During a meeting between the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, and the leadership of the Council of Ministers, the draft decree "On the Disposal of Property" was discussed. The Head of State questioned the responsible officials in detail about the essence of the innovations and emphasized that the amendments should not negatively affect the decision-making system for the disposal of state property, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
At the meeting, the Chairman of the State Property Committee, Dmitry Matusevich, reported that the draft decree establishes unified approaches to the disposal of state property and property of business entities with state participation. He explained that this concerns real estate, capital structures, buildings, production facilities, plants, roads, and so on.
"All of this is regulated today, but you have decided to propose to me, by decree, to improve this regulatory process, is that right?" the President clarified.
"Absolutely correct," replied the head of the State Property Committee. "We have prepared a consolidated draft decree based on Decree No. 169, which is good and generally works."
"Does this decree already dissatisfy you in some part, and you propose to slightly change the previous procedure?" the Head of State asked.
"80% of the old decree will remain. We propose to adjust individual elements based on the observed trends," explained Dmitry Matusevich.
According to him, current trends in state property management indicate a declining interest in acquiring unused state property. "Thanks to the work on identifying and documenting assets, working with dilapidated and vacant houses, as well as due to new construction, the volume of state property we manage is actually increasing. Annually, from 1.2 thousand to 1.8 thousand assets with an area of up to 1 million sq.m. are divested from state ownership. Demand for these assets decreased by a third in 2020 and has not yet recovered. 3.3 million sq.m., or 2.7% of the total state real estate, remain unclaimed," informed the Head of the State Property Committee. "Even considering that the majority of such assets are agricultural, social sphere, or former military facilities, we believe that, partly due to the improvement of the regulatory legal framework, it is possible to create new incentives for involving such property in economic circulation and for regional development. Therefore, the draft decree was prepared."
The developed document generally preserves the competencies of the Head of State regarding alienation and pledge, transfer of enterprises into trust management, and acquisition of real estate and shares using funds from the republican budget.
"Moreover, the draft contains a provision on the possibility for the President to make any decision regarding property disposal. Thus, the inviolability of approaches in the sphere of privatization and the use of budget funds is maintained," emphasized Dmitry Matusevich.
What powers might the President lose?
Among the innovations is the delegation of powers from the President to the Council of Ministers regarding the transfer of shares and stakes in the authorized funds of economic societies from republican to communal ownership. As explained by the Head of the State Property Committee, this will make management more efficient, as everything will be concentrated in one set of hands – either communal enterprises or republican ones. According to data over 12 years, there were 61 presidential decisions in 860 such cases.
"Why are we interfering in this area today and transferring the decision on the transfer of this property from the President to the government?" asked Alexander Lukashenko. "This is a rare case."
Developing this theme, the Head of State emphasized that the current system acts as a kind of filter; it is multi-stage and allows for high-quality and comprehensive decision-making regarding property management. "After all, the issue is this: whether the President makes the decision or a lower level of authority does – the responsibility is different. If a document comes to Vice-Premier Nazarov and he understands that the decision will not be made by the government tomorrow, but it needs to be conveyed to the President, and Gerasimov and others will also get involved... That the President might reject this proposal altogether... The responsibility is different," the Belarusian leader noted. "This is what we might lose in the process."
Dmitry Matusevich believes that such "filtration" of decisions is currently irrelevant because "there are no mass attempts to transfer shares somewhere," and small blocks of shares can be transferred on a case-by-case basis without presidential approval.
"We must bear in mind that there is no mass transfer now because one has to go to the President, and when this is no longer the case, some kind of mass transfer may appear, which cannot be allowed," Alexander Lukashenko warned.
The Head of the State Property Committee noted that decisions on the transfer of shares will be made by the government by coordinating the relevant draft decree with all interested parties, including the State Control Committee. This is provided for in the draft decree. "The filter will operate at a certain level," he assured.
Can Ministers be Entrusted with Property Disposal Matters?
The draft decree includes a block of powers that are transferred from the Council of Ministers to state bodies and organizations – these are matters concerning the disposal of immovable and movable property and its pledge. In 2021, decisions were made on 236 such state property objects.
"It is also proposed to determine the positions of state representatives at the ministerial level, rather than at the government level, on matters of disposal of immovable property worth more than 10 thousand base units. 125 such decisions were made since 2010, and each of them could involve several positions of state representatives, but at best, only half of the property was disposed of," said Dmitry Matusevich. Furthermore, it took at least one quarter to make a decision.
The Head of State did not express objections to this, but proposed to supplement the draft decree with a provision that ministers will only be able to make decisions on property disposal upon agreement with local authorities.
"This will slightly prolong the procedure," the Head of the State Property Committee suggested.
"The procedure will be prolonged if the minister is not insistent, and governors cause delays (which I doubt, the minister is the main one anyway). But in this way, he will inform Kabanik, Turchin or Kukharev that there will be some property manipulations on his territory," the President said.
Source: belta.by