VINNYTSIA OBLAST REJECTS NEW GOVERNOR

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."