Is the money spent irrationally?

Interfax-Ukraine quoted the Verkhovna Rada Accounting Chamber as saying, “No cardinal changes have occurred in terms of legal support for resettlement and accommodation of families of the deported peoples in the wake of the Accounting Chamber proposals aimed at improving the procedure. The proposal on definitions for deportee status and accommodation have not been implemented. In other words, a number of citizens who can qualify for deportee status has not been limited either by quantitative or temporal frames. Given this, the issue of financial support for deportee families returning to Ukraine remains open both for the state and budget.” According to auditors, Ukraine’s Justice Ministry has not initiated the harmonization of peninsular laws with those of Ukraine or invalidation of contradictory ones. Inadequate legislation creates unfair conditions for the accommodation of the families of deportees. For example, only Crimean Tatars can qualify for compensation for transportation and baggage shipment costs while Crimean Tatars going for resettlement to other areas and other deported peoples, regardless of where they prefer to resettle, are not entitled to such compensation. As has been established by repeated verifications, the allocation of state funding for the accommodation of deportees at the stages of planning, distribution, and financing did not operate in 2001. Thus, expenditures for social aid not envisaged by the law amounted to UAH 2.16 million against the backdrop of UAH 3.55 million in social assistance arrears due the deported Crimean Tatars as of January 1, 2002. The peninsular government failed to implement the orders of the president and the proposals of the Accounting Chamber with regard to building new facilities to accommodate deportees and transfer them to local government control. Instead, funding earmarked for accommodating the families of deportees is used now to maintain 136 items of communal property and 115 houses built since 1995. On analyzing the findings of its repeated check, the Accounting Chamber Board came to the conclusion that the steps taken by the Justice Ministry have been inadequate for the effective and targeted allocation of budget money appropriated for the deportees. The findings were submitted by the AC to Verkhovna Rada and the State Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Migration.

COMMENTARY

Mustafa DZHEMILIOV, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, leader of the Crimean Tatar Majlis:

Each year before passing a new budget the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine typically notes that allocating funding for Crimean Tatars repatriation programs is not legal because there is no appropriate legislation. Formally, the AC has a point here. Aware that the needed bills are slated for consideration in the parliament, lawmakers closed their eyes to the fact and allocated money for the resettlement program. Despite the ten years of Ukraine being an independent state and our continuous efforts to pass them, for over five years these bills have been in limbo in Verkhovna Rada, due to the resistance of the Communist fraction. We have submitted to Verkhovna Rada a bill On the Rehabilitation and Restoration of the Rights of Deportees in its new version including our additional proposals. Unfortunately, our attempts to steer the bill On the Status of Crimean Tatar People in Ukraine through the parliament have failed, while, if passed, the bill could solve all our problems. It is a detailed bill covering all our issues. I hope the new Verkhovna Rada and Crimean legislature will show more response and readiness to deal with our problems.