On the clarification of anti-corruption legislation

September 16, 2024

In accordance with Article 5 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus of July 15, 2015 No. 305-Z "On Combating Corruption" (hereinafter referred to as the Law), the fight against corruption is carried out by state bodies and other organizations through the comprehensive application of planning and coordination of activities of state bodies and other organizations to combat corruption, as well as the establishment of restrictions and special requirements aimed at ensuring financial control over public officials and persons equated to them, in order to prevent and detect manifestations of corruption.

One of the forms of ensuring financial control is the establishment of an obligation for public officials and persons equated to them to annually declare income and property, the procedure for which is provided for in Chapter 4 of the Law.

The main normative legal acts regulating the procedure for filling, accepting, checking, and storing declarations of income and property are the Instruction on the Procedure for Filling Declarations of Income and Property by Individuals, approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Republic of Belarus of January 9, 2008 No. 1, as well as the Regulation on the Procedure for Checking and Storing Declarations of Income and Property, approved by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of January 16, 2016 No. 19.

The practice of prosecutorial supervision shows that persons obliged to provide declarations of income and property often violate the requirements of the aforementioned legislation.

In particular, cases of non-disclosure or incomplete disclosure in declarations of income in the form of money transfers received from abroad, other income, or indication of incorrect amounts of money transfers received, including from individuals (under contracts), through RUE "Belpochta" are common. Information on insurance payments from "Belgosstrakh" units is not always indicated.

Some officials do not indicate property subject to declaration in their declarations, in particular, vehicles. The date or method of acquisition of real estate and vehicles remains unfilled, unreliable information about their cost is indicated, and there are instances of non-disclosure of income received by officials in the gambling business sector.

Violations of legislation regulating the declaration of income and property create preconditions for corruption and contradict the state policy in the field of corruption prevention. In this regard, Article 24.6 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses establishes administrative responsibility for violating the procedure for declaring income and property.

It should be understood that the prosecutor's offices constantly conduct checks of anti-corruption legislation, including by requesting relevant declarations and studying the information contained therein in detail. In the event of the disclosure of unreliable or incomplete information in the declaration, they send appropriate instructions to the tax authorities to initiate an administrative process under the aforementioned article. For example, based on the results of the review of instructions from the prosecutor's office of the Gluboksky district for the past period of 2021, 2 persons were brought to administrative responsibility by the inspection of the Ministry of Taxes and Levies of the Republic of Belarus for the Gluboksky district for violating the procedure for declaring income and property.

In view of the foregoing, the district prosecutor's office draws the attention of persons who are obliged to submit declarations of income and property to the need for strict compliance with the relevant legislation.

Deputy Prosecutor

Gluboksky District Ya.I. Sosnovsky