Harvest Campaign 2023

The Prosecutor's Office of the Braslav District conducted an inspection of compliance with legislation on the management and preservation of property, labor protection, and ensuring labor and executive discipline in the agro-industrial complex of the district during the preparation for the harvest campaign.

The challenging situation in the agro-industrial complex of the district requires local executive bodies and leaders of agricultural organizations to take effective measures aimed at the rational use of material and financial resources and ensuring safe working conditions.

By the Directive of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated 14.06.2007 No. 3 "On Priority Directions for Strengthening the Economic Security of the State," all interested parties are instructed to take radical measures to save and use fuel, energy, and material resources economically in all areas of production.

However, the majority of agricultural organizations in the district do not comply with these requirements. Repair work to restore faulty equipment is not carried out in a timely manner. There are instances of disassembly, prolonged downtime, and non-restoration of agricultural machinery.

According to available information on the readiness of agricultural machinery, as of 01.07.2023, 124 tractors (66%) are ready for the harvest campaign, of which energy-intensive – 29 (88%), grain harvesters – 28 (72%), trucks – 18 (26%).

Of the machinery available to agricultural organizations in the district, as of 01.07.2023, only 137 units of the aforementioned machinery passed the state technical inspection. At the same time, there are instances of using machinery that has not passed the state technical inspection in agricultural work.

This year, for sending vehicles with technical malfunctions that have not passed the state technical inspection or are not registered in the established manner, administrative responsibility was imposed on officials of OJSC "Slobodka-Agro" (3 times), OJSC "Agrovidzi" (3 times), OJSC "Druyski" (1 time).

During the raids conducted in July of this year, violations of labor protection legislation were also identified, indicating the negligent attitude of employers towards safe working conditions for employees, the preservation of property, as well as fire safety requirements.

The main coordinating role of the activities of agro-industrial enterprises in the district is assigned to the Department of Agriculture and Food of the Braslav District Executive Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Department).

At the same time, the decisions made by the Department are formal in nature, lacking analysis of the causes and conditions of the shortcomings in the work of agro-industrial enterprises in the district, which does not contribute to the resolution of existing problematic issues and stabilization of the economic situation.

The lack of coordination by the Department of the activities of agro-industrial enterprises in the district regarding compliance with the requirements of legislation on the preservation of property is also evidenced by numerous violations of the requirements of legislation on the preservation of property identified by the district prosecutor's office.

It has been established that in many agricultural organizations in the district, the territories of machine workshops are not properly guarded, access to the machinery and material values is not restricted, there are damages to fences and locking devices, which sometimes are completely absent.

These violations were identified in KUSP "Braslavskiy," OJSC "Druyski," OJSC "Slobodka-Agro," KUSP "Vidzovskiy."

The absence of proper fortification of storage places for machinery, free access to the territory of machine workshops, leaving machinery outside the boxes, and not ensuring proper protection of the material values of enterprises contributes to the commission of property crimes and offenses, causing material damage to agro-industrial organizations.

These circumstances indicate that the main conditions contributing to and provoking the theft of property are inadequate technical fortification of the facilities where the storage of material values was allowed, inadequate work of the security service, as well as the negligent attitude of responsible employees of agro-industrial enterprises towards the preservation of the material values entrusted to them.

As a result of the inspection, a presentation was made to the First Deputy Chairman of the Braslav District Executive Committee, the Head of the Department of Agriculture and Food, demanding to take additional measures for the preparation and repair of agricultural machinery for the harvest campaign, to ensure compliance with labor and executive discipline, labor protection under the personal responsibility of the heads of agricultural organizations, to eliminate cases of mismanagement, and the issue of bringing guilty officials to disciplinary responsibility was also raised.

Deputy Prosecutor of the Braslav District                                              S.P. Harbus