Pluralism in One Cabinet
Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said on October 11 he thinks it inadmissible that the State Tax Administration (STA) should have unilaterally disclosed the “arithmetic debate” over accountancy figures in this country’s fuel-and- energy complex (FEC) that has erupted between the STA and officials in charge of fuel and energy.
He said these steps of STA leaders and such methods of holding a debate are “unwise,” Interfax- Ukraine quotes the Cabinet press service.
According to Mr. Yushchenko, he stressed at a meeting with STA Chairman Mykola Azarov that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, when joint work is being supplanted by purely political methods of discussion.
The premier has ordered an internal investigation into such facts begun. “Each must do his own functional duties rather than inspire political adventurism,” he said.
It will be recalled that everything began with the STA in fact denying Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko’s claims about an improved financial situation in the FEC, which she made last Tuesday during the question time at Verkhovna Rada. The question is in fact about unprecedented differences between Cabinet officeholders in their assessments of situation in a strategic sector of the nation’s economy. The first normal reaction of a taxpayer to the erupted scandal is as follows: one of the two, either Mr. Azarov or Ms. Tymoshenko, must resign either for misinforming parliament or for incompetent use of financial figures. Nonetheless, the ensuing statements of the premier and energy vice premier allow us to assert that spontaneous propagandistic “pluralism” is an innate feature of the present Cabinet of Ministers. Moreover, while, during Ms. Tymoshenko’s previous public polemics with ex- FEC minister Serhiy Tulub and the former Naftohaz Ukrayiny management, it was possible to suppose that the prime minister is the victim of somebody else’s behavior, the current conflict raises a different question: is the Cabinet of Ministers capable in principle of informing society in easy-to- understand and transparent terms about the results of its performance?
It is noteworthy that the STA press service fax message about the FEC financial situation consisted of three pages with a host of figures. Conversely, Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko failed to produce any concrete facts in reply, trying to reduce the crust of the matter to “arithmetic” and “statistics.”
Last Thursday President Kuchma signed an instruction on setting up a special commission to verify the information about the settlements of fuel-and-energy facilities with energy resource suppliers, the budget, and off-budget funds, with Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Yevhen Marchuk being appointed to chair this commission. The commission was ordered to compare in a week’s time the relevant data of various agencies, analyze the payments discipline in the fuel-and-energy complex, and, if necessary, carry out an internal investigation into any violations found.
