Pod dohledem VLKa
Under the Supervision of VLK

The People´s Control Committee of the Slovak Socialist Republic and Citizen Complaints and Suggestions, 1971–1990

Summary/Abstract: The People’s Control Committee of the Slovak Socialist Republic (Výbor ľudovej kontroly Slovenskej socialistickej republiky – VĽK SSR) was the highest control body in the eastern part of the Czechoslovak Federation from its establishment in 1971 until its termination in 1990. An important part of its work was monitoring the agenda of citizen complaints, statements and suggestions, which represent an important source for our understanding of society and its interactions with the state authorities and bodies during the period of Czechoslovak normalization. The People’s Control Committee dealt with submissions directly addressed to them, but also kept records of submissions addressed to all Slovak ministries, other central bodies and national committees. The study outlines the Committee’s competences, staffing, its legislative framework, the scope of its activities and its functioning. It follows the development of the number of submissions and their handling in detail, as well as the Committee’s methodological and control activities in relation to the people’s control bodies at lower levels. These activities were carried out by the staff of the Complaints Department alongside other departments of the Committee, sometimes in cooperation with other state and party institutions and also with the assets of the Complaints Department, whose members were released from their jobs to participate in the inspections. Based on contemporary analyses and summary reports on the handling of the complaints agenda, the author observes that despite the officially declared importance of this activity and repeated efforts to streamline the process, the Committee was not satisfied with the results it achieved and criticized the numerous shortcomings both in the handling of complaints and in the approach of the authorities. The author concludes by recalling the situation after the fall of the communist regime in November 1989, when the Committee had to deal with a significant increase in the number of complaints and returned to reviewing some previously rejected submissions. The Committee’s activities were terminated at the end of August 1990, when it was replaced by the Ministry of Control of the Slovak Republic.

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