Mahiliou region: lack of police inspectors, employment problems, corruption

Prosecutor of the Mahiliou region, Andrei Chadziuk, gave a large interview to the newspaper "Mahiliouskiya Vedamastsi" (№11 dated February 10, 2015) in which he spoke about the statistics and ways of improvement of the crime situation in the area.

In particular, Mr. Chadziuk noted that in the recent years the number of reported crimes in the Mahiliou region had been steadily declining. For example, in 2014 the number of reported crimes in the Mahiliou region decreased by 2.3% in comparison with 2013. Previously convicted persons committed by 1.7% fewer crimes than in 2013. The share of recidivism decreased to 43.0% compared to 44.3% in 2013. The number of crimes committed in the state of alcohol intoxication decreased by 10.2%.

At the same time, the prosecutor of the Mahiliou region noted a negative impact on the rule of law by the lack of police inspectors. In particular, though there were 429 staff positions of police inspector, as of January 1, 2015 there were just 378 police inspectors working in the Mahiliou region, only 26.5% of whom resided on the territory covered by their official positions.

Aliaksandr Chadziuk also stated that despite the strengthening of work on the part of prosecutors and other subjects responsible for employment of unemployed and anti-social individuals, the results of this work were discouraging. According to the prosecutor, as a result of the sittings of the councils of the public points of law enforcement with the involvement of local executive and administrative bodies, the police and enterprises it was decided to assist in the employment of 2,709 persons. However, in reality only 34.1% of them were employed.

As reported by Mr. Chadziuk, 802 economic crimes were registered in the Mahiliou region last year. 219 of them were corruption crimes including 77 cases of embezzlement through abuse of office, 28 cases of abuse of power or official authority, 14 – excess of power or official authority, 65 facts pf receiving and 35 facts of giving bribes. The share of corruption crimes in the structure of crime was 2.1%.

Let us remind that last year a number of high rank officials of the Mahiliou region were drawn to criminal liability for corruption. In particular, former first deputy chairperson of the Shklou District Executive Committee Dzmitry Miniakou was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment for corruption crimes, criminal cases were instigated against deputy chairmen of the Bialynichy, Mahiliou and Shklou district executive committees, officers of the Babruisk City Executive Committee, a member of the National Assembly from Mahiliou region, General Director of "Krychautsementashyfer" and a number of other state officials and heads of enterprises.