Tymoshenko discusses agricultural issues with village heads

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has tackled the problems faced by peasants. She has held what she described as the “most important meeting in her life,” having gathered in Kyiv the heads of village councils to discuss socioeconomic issues they are facing.

In her speech the premier voiced several proposals that, according to the farmers, have long been expected and discussed. They are only wondering why the government thought of these questions now, rather than before this difficult budgetary year?

Tymoshenko said that the heads of village councils are under pressure from the prosecutor’s office and promised in the near future to send a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to stop the persecution of these village leaders and the inspections of village councils and farms.

The premier also proposed founding the Association of the Heads of Village Councils. It is difficult to say whether this will help solve the urgent problems of the villages, but now they will also have their own organization.

The participants were more interested in other proposals like amendments to the Budget Code, which Tymoshenko wants parliament to vote through in the near future. And in the next three years the government plans to switch to the practice of leaving 100 percent of tax receipts from individuals in local budgets. The representatives of local self-government supported this proposal but expressed doubts as to its feasibility. They were also skeptical about the more concrete proposals voiced by the premier, for example, introducing government-provided Japanese-produced cistern trucks to collect milk from peasants at higher prices.

Unfortunately, the representatives of village councils did not receive the floor, at least not in the live TV broadcast. Nevertheless, the farmers were grateful for the opportunity to communicate with each other and for the fact that the government paid attention to them. From this viewpoint, Tymoshenko’s meeting, which looked like a PR action in many ways, was a success for her and also benefited the peasants.

Tymoshenko half-jokingly put this meeting on a par with the historical abolition of serfdom in Ukraine. Did the participants perceive it as equally important? What did Tymoshenko fail to take into consideration? We have put these questions to those who are best placed to answer them.

Aider SEITOSMANOV, Regional Development Advisor, Crimea Development and Integration Program (UN Development Program):

“The major problem of the post-Soviet villages include inactivity of their residents, which was cultivated by the Communist regime. They wait for the head of the village council to come and do everything for them. In our villages we have never had what is called a community — an active group of village patriots who are eager to work in order to beautify it and change its lifestyle. Everybody is eager to solve the problem shaping the government in Kyiv, but nobody knows how to tackle the problem of equipping one’s street with necessary amenities.

“Since 2002 the Crimea has been implementing the international experience of community awakening and activization. The Crimea Development and Integration Program (UN Development Program) has been working successfully in this direction. We are doing this through projects to upgrade the Crimean villages. We are not financing the infrastructure of villages, although it appears to be so, but are investing into the awakening and activization of village communities.

“For example, residents of a village would like to construct a water supply system. We hold several community meetings and trainings for activists, teaching them methods of self-organization and self-government and study the legal foundations for local self-government. At the same time, we launch a project to reform the water supply system, which the villagers need. We start financing this project only when it becomes absolutely clear that the villagers are ready to put up half of the money, they have become a real community with authoritative leaders, and there is confidence that they can manage the realization of the project and its future development.

“Since 2002 over 400 such projects have been realized in the Crimean villages and nearly 100, in schools. Thus, through the activity of the Crimea Development and Integration Program we have formed active viable communities in approximately 500 Crimean villages. People have improved their lives with their own hands — they have built water supply systems, first-aid and obstetric stations, schools, and other objects, and continue to manage them. Within the framework of our program, nearly eight million dollars were used for these projects, and half of this money was raised by the citizens. Donor funding came through the donor agencies of Canada, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, and other countries.”

Anatolii NOVAKOVSKY, head of the Chief Directorate of the Agricultural Industry, Odesa Oblast State Administration:

“The problems of our oblast village workers are the same as in other regions. But there are unique things. Now Odesa region is launching an unprecedented project for Ukraine — our country’s first agricultural-industrial wholesale food market. Such market centers are primarily aimed at bringing together sellers and buyers, thus removing any mediators between them. This will facilitate the sales procedure, provide consumers with fresh high-quality products, stabilize the prices in a centralized way, thereby lowering inflation, strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises, and increasing budgetary receipts.

