Cabinet shake-up in Ukraine continues (06/23/96)

Cabinet shake-up in Ukraine continues

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Vasyl Durdynets was named first deputy prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma on June 18, continuing the promised government shake-up that began last week. Mr. Durdynets succeeds Pavlo Lazarenko, who was appointed prime minister on May 28.

Mr. Durdynets, 58, is no stranger to the Ukrainian political scene, having served as a deputy in Parliament since 1991. He was a member of the legislature's presidium (heading the Committee on Defense and State Security until 1994) and later the Parliament's first deputy chairman (March-December 1994). He was also the deputy minister of interior of the Ukrainian SSR from 1978 to 1991.

Since December 1994, Mr. Durdynets, who was educated as a lawyer at Lviv University and later became a colonel general in the Soviet Army, was the deputy prime minister for security and emergency situations and headed the presidential coordinating committee on combating corruption and organized crime.

Also ousted from the government on June 18 was Finance Minister Petro Hermanchuk, who had held this post since the final days of President Leonid Kravchuk's administration. He was appointed on July 6, 1994, just days before Mr. Kravchuk lost to Mr. Kuchma in the presidential run-off. Mr. Hermanchuk was recently reprimanded by President Kuchma for mishandling the government wage debt crisis.

Mr. Hermanchuk has been replaced by Valentyn Koronevsky, 46, who until his new appointment served as the head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast State Administration Financial Department.

A relative unknown in national politics, Mr. Koronevsky is a native of the Odessa region (Izmail) and is an economist by profession.

Mr. Koronevsky's team has been joined by Mykhailo Honcharuk, who was named first deputy finance minister, succeeding Mykola Sivulsky, who had worked in the Finance Ministry since late 1994.

This Cabinet shuffling appears to be an attempt by Prime Minister Lazarenko to get rid of former Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk's advisors and assistants and replace them with his own people in order to get economic and political reforms moving.

However, as pointed out in a recent article in the Eastern Economist, despite President Kuchma's claim that he is giving Mr. Lazarenko a free hand in forming the government, the president himself is deciding ministerial fates.

And yet, the blame for all economic disasters continues to fall on the shoulders of the prime minister, who will be the one ousted if this round of reforms proves ineffective.

As reported last week, Olexiy Sheberstov, minister of energy and electricity, who had been harshly criticized by President Kuchma in a public speech on June 12, was dismissed by the Ukrainian leader two days later.

Other changes in the government this week include the firing of Volodymyr Barabash, first deputy minister of youth and sports.

Regional "spring cleaning"

President Kuchma has also recently begun a "spring cleaning" of regional state administrations - replacing his representative in Vinnytsia Oblast. In a crackdown on corruption among regional bureaucrats, Mr. Kuchma has sacked the head and the deputy head of the Vinnytsia Oblast State Administration, Mykola Melnyk and Leonid Boyko, respectively, for using their official posts to obtain private apartments from the regional administration.

He has replaced Mr. Melnyk with People's Deputy Anatoliy Matvienko, who was named acting head of the administration.

By decree on June 6, President Kuchma also named Oleksander Omelchenko first deputy chairman of the Kyiv City Administration. In effect, he will be the acting mayor of Kyiv until Mayor Leonid Kosakivsky recovers from his illness.

Mr. Omelchenko was named acting mayor on May 23, soon after the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers decided to appeal to President Kuchma to dismiss Mr. Kosakivsky "for violations of laws in effect, as well as shortcomings in the guidance of his administration and unsatisfactory execution of his official duties."

While Mr. Kosakivsky is on sick leave, according to Ukrainian law, he cannot be ousted. Also, because he was a popularly elected mayor, it would not be legal for the president to dismiss him. Rumors circulating in Kyiv point to one solution: a new mayoral election in the fall. However, nothing has yet been decided.

In May President Kuchma had also sacked his representative in the Henichevskiy Raion of Kherson Oblast, Hennadiy Zayichenko, for breaking a number of Ukrainian laws regarding ownership, the work of enterprises in Ukraine and privatization.

Holovaty remains minister of justice

Despite reports in the media last week that Justice Minister Serhiy Holovaty had penned his resignation, upon returning from Budapest, where he had attended the 10th conference of European Justice Ministers, he denied that he was going anywhere just yet.

However, given the fact that Prosecutor General Hryhoriy Vorsinov is in fact a bitter enemy of Mr. Holovaty and a close ally of Prime Minister Lazarenko, some political observers note that Mr. Holovaty may have written a resignation letter to use at a later date.

As The Weekly was going to press, Minister Holovaty confirmed that he had "tendered a letter of resignation" to President Kuchma on June 4. However, he added, this letter of resignation is "purely an internal paper, which characterizes official relations between the president and the minister of justice."

"I don't consider it possible to give any comments before a decision is made," he said on June 20.

| Home Page |