Mykola Tomenko: Today´s Voting has finally set the Price of the Deputies who changed their Oppositional Status for Support of the President
Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, commented upon the positive parliamentary voting for allocating budgetary funds for the newly-established State Agency for National Projects Management (Ukrnatsproekt).
Mykola Tomenko reminded that both the President and the Prime Minister had repeatedly called for reducing the number of officials. "Nevertheless, today the Parliament established another public institution, supported financially by UAH 25 million out of the budget," he declared.
He stated that the State Agency would be headed by two People´s Deputies "who have recently changed their political preferences." The Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also informed that two months of activity of the newly-established institution would cost UAH 24,7 million (UAH 4,7 million to support the activity of the Agency secretariat; UAH 20,0 million to support development of the technical-financial justification of the national projects and their promotion). "Thus, the cost of changing one´s political position in the parliament is the following: divide 25 million by two People´s Deputies and you will get the price of a deputy who changed his political preferences," M.Tomenko stated.
The Deputy Chairman stressed that establishment of another public institution was unreasonable, as the respective departments under the ministries and non-governmental organizations could study and submit proposals on the investment projects.
"Is it really necessary to establish a new ministry and allocate 25 million to support it just because several deputies changed their political preferences?" the politician asked.
For reference: Vladyslav Kaskiv, People´s Deputy from Our Ukraine-People´s Self-Defence Faction, heads the State Agency for National Projects Management (Ukrnatsproekt), while Oleh Malich, People´s Deputy from the BYuT Faction (expelled from the Faction) leads ‘a national project "Air Express."