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Deputy prosecutor general criticizes cabinet, local authorities for not doing enough to tackle corruption

Deputy Prosecutor General Viktar Konan on Wednesday criticized the Council of Ministers and the regional executive committees for not doing enough to tackle corruption, as quoted by BelaPAN.

He said that one in three corruption offenses was registered in the economy and finance ministries' spheres of activities.

In particular, purchases under government contracts, including through the tender process, involve many irregularities and are not transparent, Mr. Konan said.

The deputy prosecutor general lashed out at the Council of Ministers for introducing few corruption prevention measures, noting that prosecutors had raised the matter with the cabinet four times in 2009.

The number of corruption crimes reported in the country rose by 23 percent last year and by further 22.7 percent in the first four months of this year, according to Mr. Konan. As many as 1,176 officials were prosecuted.

A government anti-corruption program has been drawn up for the period between 2010 and 2012 to succeed the current one, Konan told reporters. It is expected to be approved by the head of state soon, Mr. Konan said.

The deputy prosecutor general would not disclose what new measures the draft proposed to step up the fight against corruption. He only said that the paper had “revolutionary ideas regarding international amnesty.”

A deputy prosecutor general also defended the practice of taking civil servants on short "preventive" excursions to jails as a means of discouraging them from corruption. A big number of civil servants want to take a tour of a jail as part of the anti-corruption campaign, he said.

Such tours have been arranged on the initiative of the prosecutor general both in Minsk and the provinces.

Representatives of a number of ministries have already visited Minsk's Detention Center No.1. Such visits are a form of "early prevention that is important and impressive," according to the deputy prosecutor general.