The consideration of appeals from citizens and legal entities is an important area of the prosecutor's office's activities
Also, over 4.5 thousand written appeals were received by the prosecutor's offices of the region. It should be noted that a third of them are not within the competence of prosecutors.
Despite the fact that Decree of the Head of State No. 489 of 15.10.2007 defines the competence of state bodies and other organizations in considering appeals in the spheres of public life, complainants insist that prosecutors should conduct inspections on their issues.
In this regard, we would like to draw the attention of our applicants once again to the need to be guided by the requirements of the said document when choosing the body to which to send their appeal.
Directly in the prosecutor's offices, 2.6 thousand appeals were resolved in six months. Considering our small staff, each prosecutor handles over 12 appeals, and this is not counting the fact that all employees perform other professional duties. The largest number of appeals were resolved in the regional prosecutor's office, and the prosecutor's offices of Vitebsk, Novopolotsk, Orsha, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Gorodok, Tolochin, and Dokshitsy districts.
At the same time, only 26 percent of the considered appeals were recognized as justified. Of these, almost half are applications from citizens and legal entities regarding the initiation of proceedings by prosecutors in courts of general jurisdiction and economic courts with claims (applications) for the protection of their rights, recovery of damages, and accounts receivable.
As before, almost half of the resolved appeals are complaints about the actions and decisions of inquiry and investigation bodies. At the same time, it should be noted that the satisfaction rate of such applications is almost the lowest in the republic. At the same time, prosecutors, within the scope of their powers, significantly influence the completeness of inspections of applications and reports of crimes, and the quality of criminal case investigations.
This year, the number of appeals regarding violations of administrative legislation has increased. The majority of satisfied complaints concern disagreements with being brought to administrative responsibility. In this regard, the grounds for appealing illegal decisions were often violations committed by both police officers and authorized officials of other bodies during the administrative process.
For example, when considering a complaint to the regional prosecutor's office regarding a decision by an inspector of the traffic police department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee to impose an administrative penalty, it was established that the decision was made without drawing up a report on the administrative offense. This is permissible only if an individual admits guilt in committing the offense and agrees to the application of an administrative penalty. However, the citizen's complaint and the dashcam recording indicate that he did not admit guilt in committing the offense. Under these circumstances, the aforementioned decision was overturned by the regional prosecutor's office as illegal. Subsequently, the administrative offense case against this citizen was dismissed due to the insignificance of the committed offense.
Citizens frequently appealed to the prosecutor's offices for the protection of labor rights, including in connection with violations of the deadlines for payment of wages and other payments due from the employer. In such cases, prosecutors not only took measures to eliminate legislative violations but also addressed the issue of bringing the heads of such organizations to administrative responsibility.
We all know how important it is to observe the rules of living in residential premises, especially in apartment buildings.
Meanwhile, the owners' association of one of the residential buildings in Orsha was forced to appeal to the district prosecutor's office to influence a resident whose apartment was kept in an unsanitary condition and was cluttered. By order of the prosecutor, the State Institution "Orsha Zonal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology" brought this citizen to administrative responsibility.
responsibility.Unfortunately, instances of improper organization of work with appeals from citizens and legal entities, including in local authorities, have not been eliminated.
For example, when considering a citizen's appeal to the Polotsk District Prosecutor's Office regarding the non-receipt of a response to their application from the Polotsk District Executive Committee, the applicant's arguments were confirmed, in connection with which the head of one of the departments of the district executive committee was brought to administrative responsibility by the prosecutor's office. Also, after the prosecutor's intervention, the district executive committee prepared a response to the citizen's appeal.
The number of applications considered on issues of compliance with laws on minors has increased. In most cases, the actions and decisions of state bodies and institutions vested with authority were appealed, including in terms of recognizing children as being in a socially dangerous situation. At the same time, I would like to draw the attention of the said officials to a balanced approach to making such decisions, as they involve real people.
For instance, in Novolukoml, one of the preschool institutions made a premature decision to recognize a child as being in a socially dangerous situation. During the inspection conducted by the Chashniki District Prosecutor's Office following an appeal from the mother of a minor, it was established that in this case there were no grounds for classifying the child as being in the said situation. In this regard, the prosecutor's office took measures to cancel the unfounded decision and remove the minor from the relevant register.
In total, prosecutors have taken prosecutorial response measures on 656 appeals this year.
Deputy Head
of the Organizational and Control Department
of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office
Svetlana Zaitseva.