Press conference

A meeting of journalists with the First Deputy Prosecutor of the Vitebsk Region, Alexander Sidorovich, was held at the regional prosecutor's office.

He informed the media representatives of the northern region about the work done to combat corruption in the Vitebsk Region in 2017, in particular, about the crime rate, spheres most susceptible to corruption, and high-profile criminal cases.

Thus, in the Vitebsk Region in 2017, compared to previous years, the number of recorded corruption offenses significantly increased: over 12 months of 2017, 276 corruption offenses were recorded (in the same period of 2016 - 168, or + 64.3%, 2015 - 177, or + 55.9%, 2014 - 179, or + 54.2%).

The share of corruption offenses in the total number of registered offenses in the region is 1.5% (a total of 10,855 offenses were registered in the region). For the republic as a whole, the share of this type of offense was 1.7%.

Among corruption offenses, embezzlement by abuse of office (Art. 210 of the Criminal Code), abuse of office (Art. 424 of the Criminal Code), and bribery (Art. 430-432 of the Criminal Code) prevail.

In total, 111 persons were brought to justice for committing corruption offenses in the region last year (in 2016 - 132) (in the republic, the largest number of persons were brought to justice in Minsk - 141, and the smallest - in the Minsk Region - 86).

The largest number of offenses in this category were registered in the city of Vitebsk (97), the city of Novopolotsk (57), the Orsha region (26), and the Polotsk district (20).

By sectors and spheres of activity, the largest number of corruption offenses in the analyzed period were registered in the sphere of education - 51 offenses, in transport - 48, in the sphere of agricultural production - 36 offenses, and in trade - 20 offenses. Employees of regulatory bodies committed 30 offenses, police officers - 7, and officials of management bodies - 10 offenses.

Answering

to journalists' questions, the First Deputy Prosecutor of the region spoke about the department's supervisory activities, conducted inspections and their results in the past year.

During the supervision of the implementation of anti-corruption legislation by the prosecutor's offices of the region in 2017, 117 inspections of the implementation of anti-corruption legislation were carried out at enterprises and organizations of the region.

Based on their results, a total of 455 supervisory acts were issued, and prosecutors initiated 6 criminal cases. At the request of prosecutors, 362 persons were brought to various types of liability.

It should be noted that a significant part of the prosecutor's inspections of anti-corruption legislation in the past year concerned the sphere of procurement of goods (works, services) both at the expense of budget funds and at the expense of own funds of enterprises and organizations of the region, including the sphere of procurement in construction. More than a third of all prosecutor's response acts (146 out of 455) were issued in 2017 due to the identification of violations in the specified area.

Also, Alexander Sidorovich dwelled separately on the implementation of the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Combating Corruption" in the region, the approach of the supervisory authority, and the stimulation of citizens and economic entities in terms of creating an atmosphere of intolerance to corruption manifestations, early detection and suppression.

At the end of the press event, the First Deputy Prosecutor of the region thanked the journalists for their attention and relevant questions, while once again drawing attention to the interaction between the media and the prosecutor's office in ensuring the principle of transparency in the activities of the supervisory authority.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Region Natalia Sevryukova.