OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2009. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko believes that a brand new auditing system and a flexible, transparent control mechanism, which is unobtrusive for businesses, must be created in Belarus. The President made the statement at a government session held on 12 October to discuss improvement of auditing practices in Belarus.

The head of state underlined that innocent companies and businessmen, who pay taxes on time and observe the law, cannot constantly live in fear, expecting yet another auditor. According to the President, there is nothing to audit if there are no substantiated claims against an economic operator. Alexander Lukashenko underlined that, first, the State Control Committee should take care of property matters, second, should be on top of spending, especially state budget spending.

The President demanded that the practice of continuous and repetitive auditing that can last for months must be ruled out. In his words, such things happen a lot. Auditing should be carried out when there is clear information about violations.

The President underlined that the draft decree under consideration should be based on present-day reality. On the one hand, it is supposed to reduce the number of unwarranted audits, to rule out redundant operation of controlling agencies, to step up the preventive component in auditing, creating most favored treatment options for honest businesses. On the other hand, the document should not impede full-fledged auditing activities because they ensure the national economic security.

The draft decree “Improvement of auditing activities in Belarus” had been discussed at a joint session of the Council of Ministers Presidium, the board of the Belarus President Administration and the State Control Committee together with chairmen of oblast executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee. Nevertheless, there are certain remarks of the National Bank and the State Control Committee that will be discussed today.

The President underlined that “We should not resolve problems brought about by incompetent auditing and controlling agencies at the expense of audited economic operators”. The head of state also remarked that in line with the existing practice the most important draft legal acts are discussed in a collegiate manner before they are signed by the President because everything must be clearly functional to make the final decision.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that the draft decree on improving auditing practices should be comprehensive, systematic and should address all problem issues at full scale.