Brest Prosecutor’s Office finds no violations in actions of City Council deputies

This follows from a response received by activists of the civil initiative “Social Office”, who were going to attract the attention of the supervisory authority to fact of disrespect for the legislation on citizens’ petitions repeatedly committed by the City Council members.

Deputy Prosecutor of the city of Brest, Counsellor of Justice Ivan Chaichyts, reminded in his letter that in accordance with Article 18 of the Law “On the Status of Deputies of Local Councils”, the forms of activity of the deputy of the Council include the consideration of complaints of citizens and legal persons, personal reception of citizens, their representatives and representatives of legal entities in the constituency”.

The Prosecutor concluded that “on the basis of this provision of the Law, a deputy in the exercise of his authority considers applications received from citizens and directly related to the activities of the deputy in the constituency”, while lack of response to petitions from other constituencies is an infringement of the Act.

An activist of the civil initiative, Yury Zhydovich, disagrees with such conclusions. “We asked the deputies to give information about where we can learn about their reports, or if this was not done, then print it in the local media,” said Zhydovich. “Unfortunately, not all members have found it necessary not only to publish the report for their immediate constituents, but also to respond to the letter.”

Yury Zhydovich is sure that the prosecutor’s explanation of the law is improper, as all deputies are accountable to the voters and should be public entities, including through holding meetings with citizens, telling about what they have done for the citizens, and taking into account their new problems. The activist does not rule out that the next step will be submission of a lawsuit to the court.

Almost two months ago, activists of the initiative “Social Office” sent their petitions to nearly four dozen deputies of the Brest City Council. Only 16 of them have sent their written answers as to where, when and in what format they reported to the voters, or why such reports did not take place.