Budget authors kind to their own?

The Budget for 2011 was passed in its first reading today and is all set to be adopted.  Throughout the day members of opposition parties pointed to choice details which, if confirmed, show that national deputies are less than willing to share the brunt of cost-cutting measures.

Serhiy Shevchuk from the BYuT bloc (of Yulia Tymoshenko) reported that the funding for “sanatorium and resort complexes of the Verkhovna Rada is to increase by 12 million UAH, while for the Department for the Management of Affairs [DYC – which services the activities of the President] ] is to be increased by an incredible 34 million UAH.

According to Arseny Yatsenyuk, Leader of the Front for Change Party, medical treatment for one member of the government will cost the country as much as is allowed for 4 thousand ordinary citizens. He says that the figure is double what it was two years ago.

He also asserts that the expenditure for keeping residents and hunting grounds for high-ranking public officials has been increased by 50%.

Expenditure for key bodies of power in 2011 could be the highest in recent years. 2.44 billion UAH are to be allocated for the activities of the President, the government and Verkhovna Rada. They received more (2.52 billion) only in the pre-crisis 2007 budget.

Expenditure is particularly high for the Management of Affairs (servicing the President) with this increasing by 400 million UAH from 2010.  This increase is despite a 20% reduction in 2010 of the number of members of staff in the President’s Administration and consultative bodies.

Expenditure on the Cabinet of Ministers is the same as last year, while there is a 36 million UAH reduction in costs for parliament.

From a report at www.rus.newsru.ua