The Sealed Book: What Chair Of District 'Parasitic' Commission Hides

A person listed as ''parasite'' is seated in a chair, standing at the front of a long wide table, around which the members of the commission are sitting solemnly.

Do you know that a new state structure has been working in Barysau for over a year, with a quite complicated title ''Temporary Commission on Coordination of Work on Facilitating Employment of the Population at the Barysau District Executive Committee''? You don't know it? Well, I will tell you a few words about this structure.

If this is the first time you see the things written below, you are a lucky kid, born with a silver spoon. Probably, you've heard something about the Decree # 3 ''On Facilitation of Employment of Population'', called the ''Decree on Parasites'' by the people, but it doesn't affect you in any way.

That is, you are no ''parasite'', and you have no need to think how to о есть, cross yourself out of the so-called ''database of employable population, not employed in the economy'', in order not to pay threefold for hot water, gas, and heating this year. Meanwhile, about 500 thousand Belarusians cannot boast about such luck. Some unfortunate compatriots live close to us - in the Barysau district. And here comes the aforementioned commission, to put them on the right track, or, speaking the language of the Decree #3, ''to render aid related to the issues of employment''. The commission consists of 21 people. All of them hold important and responsible posts: functionaries, chairmen, directors, their deputies, specialists, and even ''deputies''. The deed of the state importance cannot be trusted to anyone.

Deputy Chairman of the District Executive Committee for Ideology Issues? Good. Head of the Department for the Protection of Public Order at the District Department of the Interior? It won't work without him! Chairman of the Barysau district branch of the ''Belaya Rus''? How can we do without the ''supervising and directing force''? Chairman of the Barysau district trade union association? Yes! Director of ''Housing'' Unitary Enterprise? Yes, yes! Another Deputy Chairman of the District Executive Committee? Excellent!A Deputy Chairman of the District Executive Committee again? Well, the more the better! Director of the TCSON? Ok. A ''deputy''? Of the ''chamber''? And you are asking!? Head of the Tax Inspectorate? Oh, yeah! Chairman of the Barysau District Council of Veterans? Reliable staff are needed. A Deputy Chairman of the District Executive Committee again? Great! Head of the Department of Architecture? No objections. Senior Assistant of a Public Prosecutor? Got it! Head of the Department of Labor and Employment? Excellent! Plus several more officials of various ranges. The honorable community is headed by Mr. Piotr Navitski, also known as Chairman of the district ''council of deputies''.

As you can see, there are no random people here. It reminds me of an election commission a little, or does it only seem to me? Last December, the commission started ''direct fulfillment'' of its duties. Every Thursday, ''authorized members'' gathered in one of the large offices of the District Executive Committee, and conducted individual reception of citizens. Apart from rendering aid in employment, the commission is authorized ti inform the citizens on their being in the ''database'', who of them will recompense the services under the ''prices ensuring full compensation of the economically justified expenses for rendering thereof'', consider the applications for the release from compensation of services under the terms of ''full reimbursement''. They can also send citizens to the bodies of labor, employment and social protection for ''helping in employment'', or to the labor and detox centers for undergoing the process of ''re-socialization''.

The author was lucky to attend a session of this commission. That was dubious pleasure. You will be seated in a chair at the front of a long wide table. You won't feel like a birthday guy though. The members of the commission will be sitting round the table with a solemn look. They will hold yoyr destiny in their hands for a while. You will have only one attempt to, depending on the problem, solve the issue of employment, or be released from payment ''under the terms of full reimbursement'', or, God forbids, get to the labor and detox center.

On the day of my visit, there were about 10-12 people in the reception room. Gentlemen, ladies, even married couples. Poverty brought them there. Everyone hoped for a better outcome. Will they help? Was it worth it to create a body, duplicating the already existing ones? Is the work of the commission effective? It would be possible to assess it with the help of open easily available information about the results of their activity. Well, for example.

How many Barysau residents have gone through the sieve of the Commission fir the whole period of its existence? How many employable citizens have been employed? How many citizens received ''consultative, methodological and legal aid on the issues of employment and/or self-employment''? How many residents of the Barysau district are in the ''database''? How many citizens have applied for the release from full reimbursement of services, and how many such applications have been satisfied? How many citizens have been sent to the bodies for labor, to paid community works, and to the labor and detox centers?

Piotr Viktaravich keeps silence.

To all the listed questions, put in my written enquiry to the Commission, the Chairman laconically replied: ''State bodies, public associations, officials are obliged to provide the citizens of the Republic of Belarus an opportunity to study the information related to their rights and legal interest, in accordance with the order established by the present Law and other legal acts of the Republic of Belarus. Considering the above, it does not appear possible to provide the requested information''. I read between the lines: ''Mind your own business.'' The logic of the Chairman of the Commission is simple and clear. A citizen is supposed to know only what concerns them personally. All the rest is unnecessary to know. This is not true. If the laws are studied carefully and not selectively , one can learn that the citizens of the Republic of Belarus are guaranteed the right to receive, store and distribute complete, reliable and timely information about the activities of state bodies, public associations, political, economic, cultural and international life, and the state of the environment. That is, I not only have the right to know what the officials do during working hours, but I can also store this information and distribute it. So that others know. This is what I am doing. The little that I know about the work of the district commission for the facilitation of employment, I address you, dear readers. And I hope that we will be able to learn much more about the results of the commission’s activity than Piotr Viktaravich reported. Otherwise, who, if not we, the citizens of the Republic of Belarus, will appreciate the quality of the work of our officials?

Aleh Matskevich, ex-press.by