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Lukashenka blasts cabinet for "passivity, lack of initiative"

If the government's performance in 2013 is the same as last year, it will be immediately dismissed, Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned on Friday during a Council of Ministers meeting that focused on Belarus' social and economic development in 2012 and the development targets for 2013.

"Last year's situation would be absolutely unacceptable this year," the Belarusian leader said. "The repetition of last year would mean immediate dismissal for the government."

Mr. Lukashenka noted that the situation was not so bad, and that the government had managed to maintain positive trends in a number of areas. "The reason for my presence at the government's meeting is not that something is very wrong with us," he said. "The situation is simply not good enough, not as good as one would like."

In 2013, the "decisive" year for the 2011-15 period, the government should perform so well that "when we gather before the people for the All-Belarusian People's Assembly in two or two and a half years, we won't be so ashamed," Mr. Lukashenka said.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka lashed out at the Council of Ministers on Friday for its "passivity and lack of initiative" and its inability to "prevent negative phenomena."

Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Belarusian leader accused the cabinet of "waiting for instructions from the president instead of solving problems promptly." "I constantly have to push the executive vertical. Only after receiving strict orders the cabinet and the National Bank start acting, and even then they don't always do that properly and in full," the government's news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

"I must tell you straight, like a man that with such a style of work you, esteemed members of the cabinet, will not stay in your jobs for a long time," he added.

Mr. Lukashenka accused the cabinet of failing to fulfill many of his instructions given last year.

"If you don't change your style of work and the situation in the economy's real sector continues developing in a way it did at the end of 2012 and at the beginning of 2013, you may again fail to meet the targets for 2013," he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Lukashenka described the general performance of the government since the beginning of the year as "unsatisfactory." // BelaPAN