Yanukovich to examine Timoshenko’s spending

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Published time: February 27, 2010 14:08
Edited time: March 02, 2010 19:46

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Budget, Conflict, Politics, Tymoshenko, Ukraine, Yanukovich

Ukraine’s President Yanukovich has instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office to check up on Yulia Timoshenko’s work as Prime Minister, especially in relation to budget expenditure.

Having defeated his long-time rival in the presidential run off this month, Yanukovich continues his attack on the premier.

He has been rather enthusiastic during his first days in office. Set to bring changes to the country and urging for reforms, he has signed a few decrees and created new bodies.

Reviving a knocked-down economy and fighting poverty and corruption seem to be a top priority. His first hours of rule were marked with the announcement that the presidential administration staff will have to tighten their belts. Yanukovich decided to cut the staff and reduce their salaries, halving his own income as well.

Now it is the country’s budget spending – something the government and its head are responsible for – that has come into the spotlight. On Friday, Ukraine’s new leader met with Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko and ordered an audit of the use of budgetary funds – both domestic and those received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – by members of the Cabinet.

Yanukovich said it is necessary to conduct a joint audit with the Chamber of Accounts regarding the use of state budget in 2009 and 2010.

Medvedko, for his part, said that the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) intended to pass materials over to the courts, since the cabinet had ignored 50 appeals from the prosecutors.

Earlier in February, the Accounts Chamber announced that Ukraine was on the verge of technical default. According to the body’s head, Valentin Simonenko, the situation was caused by the manual management of 50 per cent of budget expenditures in 2009, URA-Inform wrote.

According to Simonenko, 1.7 billion grivnas (over US$211 million) was registered at the single treasury state account by January 1 since the size of expenditures of the State Treasury exceeded this sum by 15 times – 25.4 billion grivnas (US$ 3.1 billion). A month later, the situation had not become even slightly better.

Nikolay Azarov, deputy chair of Yanukovich’s Party of Regions accused Timoshenko of leaving an empty treasury as a legacy of her work.

President Yanukovich also instructed the PGO to examine the legality of tax collection.

"What were the grounds for the Tax Administration to collect taxes in advance for three months? There is no place in the world where such a thing would be possible…,” he said, as quoted on his official website.

As Prime Minister, Ukraine’s “Iron Lady” can feel secure, being protected by a deputy mandate. However, if is able to be dismissed by the president, she may face criminal prosecution. And many say it is unlikely she will manage to keep the post.

A criminal case, though, will not be a new experience for Timoshenko, since several have been opened against her in the past. Those accusations – which included money laundry, corruption and bribery – were subsequently dropped.

Comments (5)

freedom 02.03.2010 09:29

God that woman is hot! That is all I can say on this matter.

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sj 01.03.2010 02:57

Kihnu I Agree! AMEN, AMEN [ means I believe, I believe.] The iron so-called lady should be behind IRON bars with only bread and water, "instead" the Oligarchies were backing her from the beginning of her entering politics Now suddenly Oligarchs appear spreading bribes to get her elected and hide her dirty deeds that harmed and continues to harm the good people of Ukraine! Of course you can trace the money trail from the Oligarachs to her and from the state funds to her and so on,...she made a lot of money for the Oligarchs and herself and the new president should spare no expense to uncover every penny!. But however it may be buried deeply.. well hidden. She is a "master" at money laundering, fraud, and most of all bribery!That is how she got to the top and do not forget the US president-Congress backing her funneling hundreds of million to help rip YANUKOVICH win of presidency las with last election..denying Ukrainians the rightful winner..The US backed her with millions via the US State Department [Democracy Fund] to keep the Orange Revelation secession going and a US friendly country to carry out US dirty deeds against Russia in particular. Note the international poll watchers did not find any fraud. Even before half the votes were counted Timoshenko took to the stage and declared the election was fair and honest and congratulated the Ukrainian people and that she had won. Her loss was a win for the entire region and defeat of US power.

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Impera 28.02.2010 13:14

This most certainly comes as no surprise with Yulia Timoshenko's money habits Corruption,Launderin g, and bribery this is certain grounds fro the New President of Ukraine to prosecute and take this "Iron Lady" to justice. Yulia has always claimed that Viktor Yanukovich always did fraud During Election's this is such folly, in the eye's of the International Observers looking at this past election run-off was completely genuine and fair, so obviously Yulia is the fraud but is in complete denial. I hope somehow or some way that President Viktor Yanukovich can find a way to peacefully and respectfully rid's himself of Yulia once and for all to have a totally new "Premier" in Ukraine one more fairer and one more peaceful for the great Citizen's of Ukraine, to never have to go through that same torment and divide that Yulia had created from within Ukraine. So lets see how Ukraine solves this problem and hopefully Ukrainians can put this bit of history behind them for good.

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