Last week, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko dismissed the Prime Minister, as well as all key members of the government. Experts believe that the reason for the resignation is related to corruption.
Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov was replaced by the former head of the development Bank Sergey Rumas. Several Deputy Prime Ministers, as well as Ministers of economy and industry also lost their positions, writes the Guardian.
During his visit to Orsha district of Vitebsk region on August 14, the President of Belarus held a meeting during which the head of state spoke sharply to the leaders of the region and the government as a whole. Last year Lukashenka ordered officials to raise Orsha district “from ruins and ashes” when visiting Orsha, but as it turned out at the beginning of the week, only 87 of 126 instructions of the head of state were fulfilled.
During the meeting, he announced the resignation of the Ministers of industry Vitaly Vovk and architecture and construction Anatoly Cherny, and dismissed the Chairman of the Orsha district Executive Committee Alexander Poznyak and ordered the head of his administration Natalia Kachanova until the end of the week to prepare proposals to change the entire government leadership. On August 18, Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, who had held this post since 2014, was dismissed.
We will remind as earlier reported, the international anti-corruption portal, the state security Committee (KGB) of Belarus has detained several high-ranking medical officials of the Republic on suspicion of corruption. According to the Agency, one of the defendants in the case in the garage found a cache of money worth more than 500 thousand dollars. In the same case, Deputy Minister of health Igor Lositsky was arrested. In early may, Belarus was dismissed by the head of the Ministry of energy Vladimir Potupchik.The Chairman of the state security Committee of the country Valery Vakulchik then reported that the buyer was dismissed for patronage to creation of illegal family business.
At the end of July, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made a sharp criticism of corruption: “in the state apparatus of Belarus should not be a hint of corruption, civil servants will continue to impose strict requirements in this regard.”
At a meeting on the issues of social and legal guarantees of civil servants and increasing the prestige of the civil service, Lukashenka recalled that corruption in the ranks of officials is unacceptable.
“There is nothing extraordinary and unexpected for a civil servant. I talk about it all the time and it is the cornerstone of any of my presidential campaign,” he said.
Political scientist Valery Karbalevich believes that the President wanted to punish officials who “lost fear” before the first person of the state. “Both mass corruption and events in Orsha suggest that officials have ceased to be afraid of the leader, and in the conditions of an authoritarian regime this is a very bad sign for the government,” the expert believes.
Independent economist and Director of the center for scientific research Mises Yaroslav Romanchuk welcomed the government shake-up. “It’s good to replace these people, the pillars of the old socialist economy,” he said, adding that the new team is not “mired in corruption.”
