Political Pulse: More funny numbers

The 2010 budget proposed by the government cuts down parliament’s expenses, but hikes president administration’s spending.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is so sure that she will be elected Ukraine’s next president that you might even say she is banking on it.
In her draft budget for 2010, the prime minister wants lawmakers to tighten their belts. So she cut the Verkhovna Rada’s allotment by nearly $20 million.
But spending on the president and the presidential secretariat fares much better. Her government calls for a $17 million presidential budget – nearly a $2.5 million upgrade from this year. The president’s secretariat, or administration, will also get a $2.5 million budget hike, to roughly $13.3 million. It’s doubtful that she had the incumbent, Victor Yushchenko, or her main rivals, Victor Yanukovych and Arseniy Yatseniuk, in mind for such largesse.
Even parliamentarians from Tymoshenko’s eponymous bloc have noticed. Not all are happy.
“Cutbacks, if made, should be proportional,” said Valery Pisarenko, a member of parliament from the Tymoshenko bloc, known by its BYuT acronym. “Why did the presidential secretariat officials deserve more than the deputies of Verkhovna Rada, for example?”
But a parliamentary colleague from the same faction, Andriy Pavlovsky, said that Yushchenko asked for the budget increases. “The presidential office [officially] requested the increase in financing to keep up with the growing needs,” Pavlovsky said. “The Cabinet of Ministers decided to agree. However, I think that the president should be the first one to “tighten the belt” during the current economic recession.
While not a large part of the $30 billion overall national budget, top government officials make sure they are taken care of even better in the 2010 budget.
For health care of the deputies and heads of the Ukrainian government administration, some 75,000 people in all, the draft budget in 2010 calls or spending of $29 million compared to $22 million in 2009. This figure does not include health spas maintenance, which is nearly $9 million more. The total is nearly $38 million.
At the same time, nearly 3 million disabled people in Ukraine have to split up $68 million from the government.
“It’s such an anachronism, a leftover from the Soviet era: Health care for government officials that we have now. We need to move away from it. Personally, I have never used deputy health care perks. And most don’t. There are so many great private clinics today,” said Pavlovsky.
Pisarenko also said he never used it either, but somehow the money gets spent.
Some budget-watchers think the nation’s politicians should reorder their priorities.
“There are numerous articles in the budget aimed at social improvement which require more financing, like orphan care, etc. And certainly, money from the health care [for the government officials] could be partially directed to support such programs," said Olena Bilan of the Dragon Capital investment bank. Other perks for deputies, such as free use of public transportation, can also be eliminated, she said. “If all these perks are thoroughly revised, a lot can be saved,” Bilan said. “Even it’s 100 million hryvnia — for the country it’s quite a lot.”
Having increased medical care for government officials by nearly seven million hryvnias in her draft budget 2010, the Tymoshenko government decided to economize on the war veterans. The State Veteran’s Committee may receive nearly $2 million next year, almost $1 million less compared to 2009.
“To cut expenditures for the veterans committee is very upsetting and disrespectful, but not surprising for us, as there is no governmental policy of support and care for the war veterans in Ukraine,” said Serhiy Chervonopyskiy, head of the Ukrainian committee of Soviet-Afghanistan War veterans.
The draft budget for next year, like its predecessor budget, will undergo a lot of changes before its likely adoption sometime next year – most likely well after the Jan. 17 presidential election. “There is a very distinct possibility that budget will be completely changed completely and literally rewritten,” said Oleksiy Blinov of Astrum Investment Management