By Viktor MELNYK, The Day
The political situation in Vinnytsia oblast is being destabilized under
a scenario which only yesterday seemed quite improbable: the President
appointed Dmytro Dvorkis head of the oblast state administration.
On Saturday, July 17, chief of the presidential administration Mykola
Biloblotsky introduced the new governor to his subordinates who were, without
exaggeration, shocked at this. The oblast council, which had recommended
Hryhory Zabolotny for this post, and its chair Hryhory Kaletnyk expressed
their categorical rejection of this cadre decision.
"Dvorkis, as an executive, embodies ignoring the Constitution and laws
of Ukraine, and for this reason all the principles of democratic state-building
we have proclaimed on the national level will be broken," Mr. Kaletnyk
told The Day.
Categorical rejection of Mr. Dvorkis's appointment as governor was voiced
by 27 heads of district state administrations, who called on Leonid Kuchma
to revise his decree. "It is impossible to work with Dvorkis! We don't
trust him," the appeal says.
An extraordinary session of the oblast council was convened on Saturday
to discuss only one issue: no confidence in the new oblast administration
head. Since Mr. Biloblotsky failed to present the original copy of the
decree on Mr. Dvorkis's appointment, the session was adjourned until Monday
afternoon. However, the original decree was not sent even two days later.
As Mr. Kaletnyk stated that the decree came by fax, with the seal but without
Mr. Kuchma's signature, so the session decided to delegate the council
chairman to ask the President whether or not there was a decree.
The session passed a vote of no confidence in Mr. Dvorkis by a simple
majority. This decision was supported by 59 deputies out of the 93 on the
roster.
INCIDENTALLY
Meanwhile, Leonid Kuchma said on July 18 at Askaniya-Nova that he had
given Mr. Dvorkis "two months to show what he is made of." The guarantor
of the Constitution justified his choice by the fact that wages and pensions
are being paid on time in the city of Vinnytsia, while the oblast shows
"a diametrically opposite picture:" "So why not carry out an experiment,
a staff reshuffle: to appoint the mayor as oblast administration chief?"
Interfax-Ukraine quotes Mr. Kuchma as asking a rhetorical question. Characterizing
in general the heads of Kherson and Vinnytsia oblast administrations Anatoly
Kasianenko and Mykola Chumak, whom he had dismissed, Mr. Kuchma noted that
"being a good man does not always mean being able to be an executive on
this level." He also pointed out that many executives "have been busy with
politics rather than their job."






