Gennady Smolsky Dismissed from Post of Deputy Chairman of the State Military Industrial Committee

Gennady Smolsky was dismissed from the post of deputy chairman of the Belarusian State Military Industrial Committee (Goscomvoyenprom) due to the reduction in the number of employees. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 308 on 29 August.
Gennady Smolsky worked at Goscomvoyenprom since 2004 – he headed the Export Control and Licensing Department.
By Belarusian President’s Decree No. 205 of 13 June 2016, he was appointed deputy chairman of Goscomvoyenprom. He was responsible for the development of measures and carrying out of activities aimed at implementing and improving the state policy in the areas of military-technical cooperation of Belarus with foreign countries, export control and licensing; developing exports of products manufactured by defence companies and Goscomvoyenprom companies; the activities of special exporters; developing and implementing concepts and programmes for the development of military-technical cooperation and others.
Since 1 September, these duties have been assigned to Igor Demidenko, First Deputy Chairman of Goscomvoyenprom, who is also responsible for the overall management of the Main Department of Military-Technical Cooperation, Export Control and Licensing, which was established on the basis of the Military-Technical Cooperation Department and the Export Control and Licensing Department.
Since 1 September, Goscomvoyenprom has started work in a new organisational structure and staff size, determined by the order of Goscomvoyenprom No. 91 of 13 June 2017.
Goscomvoyenprom noted that the optimisation of its activities is not a mechanical reduction in the number of employees, but a rational revision of functions, exclusion of delegation and duplication of responsibilities, revision of each employee’s function, which should improve the efficiency of managers.
The changes introduced to optimise government bodies are stipulated in the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 6 May 2017 No. 334 “On the Implementation of Measures to Optimise the System of Government Bodies”.