Electronic appeals

From January 2, 2023, the amendments and additions made to the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated July 18, 2011 No. 300-Z “On Appeals of Citizens and Legal Entities” (hereinafter referred to as the Law) come into force. In this regard, the procedure for submitting electronic applications has changed. Electronic applications must be submitted through the state unified (integrated) republican information system for recording and processing applications from citizens and legal entities – обращения.бел.

Electronic appeals are considered in accordance with the requirements of the current legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Electronic requests are answered in writing (written notifications are sent) in cases where:

the applicant in his electronic application asks to send a written response or simultaneously send a written response and a response to his e-mail address;
the e-mail contains an e-mail address, to which, for technical reasons, it was not possible to deliver a response (notification).

ON THE PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION AND CONSIDERATION OF ELECTRONIC APPEALS, CASES OF LEAVING APPLICATIONS WITHOUT CONSIDERATION ON THE ESSENCE

The procedure for filing appeals and sending them for consideration in accordance with the competence:

Electronic applications are sent through the state unified (integrated) republican information system for recording and processing applications from citizens and legal entities – обращения.бел.

Appeals are submitted to organizations whose competence includes resolving the issues set forth in the appeals.

Organizations upon receipt of appeals to them containing issues that are not within their competence, within five working days, send appeals for consideration to organizations in accordance with their competence and notify applicants within the same period or within the same period in the manner prescribed by the Law , leave the appeals without consideration on the merits and notify the applicants about this with an explanation of which organization and in what order should be contacted to resolve the issues set forth in the appeals.

Appeals in which court decisions are appealed are returned to the applicants no later than five working days with an explanation of the procedure for appealing court decisions.

Appeals containing information about an impending, ongoing or committed crime or other offense are sent by the organizations in which they were received to the relevant law enforcement or other state bodies no later than five working days.

It is forbidden to send complaints to organizations whose actions (inaction) are being appealed, except in cases where consideration of such a category of applications falls within the exclusive competence of these organizations.

Leaving appeals without consideration on the merits

Written appeals may be left without consideration on the merits if the appeals do not meet the requirements for electronic appeals.

Anonymous applications, that is, applications of applicants that do not indicate the surname, first name, patronymic (if any) or the initials of the citizen or the address of his place of residence (place of stay) or the name of the legal entity (full or abbreviated) or its location or specified data do not correspond to reality, are not subject to consideration if they do not contain information about a crime being prepared, being committed or committed.

If the appeal is left without consideration on the merits, except for the cases provided for in paragraph seven of paragraph 1 of Article 15, Article 23 of the Law, the applicant is notified within five working days of leaving the appeal without consideration on the merits, indicating the reasons for making such a decision.

In the cases provided for in paragraphs three and four of paragraph 1 of Article 15 of the Law, the applicants are also explained to which organization and in what order they should apply to resolve the issues set out in the appeals.

ON REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC APPEALS

Appeals are presented in Belarusian or Russian.
Electronic appeals of citizens must contain:
- name and (or) address of the organization or position of the person to whom the appeal is sent;
- surname, first name, patronymic (if any) or initials of the citizen, address of his place of residence (place of stay);
- statement of the essence of the appeal;
- E-mail address.
Electronic appeals of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs must contain:
- name and (or) address of the organization or position of the person to whom the appeal is sent;
- full name of the legal entity and its location;
- statement of the essence of the appeal;
- surname, first name, patronymic (if any) or initials of the head or person duly authorized to sign appeals;
- E-mail address.
It is not allowed to use obscene or offensive words or expressions in appeals.
Electronic applications submitted by representatives of applicants must be accompanied by electronic copies of documents confirming their authority.
Applications should contain information on the results of their previous consideration with the attachment (if available) of documents confirming this information.

ON THE NEED TO PRESENT DOCUMENTS AND (OR) INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF FILES ATTACHED TO AN ELECTRONIC APPLICATION AND ON THE ALLOWED FORMATS OF SUCH FILES

Acceptable formats of attached documents and (or) information specified in paragraph four of part one of this clause in electronic form and their graphic images on paper (scans) are Portable Document Format / A (PDF / A), Office Open XML (DOCX) , Markup Double Format (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), Text File (TXT), Open Document Format (ODT), Data Archive and Compression Format (ZIP, RAR), Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG), Joint Photograph Group (JPG).

ABOUT THE APPLICANT’S RIGHTS TO WITHDRAW AN ELECTRONIC APPEAL, TO APPEAL THE RESPONSE TO SUCH APPLICATION OR THE DECISION TO LEAVE IT WITHOUT CONSIDERATION ON THE ESSENTIALS AND ON THE PROCEDURE FOR EXERCISING SUCH RIGHTS

Revocation of an electronic appeal

The withdrawal of an electronic appeal is carried out by submitting a written application or sending an application in electronic form in the same way that the electronic appeal was sent.

Appealing responses to appeals

The response of the organization to the appeal or the decision to leave the appeal without consideration on the merits can be appealed to a higher organization.
Information about the name, location and mode of operation of higher organizations is posted on the official website under the heading “One window”.

Leaving appeals without consideration on the merits

Written appeals may be left without consideration on the merits if the appeals do not meet the requirements for electronic appeals.

In the cases provided for by paragraphs three and four of paragraph 1 of Article 15 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated July 15, 2015 No. 306-Z “On Appeals of Citizens and Legal Entities”, applicants are also explained which organization and in what order they should contact to resolve issues set out in the appeals.

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF POSTING ON THE INTERNET SITE OF A STATE BODY AND ANOTHER STATE ORGANIZATION ANSWERS TO ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS OF SIMILAR CONTENT FROM DIFFERENT APPLICANTS OF A MASS CHARACTER (OVER TEN APPLICATIONS) WITHOUT REFERENCE ANSWERS (NOTIFICATIONS) TO APPLICANTS

In the event that incoming electronic appeals of similar content from different applicants are of a mass nature (more than ten appeals), responses to such appeals, by decision of the head of a state body or other state organization or a person authorized by him to sign responses to appeals in the prescribed manner, may be posted on official website of a state body or other state organization in the global computer network Internet without sending answers (notifications) to applicants.