MINSK, 10 November (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered to eliminate all drawbacks in handling people’s petitions by the end of the year at a session to discuss ways to raise the efficiency of handing people’s petitions by the government on 9 November, BelTA learnt from the presidential press service. Addressing the officials in attendance, the President demanded, “Do not tell me that you understand the importance of the problem. The level of the session per se demonstrates the significance our state attaches to de-bureaucratization.” Alexander Lukashenko noted that while visiting Belarusian regions and talking to people, he can get an idea of the attitude of the authorities to the needs and expectations of common people. This pertains to the whole range of issues – from family support to education and healthcare. The President noted, “Very often the solutions do not require significant financing expenses. The attention and desire to help are the only things needed.” However, the authorities fail to show that. Alexander Lukashenko suggested talking to people who were waiting in the community liaison office of the Presidential Administration by means of a videoconference. The President gave orders to the Chairman of the State Control Committee to handle people’s requests and take measures against those officials who fail to fix them, up to their dismissal. Every year, about 1 million people or virtually every tenth Belarusian apply to government bodies across a wide range of issues, mainly social services and the work of courts and law enforcement bodies. The leading cause of discontent is the work of housing and communal services. Since Directive No. 2 was adopted, a lot has been done in Belarus to improve the handing of people’s petitions. The relevant legal and treaty basis is the most advanced in the CIS and the neighboring countries. At the same time, there are a lot of issues that should be addressed immediately. The number of petitions has been steadily increasing over the past three years, chief of the Presidential Administration Vladimir Makei said. To analyze the reasons for such tendency and the efficiency of de-bureaucratization efforts, following the orders of the head of state, the Presidential Administration launched an inspection campaign to look into how local authorities deal with petitions from people. The inspection campaign was welcomed by citizens. At the same time, some executives and even governors expressed their concern about this inspection and sometimes regarded it as some lack of confidence in their work and as a move to undermine their authority in the eyes of the population. Speaking about the results of the campaign, Vladimir Makei said that no radical changes have taken place in the work with people’s petitions. The Presidential Administration believes that a new bill on petitions from citizens and legal entities will help eliminate all the shortcomings. It is now being finalized for the second reading at the House of Representatives of the National Assembly. The new law is designed to become a comprehensive legal document integrating all the rights and responsibilities of citizens, the responsibility for improper processing of petitions; it also spells out the order of processing petitions. There are plans to introduce a new form of processing petitions filed via the Internet and to raise their status to the level of oral and written petitions. This move will allow citizens to address the head of state directly in case their problems are not dealt with due diligence by local authorities. The new bill suggests legally binding local authorities to respond to oral petitions from citizens and those filed via the Internet. In addition, mass media should hold regular hotline sessions with the population. Attending the meeting were ministers and governors. The president expressed his dissatisfaction with their reports and criticized their work. “If no due measures are taken to improve the situation, personnel decisions will follow. Please, bear this in mind, Alexander Lukashenko stressed.

БЕЛТА