“The former system of wholesale trade has ceased to exist, while the new one is emerging. The existing system prevents the manufacturers from developing to the full extent. It is expected that not only Odesa oblast manufacturers will supply the products, but also those from Mykolaiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, and Vinnytsia oblasts, as well as the Crimea. The participants will include collective agricultural enterprises, agricultural firms, farms, and private farmsteads.”

Ivan YEVTUSHENKO, head of the Novopidkriazh Village Council, Tsarychanka raion, Dnipropetrovsk oblast:

“I see one undeniable positive feature in the meeting conducted by Prime Minister Tymoshenko: the state leadership has for the first time thought of village councils, the lowest link of the local authorities. Nobody has ever invited us to Kyiv or asked for our opinion.

“Certainly, the meeting heard many good initiatives aimed at strengthening the financial powers of the local authorities. However, there is a huge abyss between the government’s promises and the real situation. These good intentions need to pass parliament to enter into force. But we can plainly see what is going on in the Verkhovna Rada: it is practically paralized, and, in general, there is no stability in the state. Therefore, I don’t know who the Association of the Heads of Village Councils would communicate with and which problems it would resolve.

“Many of the premier’s proposals that she anticipates the local authorities to support seemed quite unexpected and even unreal. For example, take the call to return to solid fuel, i.e., black coal, which we have rejected in favor of gas. In our village council we have an economical gas-fired boiler, and we have no problems with it. In order to return to coal, I need not only to buy it, but also to hire a stoker and pay wages to him, bring, and keep the solid fuel for the whole season, and then move it away elsewhere. In a word, the expenses are the same, so where is the economy? It is equally absurd as the calls to heat with straw and corn wastes.

“My colleagues and I were astonished by the promises to bring Japanese-produced cistern trucks to the village to collect milk from the villagers at a high price. It would be relevant to ask, Who will be managing this business and why neither the state, nor private enterprises have thought of this? Who will create the consumer cooperative societies when there are only pensioners left in villages? It was easy to destroy collective farms at a blow, which were performing plenty of economic and social functions, while nobody was thinking what would come next.

“There used to be two kinds of authorities in the villages — the village council and the collective farm, which were jointly resolving different problems. Now everything rests with the village councils, which have neither money, nor staff. Nearly a thousand people reside on the territory managed by our village council, but I have only six people on the staff. We have not only to keep the streets in order, but also to clear the plantations, because otherwise we will simply be swamped with garbage and wastes.

“At the same time, they recommended us to ‘optimize the staff.’ For example, I am not allowed to have a driver. Should a village chairman repair and wash his car on his own? Coming back to reality, I want to say that we are partly living in the Soviet Union — the regulatory framework has long been out of date, the wages are low, and there are no qualified employees. And as it appears from our communication at the meeting, the same situation is throughout Ukraine. “Many participants pointed out that what is seen from Kyiv is not the same as what the locals see. Therefore, the results of the meeting should be discussed after the elections, not before them. For everyone understands pretty well that this meeting is most likely a PR campaign before the presidential elections, although a very impressing one, I must admit.”

Alintyn REMEZ, head of the Kniahynyne Village Council, Rivne oblast:

“The current problems of villages boil down to poor financing. The thing is that the local budgets’ receipts come from the land tax. This tax is paid by the working people, while pensioners are exempt from it. But the pensioners are in majority in the countryside and they own the land. At the moment it is impossible to sell land plots. Meanwhile, young people don’t stay for long in villages. Thus, budgetary receipts are low, whereas expenditures are disproportionately high. For example, with the budget of 230,000 hryvnias, I may need to spend 49,000 hryvnias on repairs.

“It was proposed at the All-Urainian Conference that the income tax yields from people residing in the village but working in the raion center should go to the village. In my opinion, this is quite reasonable and may improve the situation. In this case we will be able to resolve the questions of road repairs and finance the social sphere.

“There was also the idea to create the Village Association, because at the moment there is an association of cities and no association of villages. This kind of association would also be helpful in developing villages.”