Kuchma's "new" Cabinet includes mostly old ministers (08/03/97)

Kuchma's "new" Cabinet includes mostly old ministers

by Khristina Lew
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma began the process of appointing a new Cabinet of Ministers on July 25, but with the notable exception of leftist Viktor Suslov, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Banking and Finance who replaced reform-minded Yurii Yekhanurov as minister of the economy, most ministers of the former government have stayed in place.

On the recommendation of Ukraine's newly confirmed prime minister, Valerii Pustovoitenko, President Kuchma re-appointed Serhii Tyhypko as vice prime minister for the economy; Oleksander Kuzmuk as minister of defense; Yurii Kravchenko as minister of internal affairs; Ihor Mitiukov as finance minister; Andrii Serdiuk as minister of health; Mykhailo Zghurovskii as minister of education; and Dmytro Ostapenko as minister of culture and arts.

Oleksii Sheberstov, who served as minister of energy in July 1995-June 1996, was re-appointed to that post. Anatolii Kasianenko was appointed head of the State Committee for Tourism.

In the first day of the Cabinet reshuffle, only Mykhailo Zubets, vice prime minister of the agro-industrial complex and minister of agriculture and food, and Yurii Rusantsov, minister of the coal industry, were not re-appointed to their posts.

Mr. Zubets has retired from government service and, in accordance with the Constitution, the post of vice prime minister of the agro-industrial complex no longer exists. (The Constitution of Ukraine permits three vice prime ministerial portfolios - Prime Minister Pustovoitenko on July 26 indicated that they would focus on the economy, social policy and humanitarian policy.) The Ministry of Agriculture and Food was restructured into the Ministry of the Agro-Industrial Complex.

Mr. Rusantsov was replaced by National Deputy Stanislav Yanko. Mr. Yanko is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for the Fuel and Energy Complex, and an "Honored Miner of Ukraine." In 1990-1994 he served as first deputy chairman of the State Committee for the Coal Industry.

Mr. Kuchma also issued several decrees on July 25 that restructure existing ministries and state committees, and completely eliminate others. According to Anatolii Halchynskyi, deputy head of the presidential administration and presidential advisor on economic policy, seven out of 27 ministries have been liquidated and three new ministries have been created, bringing the total to 23 ministries within the Ukrainian government. "This restructuring is the first step toward an administrative reform of the central bodies of executive power," he said.

On July 26 Prime Minister Pustovoitenko emphasized that one of the main tasks in restructuring the Cabinet of Ministers was to improve the government bodies responsible for economic and social policy.

The Ukrainian president eliminated the Ministry of Labor and appointed its head, Mykola Biloblotskii, as vice prime minister for social policy, and head of the newly created Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food was closed and replaced by the Ministry of the Agro-Industrial Complex. Yurii Karasyk, head of the Kherson Regional Administration, was appointed to run the new ministry. He served as minister of agriculture and food in December 1992-August 1995.

In the same decree, the Ukrainian president eliminated the State Committee for the Food Industry and the State Committee for Food, Vine-Growing and the Wine-Making Industry. In their place he created the Committee for the Food Industry and the Committee for Food, Vine-Growing and the Wine-Making Industry, which will be subordinated to the Ministry of the Agro-Industrial Complex.

The Ministry of Machine-Building, Military-Industrial Complex and Conversion, headed by Vasyl Hureiev, and the Ministry of Industry, the domain of Valerii Mazur, were liquidated and recreated into one ministry - the Ministry of Industrial Policy. President Kuchma appointed Mr. Hureiev as minister of industrial policy and Mr. Mazur as first vice minister of industrial policy.

The Ministry of Communications was closed and replaced by the State Committee for Communications. Dmytro Hudolii, minister of communications, will head the new state committee.

The Ministry of Fishing and the Fish Industry was restructured into the State Committee for Fishing and the Fish Industry. Mykola Shvedenko, who was minister of the fishing ministry, will head the new state committee.

On July 26 President Kuchma appointed Anatolii Tolstoukhov as minister of the Cabinet of Ministers. A member of the political council and the political executive council of the National Democratic Party of Ukraine (the political party of Prime Minister Pustovoitenko), Mr. Tolstoukhov served as vice minister of the Cabinet of Ministers in the previous government.

On July 29 President Kuchma re-appointed Hennadii Udovenko as minister of foreign affairs; Serhii Osyka as minister of foreign economic relations and trade; Volodymyr Semynozhenko as minister of technology; and Valerii Kalchenko as minister of emergency situations and the protection of the population against the aftereffects of the Chornobyl catastrophe.

He also created the State Committee for Developing Industry and appointed former Economics Minister Yurii Yekhanurov as its head. The Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Statistics were restructured into state committees; both Forestry Minister Valerii Samoplavsky and Statistics Minister Oleksander Osaulenko were appointed as heads of their respective state committees.

Before departing for a working vacation to Crimea on July 30, President Kuchma told reporters he had appointed Vasyl Durdynets, first vice prime minister in the previous government, as head of the National Bureau of Investigations.

Earlier in the week Prime Minister Pustovoitenko had promised that the entire Cabinet of Ministers would be appointed before the Verkhovna Rada concludes its seventh session on August 28-29.

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