President Victor Yushchenko met today with Ministers members of Our Ukraine Public self Defense block. The meeting was dedicated to their work in the Government.
Speaking to those present the President stressed that this year Government's failure to implement budgetary programs in different fields is unprecedented.
Referring to the report presented to him by the Accounting Chamber President Yushchenko made a conclusion that actually social, economic and cultural development is not financed at all. "Such ignoring of the Budget by the Government is unprecedented", - he said.
He urged Ministers to take a clear position in this situation and publicly explain the reasons for such policy of the Government.
Speaking about the procedure of the adoption of governmental decisions, Victor Yushchenko stressed that this year 215 decrees of the Cabinet of Ministers (every fourth) were approved despite criticism from Ministry of Justice. This means that such acts do not meet the Constitution or other legislation of Ukraine.
He also criticized the practice of not publishing the decisions that were voted for and approved by the Cabinet in the time foreseen in the legislation.
Separately the President drew attention to certain decrees of the Cabinet, which clearly do not meet national priorities. As the most striking example of that he gave the decision on payment for Russian gas at the expense of prepayment for transit. Implementation of this decision, Victor Yushchenko warned, could lead to loss of state control over NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.
The President stressed that he expects the Ministers to be more active in cases of adoption of such decisions by the Cabinet.
Participants of the meeting were Vice Prime Minister Ivan Vasyunyk, Minister of Education Ivan Vakarchuk, Minister for Culture Vasyl Vovkun, Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevych, Minister for Regional Development Vasyl Kuibida, Minister for Housing Oleksiy Kucherenko, Internal Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, Minister for Justice Mykola Onischuk, Minister for Family Yuriy Pavlenko, Minister for Emergencies Volodymyr Shandra, Chief of Staff Vira Ulyanchenko and Deputy Chief of Staff Oleksandr Shlapak.
