SO MANY CONTROLLERS!
TRY TO FIGURE WHO CONTROLS WHAT
The Day's Oleh POTURAI asked People's Deputy Oleksandr
SVYRYDA of the NDP faction, "What do you consider most paradoxical
in today's Ukrainian politics?"
Mr. Svyryda responded, "I can't stop wondering at our economic policy.
On the one hand, it declares protection of the domestic producer. On the
other hand, the things being done point to the contrary. Each and every
enterprise is caught like a fly in a thick web of countless controlling
authorities, each eager to suck it dry, so much so that even large enterprises
only seem large, because they are empty inside.
"And the blood-sucking technology is brutal. Take, for example, the
State Energy Saving Committee. In reality it is a self-accounting off-budget
institution vested with extraordinary authority. It is capable of destroying
any business. How? Well, say, one of its officials spots an "extra" bulb
lit in a workshop. A fine is due in the amount of Hr 50,000.
"'OK, we're human, aren't, we?' the shop steward says.
"'We won't fine you but will carry out an energy audit and make you
pay only Hr 5,000 (sic).' And this is standing procedure. Besides, how
can a government controlling authority be self-accounting? As it is, this
institution not just controls but exerts every effort to add to its bank
account. Unbelievable but true, and there many others like this one.
"Or take architecture. You are officially allowed to start on a construction
project and the same authority provides paid services. A sanitary station
checks your sanitary condition, and you have to pay again. Local fire brigade
inspectors visit you and order you to install a fire alarm system. Again
you are presented a bill. Ecological control requires an 'ecological passport'
(which the ecological controlling authority produces itself). Another bill.
Put together, these bureaucratic structures create an unbearable investment
climate. I will not mention the tax service, of course, because its extraordinary
powers are known to all: if one does not pay taxes, one is exacted the
required amount. But all the others! Can it be that the government does
not see the horrible results of their activities? Personally, I have come
to identify the Cabinet with the Communist faction. Most members of both
structures taken individually are intelligent and businesslike people.
In their entirety both act like the Golden Horde: incomprehensible, uncontrollable,
and destroying all living things in their path."






