Board meeting at the Department for Archives and Records Management 31 July 2012

On 31 July 2012, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus held a board meeting to discuss the issues of work with petitions from citizens and legal entities submitted to the archives and records management authorities and the state archival institutions in the Republic of Belarus in the first half of 2012 and to review the results of work at the Department in the first half of 2012.

On the first issue, the handling of inquiries from citizens and legal entities was conducted in a strict accordance with the procedure defined by the Law of the Republic of Belarus of 18 June 2011 “On petitions from citizens and legal entities”, the President’s Decree of 15 October 2007 No. 498 “On additional measures for work with petitions from citizens and legal entities”, and the President’s Directive of 27 December 2006 No. 2 “Measures for further debureaucratization of the state apparatus”.

The Department and the archives and records management divisions in the regions and the city of Minsk exercised a permanent control over the legislation observance in work with petitions from citizens and legal entities in the archive institutions. Much attention was paid to the terms of handling an inquiry, personal visits, information stands, and posting a relevant information on the archive websites. The state archives carried out activities on informing the citizens and interested organizations about the composition and contents of their archival records by means of mass media.

On the second issue, the Department performed work in accordance with the Plan of Actions for 2012, the orders by the President’s Administration, the Government, and the Ministry of Justice. All the scheduled activities have been fulfilled. In addition, the Department has performed a lot of unscheduled work.

In May 2012, the celebration events were held to mark the 90th anniversary of the State Archives Network of the Republic of Belarus and the 85th anniversary of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus.

In the first half of 2012, the Department exercised control over the Archives of Belarus State Programme for 2011-2015 performed by the republic-level archival institutions. All the scheduled activities have been fulfilled and the funds applied for the State Programme for the reported period amounted to 92 percent.

Much attention was paid to the legislative provision of the archives and records management agencies and the state archival institutions. In pursuance with the respective plans of the Council of Ministers and the Justice Ministry of Belarus, the Plan was developed for the preparation of drafts for normative and legal acts and taking other measures to implement the Law on Archives and Records Management in the Republic of Belarus. All the activities have been fulfilled.

The Department prepared and submitted to the Council of Ministers the resolution draft of the Council of Ministers “On approval of the State Archives System of the Republic of Belarus”, composite drafts of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On making alterations and amendments to some laws of the Republic of Belarus on the issues of archives and records management”, the resolutions by the Council of Ministers of the RB “On making alterations and amendments to some resolutions of the Council of Ministers and nullifying some resolutions and separate provisions regarding archives and records management”, etc. The Department prepared seven drafts of normative and legal acts of the Justice Ministry; examined for compliance with legislation 28 drafts of normative legal acts of the Justice Ministry developed by the Department’s subdivisions.

The Department has prepared the draft of the Law On Official Heraldic Symbols (signed by the President of Belarus on 25 May 2012).