Belarusian Prosecutor General Andrei Shved (note: context corrected to official position held by Dzmitry Hora) stated during a parliamentary session that the annual requirement for state officials to file income and asset declarations may be replaced by a financial monitoring system. According to him, the initiative comes from the House of Representatives, and the goal of the reform is to more effectively control officials' assets and combat illicit enrichment. At the time of the statement, the Prosecutor General's Office did not specify which body would conduct the monitoring, what data would be used, or how the origin of assets would be verified.
What Changes in the Procedure
Currently, Belarusian officials annually report their income and assets to the state. In some cases, the same obligation falls on spouses and adult close relatives if they live with the civil servant and share a household budget. The new system, as follows from statements in parliament, implies that the collection and analysis of financial information about officials will be conducted not by the official themselves, but by a regulatory body. According to experts, the cancellation of annual reporting does not mean the end of inspections — the control mechanism remains, but its architecture changes.
Reduced Burden or Tool for Submission
Political analyst Vadim Mozheiko interprets the initiative primarily as a reaction to staffing problems within the state apparatus. In his assessment, when it becomes difficult to attract specialists to civil service, the employer looks for ways to make the conditions more attractive, and simplifying procedures is one such lever. "This reduces the burden on state bodies, which will have to work less and process less information. It also improves the life of the officials themselves by removing the need to fill out endless declarations," Mozheiko explained. However, he emphasized that checks do not disappear; they simply shift from self-reporting to external control.
Dependence on Security Agencies
Vladimir Kovalkin, head of the "Vashy Hroshy" project and an expert on civil service reform, sees a different logic in the reform. He says that when an official submits a declaration themselves, the procedure is clear and predictable: "You submitted a declaration — you do it every year, the procedure is understandable." But when a declaration is not submitted and an inspection can happen at any time, "you can be checked at any minute, have things compared, and, for example, be jailed. This creates a different psychological mood." Kovalkin believes that, as a result, officials become more dependent on those conducting the inspections, which, in his assessment, strengthens the chain of command under security agencies. The expert also allows for the possibility that the monitoring mechanism could be used selectively in internal conflicts within the state apparatus.
The Russian Context and Its Differences
Kovalkin links the Belarusian initiative to changes in Russia, where mandatory annual filing for officials was abolished starting in 2026. In the expert's view, Belarusian authorities are adopting the Russian approach. However, he points out a significant difference: Russian declarations were previously public and used by journalists for investigations, whereas in Belarus, income information of civil servants was never disclosed to the public. "Little will change for Belarusians, but officials may become even more dependent on security forces: they will decide who to check," Kovalkin summarizes.
The History of Closed Declarations
The position of the Prosecutor General's Office on the publicity of declarations has shifted over the last few years. Alexander Konyuk, who headed the department until 2020, argued against publication in 2015, claiming that details about officials' assets could serve as a "guide for robbers." By 2019, Konyuk himself proposed publishing the declarations, explaining that citizens should know how officials and their relatives live and where their money comes from. The proposal included ministers, regional, and district heads. However, the matter never went beyond words: declarations remain closed to the public. Experts interviewed by DW view this as an indicator of weak anti-corruption policy in the country. "The higher the official's position, the more detailed the declaration should be, and registries should be open so that journalists and civil society can see how a person lives and what assets they and their relatives own," insists Kovalkin.
