Humanitarian cooperation

Lukashenko calls to use foreign aid for social purposes only

MINSK, 30 April (BelTA) - Foreign gratuitous aid should be used for social purposes only, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a government meeting held on 30 April to discuss the use of foreign gratuitous aid, BelTA has learned.

According to the president, Belarus is open for funding aimed at social objectives, for example, to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, to provide medical care, to support low-income citizens, disabled people, pensioners and children.

“We are ready to provide various tax benefits and preferences. The funds should reach the recipients, not disappear on the way to them,” he said.

The president emphasized that today one third of the aid has no direct social orientation. For example, part of the funds is spent to strengthen the material and technical base of individual organizations, pay for their general economic expenses.

“We stopped such activities several years ago, and I think that we should not change anything here. I have given instructions to work out proposals to improve the procedure for the use of gratuitous aid. The work on possible adjustments was carried out under the guidance of the head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate, the head of the Belarus President’s Administration and the chairman of the State Control Committee,” he said.

The head of state added that the same tasks were set when the director of the Department for Humanitarian Affairs was appointed.

“Such work resulted in a new draft decree. Some of its provisions significantly change the existing mechanisms for the registration of aid. Therefore, the proposals made require comprehensive assessment and discussion,” the president said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that he would like to hear answers from the participants of the meeting to a number of questions: how optimal is the proposed mechanism for making decisions on aid registration, tax exemption and coordination of its use, and whether this procedure contains excessive bureaucracy.

The president also asked about the amount of the fee to be introduced for the registration of aid and what changes are planned in the Department for Humanitarian Affairs.

In addition, the head of state asked whether local bodies are involved in the work with foreign aid, whether they assess the efficiency of its use, and how their activities are defined in the draft decree.

The issues discussed also included the efficiency of the government’s control over the receipt and use of aid and whether any additional measures were required to prevent its misuse.

“The measures should be tough. If you have received humanitarian aid from abroad, and those who provide that humanitarian aid are decent people, they want the aid to reach the recipient. If this aid, as I said, disappear on the way to the recipient, there should be the toughest responsibility for such steps,” the head of state said.

“I know that many of you are worried that if we introduce a payment for registration, or impose tough control, the flow of humanitarian aid may decrease. We do not need that kind of help then. Everything must be done in an honest, principled and decent way. You know that mainly Western countries provide this humanitarian aid. They are always against corruption everywhere, at all levels. Everything must be honest, decent and the aid must reach the recipient. That is what we should do. We need to completely de-bureaucratize this process,” the president said.

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