A group of industry ministry officials and top executives representing several major state-run manufacturers were shown around Minsk's Detention Center No. 1 in a visit arranged by the Prosecutor General's Office, which views the practice of taking civil servants on short "prevention" excursions to jails as a means of discouraging them from corruption.
Representatives of the tax, agriculture and construction ministries visited the jail earlier this year.
The visitors were shown around the detention center's cells, canteen and medical unit, while staff answered their questions about the facility's conditions and rules, including the quality of meals and the size of parcels that inmates are allowed to receive.
The number of corruption offenses rose in Belarus by 23 percent last year, according to Ihar Hreyba. As many as 1,176 officials were prosecuted.
He said that the number of corruption offenses committed by industry ministry officials had been declining over the last four years.
