed by the prosecutor of the Sennensky district regarding the building of a former rural school, the buyer of which had not started entrepreneurial activities since 2014.
In some cases, prosecutors' intervention was due to the coincidence of state and public interests with the interests of the labor collectives of enterprises. For example, the non-payment for products by buyers of OJSC "Proezmle-Agro" created additional financial difficulties for the enterprise, which in turn caused delays in wage payments to employees. In this regard, the prosecutor of the Chashniksky district, in the interests of the economic entity, filed 2 applications with the economic court for the initiation of summary proceedings for a total amount of 36.5 thousand rubles.
At the same time, the potential of the prosecutor's office to ensure legality and prevent offenses in the economic sphere through judicial protection of state and public interests is far from exhausted. Materials from planned inspections of legislation compliance are extremely rarely implemented in this way, and the vast majority of prosecutors' appeals to the court are initiated by the interested enterprises and organizations themselves.
In this regard, the prosecutor's offices of the Vitebsk region will take additional measures this year to organize effective supervision of legislation compliance in the sphere of economic relations and ensure judicial protection of state interests.
Deputy Head of the Department for Supervision of Legislation Compliance and Legality of Legal Acts, Junior Justice Counselor D.N. Kudryavtsev.