Sergey Levkovich: "The law is at the core of resolving issues"
March 4, 2025
When seeking assistance from Sergey Levkovich, Assistant to the President – Inspector for the Vitebsk Region, in resolving seemingly private matters, applicants sometimes raise issues of public significance. This was also the case during a personal reception of citizens held at the Vitebsk District Executive Committee.
…The woman has a residence permit in Belarus. She obtained it a year and a half ago, having moved to her historical homeland from Latvia. She works at a state enterprise and wants to change her job but cannot provide the new employer with the necessary package of documents. The applicant claims that other expatriates face the problem of not being able to provide a reference from their previous place of work or their employment record book. However, they could be useful in the Belarusian labor market.
Sergey Levkovich noted that the woman's example confirms that a reasonable manager will find a way to hire an employee needed by their enterprise. Bureaucratic obstacles should not arise when it comes to specialists who confirm their qualification level or when hiring for jobs requiring unskilled labor.
He instructed the Committee for Labor, Employment, and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee to study the situation with holders of temporary and permanent residence permits and propose mechanisms for their integration into the region's economy within a month.
– I was hasty with the improvement of common areas in the village of Shultsevo, – the next applicant began his story. – Near the plot allocated to me for personal subsidiary farming, I carried out sanitary felling of willow.
That's what the man thought. However, the district inspection of natural resources and environmental protection viewed his actions from a different perspective. For unauthorized removal of vegetation, he was presented with a claim for compensation for the damage caused in the amount of 1.8 thousand rubles. If the damage is compensated voluntarily, administrative penalties in the form of a fine will not be applied.
The citizen was informed at the reception that it is forbidden to cut down healthy (non-emergency, non-hazardous) trees on public lands. The decision to remove trees and shrubs as part of landscaping is made by a commission. This is preceded by the development of a general plan for the further development of the settlement and a felling project. The very procedure for creating these documents requires significant financial investment.
– The district budget initially allocated 160 thousand rubles for landscaping, – said the chairman of the district council of deputies, Viktor Dorozhkin. – With this money, we need to clear snow, gravel roads, mow grass…
Sergey Levkovich summarized that even acting with good intentions, one cannot break the law. The applicant can undertake the task of removing excess vegetation in the settlement only if the executive committee makes an appropriate decision.
However, the problem of overgrowth is characteristic of many villages in the region and is large-scale. It may be necessary to escalate to a higher level with initiatives to simplify the procedure for sanitary felling on settlement lands.
Other issues raised by citizens to the President's aide concerned: maintenance of private housing stock, a dispute over land boundaries, and a labor dispute. All problems will be studied within a month, and applicants will be provided with answers.