Yuschenko expresses frustration over continuing conflicts with opponents (11/12/00)

Yuschenko expresses frustration over continuing conflicts with opponents

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - As conflict with political opponents continued to envelop the Ukrainian government, Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko gave an indication on November 2 that he may be reaching the saturation point.

Sounding weary and frustrated, Mr. Yuschenko rejected as politically motivated a decision of a government panel of experts that his Cabinet had presented unduly optimistic and misleading numbers on the state of the fuel and energy sector.

"I don't share the conclusions of the commission; I don't consider them sincere," said Mr. Yuschenko. He added that he would not allow politicians to destroy his Cabinet. He also inferred that he was ready to step aside if he was not allowed to work.

"I have biological limitations," said the prime minister.

The panel, headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Yevhen Marchuk, who recently has become increasingly critical of the prime minister, had determined the previous day that Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and, as such, the Yuschenko government had presented inflated figures on improvements in the energy sector during a parliamentary hearing on October 10.

President Leonid Kuchma called for the commission after the chairman of the State Tax Administration, Mykola Azarov, accused his government colleague of misrepresenting the numbers.

The political conflict began after Ms. Tymoshenko presented an optimistic financial picture of the sector to lawmakers, claiming that conditions in the fuel and energy sector recently had improved dramatically; that fuel production had risen; and that payments to the government for coal, oil and gas consumption had increased considerably over the last eight months.

Mr. Azarov quickly distributed information that questioned the vice prime minister's figures. He said that, contrary to assertions by Ms. Tymoshenko, the situation in the energy sector was reaching catastrophic dimensions.

Investigations done by the Marchuk commission, appointed the day after the controversy broke, determined that the actual numbers were closer to what Mr. Azarov had asserted.

The commission found that the budgetary currency receipts of 1.2 billion hrv from the energy sector cited by Ms. Tymoshenko actually included some 500 million hrv in promissory notes. In addition, the commission established that the Cabinet of Ministers had deflated the amount of required payments by energy firms to the government budget by half and that it had misstated the actual indebtedness of the sector by nearly 5 billion hrv.

"Government information on important indicators on the situation in the fuel and energy sector does not reflect reality," said Mr. Marchuk on November 3, as he explained that many of the figures were inflated or otherwise altered.

While Mr. Yuschenko intimated that the commission results were politicized, President Kuchma said he did not doubt the conclusions and explained that the commission consists of members of all branches of government, including members of the Yuschenko government.

"We need to throw off the desire to play political games," explained Mr. Kuchma, according to the newspaper Den. He added that the winter would reveal the real situation in the energy sector.

Over the last year Prime Minister Yuschenko has scuffled politically with several lawmakers with considerable influence and holdings in the energy sector, including Hryhorii Surkis and Oleksander Volkov over energy policy, while battling lukewarm support for his Cabinet and certain government policies on the part of Mr. Kuchma and the presidential administration. (It should be noted that Mr. Marchuk was associated with Mr. Surkis prior to his appointment to the post of security tsar.)

Business oligarchs would like to see less government oversight and control over the sector, which has become increasingly turbulent and inconsistent in assuring adequate energy supplies for Ukraine. Many political leaders, including President Kuchma, believe that Ukraine could face severe energy shortages this winter - claims that Ms. Tymoshenko, with the backing of the prime minister, has denied.

To add to Mr. Yuschenko's woes, more than 2,000 students from a coalition of student groups pelted the Cabinet of Ministers building with eggs on November 2 during a demonstration that called for the resignation of the Yuschenko government for ignoring the needs of young people and for alleged non-performance of executive orders on youth policy.

In what was one of the more gruesome protests seen in Kyiv lately, the students impaled a pig and lynched a goat in addition to covering the walls of the government building with egg. The students said the animals symbolized ministers in the now-defunct Pustovoitenko Cabinet as well as the Yuschenko Cabinet who had ignored the needs of young people.

Some political analysts in Kyiv said the students were organized by the Social Democratic Party (United), whose chairman is Viktor Medvedchuk, first vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, as well as Mr. Surkis' business partner and political ally.

Asked about the state of affairs in the Yuschenko government on November 6, Mr. Medvedchuk said he would refrain from commenting because of an agreement between the government and the legislature, which gives Mr. Yuschenko's government a one-year grace period from legislative review to enact its program. That agreement terminates in the spring.

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