Directive No. 1

Irresponsibility and negligence, failure to comply with fire safety requirements, building standards led to deaths in the Kozlovshchinsky neuropsychiatric boarding house in the Grodno region and Krasnopolsky secondary school No. 1 of the Mogilev region.

As a result of fires and other emergencies in 2003, nearly 1,300 people died. Damage to the economy and ecology of the country from fires annually amounts to tens of billions of rubles.

There is a death of military personnel of the Armed Forces, border and internal troops, law enforcement officers in circumstances not related to professional risk.

Many organizations neglect the basic safety requirements, do not comply with the technological standards of production, put up with low labor and executive discipline, and lose sight of the fact that strengthening discipline and the rule of law is the most important basis for ensuring public safety, accelerating the country’s social and economic development, and improving people’s lives.

One of the causes of emergencies, violations of labor discipline, industrial injuries and traffic accidents is drunkenness.

Last year, over 50 thousand employees of organizations of all forms of ownership were brought to administrative responsibility for drinking alcohol at workplaces. 83.8 thousand drivers who were intoxicated were removed from driving. In traffic accidents 1.8 thousand people died, 7.4 thousand were injured and injured.

These facts indicate the presence of serious shortcomings in the functioning of the public safety system, and the incomplete fulfillment by government bodies of their tasks in this area. This is also confirmed by the appeals of citizens submitted to the Head of State. As a result, the company suffers irreparable losses, and the available reserves for improving the situation in the country remain unused.

In order to strengthen public safety and discipline:

1. The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, republican and local government bodies, other state bodies and organizations:

1.1. in 2004, to conduct a general inspection of social facilities and cultural facilities, regardless of ownership, and make the necessary decisions on the implementation of repair work and on the operation of buildings in emergency and dilapidated condition;

1.2. organize training in emergency situations in all collectives and at the place of residence of citizens;

1.3. include in the list of criteria for evaluating the work of leading cadres at all levels indicators of the state of labor and executive discipline, ensuring safe work in the sectors, regions, cities, regions and organizations headed by them;

1.4. to provide unconditional and immediate termination of contracts with employees for violation of labor protection and safety regulations, resulting in injury or death, for causing damage to the state, legal entities or individuals, drinking alcohol during working hours or at the place of work, and with managers for non-provision due labor discipline of subordinates, concealment of facts of violation by them of labor and executive discipline or for not bringing perpetrators to responsibility established by law;

1.5. regularly analyze the practice of responding to citizens’ appeals. Upon revealing the facts of bureaucracy and red tape, violation of the procedure for considering appeals, defined by law, immediately take measures of material and administrative influence against the guilty persons;

1.6. Until June 1, 2004, make the necessary decisions:

on increasing the personal responsibility of managers for the production and sale of products that do not meet the requirements of standards, failure to implement measures to maintain production discipline;

on strengthening quality control of the developed design estimates, construction, repair and reconstruction of industrial and social facilities;

on compensation for material damage caused as a result of violation of the law, failure to take appropriate measures to protect human life and health.

2. The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus:

2.1. by May 1, 2004, submit to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus a draft Law “On Amendments and Additions to the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses”, providing for liability for harm caused by activities that pose an increased danger to others;

2.2. together with the State Secretariat of the Security Council to develop and submit to the President of the Republic of Belarus a draft legal act by June 1, 2004, which envisages measures to create a state system for the prevention and liquidation of emergency situations and civil defense of the Republic of Belarus for 2004-2007;

2.3. by June 1, 2004, take the necessary decisions or, in the prescribed manner, introduce the draft relevant regulatory legal acts:

on improving road safety and the reliability of vehicle operation, the responsibility of officials for the illegal registration of vehicles and the unreasonable issuance of driver’s licenses;

on strengthening responsibility for driving while intoxicated;

on increasing fees for the use of natural resources and environmental impacts, expanding the application of measures to stimulate environmental protection.

3. The State Security Committee, the Ministry of the Interior, together with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the State Committee for Aviation, the Belarusian Railway and the Minsk City Executive Committee, to develop and implement additional organizational, regime and other measures to ensure the safety of passengers, especially by air, rail and Minsk metro.

4. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, local executive and administrative bodies until April 1, 2004 to take measures to ensure joint actions to prevent emergencies in rural areas.

5. The Committee of State Control to improve the methodology of inspections of business entities, to increase attention to the prevention of offenses in the real sector of the economy and social sphere.

6. The Ministry of Information, print and electronic media:

from March 20, 2004, introduce headings and program cycles on strengthening public safety and discipline, labor protection and safety measures, rational use of natural and energy resources;

systematically cover organizational and educational work to improve labor and executive discipline, restore public order, and to prevent drunkenness and alcoholism, including among road users;

to exclude propaganda of cruelty, violence and other immoral manifestations.

7. By October 1, 2004, the regional executive committees and the Minsk city executive committee should provide checks on the organization of work on servicing the population, the state of labor discipline in the field of housing and communal services, and review their results at meetings of executive committees.

Considering the social importance of preventing losses caused by irresponsibility, indifference and a decrease in moral standards, I appeal:

to the Councils of Deputies of all levels, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union to participate more actively in the implementation of the system of state social standards, more decisively protect the rights of workers, including non-governmental organizations, provide assistance in the fight against alcoholism, strictly control the rational use of natural and energy resources environmental protection;

to collectives of workers, all citizens to contribute to the implementation of the provisions of this Directive, to strictly comply with the requirements of the law. This is necessary to improve society, strengthen the rule of law, strengthen the power and authority of our country.

President of the Republic of Belarus A. Lukashenko