The level of reimbursement by obligated persons of funds for the maintenance of children removed from families was analyzed in the Vitebsk region

Act in the best interests of children. This was the directive given to representatives of the Pridvinye authorities overseeing social issues and state services by Deputy Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee Vladimir Terentyev at a joint meeting of the regional coordination council for monitoring the implementation of Decree No. 18 and the commission for juvenile affairs.

During the meeting, pressing issues were raised, and participants sought solutions. Decree No. 18, in effect for 10 years, is designed, on the one hand, to protect the rights and legitimate interests of children in dysfunctional families, and on the other hand, to increase parental responsibility by obliging them to reimburse the expenses incurred by the state for the upkeep of their children. Do interested structures always manage to effectively and flawlessly combine these elements?

Gaps identified in the work of state bodies in implementing Decree No. 18 in organizing labor for obligated individuals, of whom there are 2178 in our region, became the leitmotif of the discussion. These gaps formed the basis for the regional prosecutor's office to issue a representation for the elimination of such shortcomings.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the region Anton Volkov, analyzing the situation in the Vitebsk region, noted that therate of reimbursement by obligated persons of funds for the maintenance of children removed from families in state institutions decreased from 58.8% in 2014 to 53.6% in 2015. Extremely low indicators over the past two years still remain in Miory, Sharkovshchyna and Shumilino districts. One of the reasons is the failure to adopt the necessary organizational and practical measures to comply with the requirements of the document, the lack of proper interaction between prevention entities.

Returning the funds spent on raising children to the state is a top priority. These "bad parents" can solve it in only one way – by getting employed. Prevention entities have many levers of influence on those who have previously had problems with the law.

At the same time, not all heads of enterprises and institutions are ready to enter into labor relations with problematic contingent, because Decree No. 18 implies strict accountability for the employer himself. Therefore, representatives of the authorities and interested services need to work in

in close cooperation with employers of obligated persons, Vladimir Terentyev noted.

 Non-compliance of employment contracts with the requirements of Decree No. 18, and low wages, sometimes paid in kind, remain no less relevant for this category of citizens. This leads to a financial debt trail for negligent parents. Therefore, to increase the reimbursement by obligated persons of child maintenance costs, additional measures are being taken by various organizations and enterprises in the districts to ensure their employment and re-employment in better-paying jobs. Responsible services are literally forcing obligated persons to take a chance at a new life, and in return, they receive absenteeism, endless job hopping, and violations of the decree's provisions, which naturally affect wages and the reimbursement percentage.

The employers themselves also act incorrectly, who do not always keep proper records of their wards' working hours, and do not promptly inform the labor, employment, and social protection departments, and internal affairs bodies about citizens' absence from work. Persuasion is practically useless in the fight against those who do not wish to start a new life. Reality demands improved preventive measures. Administrative arrests under Article 9.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for absenteeism are a new step in working with negligent parents. This legislative tool, introduced last year, according to the head of the supervisory and enforcement activities department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Regional Executive Committee, Andrey Zakharov, is

in several districts, it is quite effective – those who have "rested" in a temporary detention center do not express a desire to undergo such a procedure again. But sometimes obligated individuals provoke the authorities and the law to take stricter measures. Thus, in the region, the number of evaders who do not reimburse funds for child maintenance has increased. Criminal liability, up to imprisonment, is applied to this category of citizens. Prosecutor's inspections also showed that there are shortcomings in the management activities when organizing work with obligated individuals, when local authorities make formal decisions and then improperly control their implementation. Vladimir Terentyev emphasized that such an approach in the work of all services on this issue should be excluded. To eliminate the identified violations, specific measures were proposed, an action algorithm was developed, and a kind of "map" of activities in all directions was drawn up. Working on the implementation of the norms of Decree No. 18, representatives of the authorities set themselves the task this year to identify family dysfunction at an earlier stage, ensuring coordinated activities of all interested services. "If the work is coordinated correctly, there will be a result," emphasized the Deputy Chairman of the regional executive committee. All subjects of prevention should unite to fulfill the common task of preventingof social orphanhood, and the restoration of family well-being.

 

Olga BULAVKA, "Vitebskiye Vesti".