Defending Businessmen from Corruption

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has signed a number of instructions following the All-Ukrainian Conference on Small and Medium Business and a session of the presidentially sponsored Corruption and Crime Control Coordination Committee, UNIAN reports. According to presidential spokesperson Olena Hromnytska, the head of state urged Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh to put forward by November 10, 2002 proposals for top cadre changes at those oblast and district administrations where a critical situation has arisen. The State Property Fund and the State Committee for Regulatory Policies and Entrepreneurship were instructed to take measures to substantially improve the state of affairs in small and medium business, intensify corruption control, and call to account the top executives who had committed errors. Mr. Kuchma ordered Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Presidential Administration, to check again the fulfillment of the laws and regulations of Ukraine as well as the president’s instructions about the development of small and medium business, and corruption and organized crime control in the oblasts mentioned.