As part of the supervision of the legality of legal acts of local executive and administrative bodies, the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office has identified an illegal decision

In accordance with the decision of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee dated 20.06.2018 No. 828 "On rendering assistance", 32 business entities of Vitebsk, including open joint-stock companies, communal, republican unitary enterprises and their branches, were assigned to provide patronage assistance to КУСХП "Experimental Base "Tullovo" in 2018.

One of the points of the City Executive Committee's decision instructed the heads of the specified organizations to conclude sponsorship agreements with КУСХП "Experimental Base "Tullovo" in accordance with the requirements of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 300 dated 01.07.2005 "On the provision and use of gratuitous (sponsorship) assistance" (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 300).

However, according to the requirements of Decree No. 300, gratuitous (sponsorship) assistance is provided irrevocably on the basis of voluntariness and freedom of choice of its purposes; demanding the provision of gratuitous (sponsorship) assistance is prohibited.

Branches of legal entities, in particular, the branch of DEU No. 36 of RUP "Vitebskavtodor", the branch "Gorelektrotrans of Vitebsk" of OJSC "Vitebskoblavtotrans", the branch "Construction and Installation Train No. 715" of OJSC "Beltransstroy" are not among the entities having the right to provide gratuitous (sponsorship) assistance.

Issues of providing gratuitous (sponsorship) assistance in accordance with the charters of OJSC "Vitebsklift", OJSC "Vityaz", OJSC "Vistan" and other joint-stock companies fall under the exclusive competence of the supervisory board and cannot be delegated to other management bodies of the company, including its director.

Since the specified decision of the City Executive Committee contained provisions the legality of adopting which went beyond the powers of the local executive and administrative body, the regional prosecutor's office protested it.

Following the review of the protest, the Vitebsk City Executive Committee annulled the illegal decision.

Deputy Head of the Regional Prosecutor's Office
Dmitry Kudryavtsev.