Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko, an Our Ukraine party member, says he has already drafted his resignation from the cabinet.
Yuriy Pavlenko, Ukraine’s minister for family, youth and sports from the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party, has said that he has already written up his resignation from the Cabinet of pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, following Our Ukraine’s recent decision to go into opposition to the government.
According to Pavlenko, the pro-presidential party will decide whether to join forces with the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc during a party congress scheduled for Oct. 21. In an interview to the Post on Oct. 11, Pavlenko said that reports he was being investigated for misuse of state funds have not been officially confirmed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
KP: Do you support the decision of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine faction to recall its ministers from the government of Viktor Yanukovych?
YP: I certainly respect the decision of the political party Our Ukraine, especially as I am a member of the party’s political council…
KP: Have you already turned in your resignation?
YP: I’ve already written it up and given it to the leader of the faction [Roman Bezsmertny].
KP: Have you given your resignation to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych?
YP: According to the procedure, I must hand it over to the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] … The situation is dynamically changing, and it is difficult to comment on my position. But the most important thing is that a government that doesn’t share the priorities and goals of the Universal [a list of policy points signed by Viktor Yanukovych as a condition to President Viktor Yushchenko supporting his candidacy for premier] is not the right place for Our Ukraine’s ministers. The basis for the creation of the current government was the adoption of the Universal of National Unity by the main political parties. And one of its points was the creation of a Coalition of National Unity in the Verkhovna Rada [including Regions, the Socialists, the Communists and Our Ukraine]. At present, it has still not been created. And this obviously creates a range of problems for each of Our Ukraine’s ministers…
KP: Is there anything that could persuade you to stay on in the government?
YP: The creation of a Coalition of National Unity.
KP: What are you proud of having accomplished during your almost two years as family, youth and sports minister?
YP: I am still a minister, and I am still carrying out my duties. [I am proud of] those programs that I’m sure will continue being implemented, because they are integral parts of the programs of all the parties, both in the coalition and the opposition. These are issues regarding the creation of an effective system to protect children’s rights, especially orphans; and the development of physical education and sport in two ways: the development of mass sport, or the involvement of as many citizens as possible in sport and physical education; and the development of sport achievements, victories for the country in international competitions. All this is impossible without the development of the sport infrastructure, from children’s playgrounds to big sports centers…
KP: The new government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has been accused of trying to cancel the program to fund new mothers. Do you support this program, where women are given cash bonuses for their new born, even though observers say it doesn’t help?
YP: Under no circumstances should this [program] be cancelled. First of all, this is part of President Yushchenko’s program ‘Ten steps toward the people.’ It grants Hr 8,500 ($1,700) for each new born child. And secondly, it had a positive result – the birthrate increased by seven percent during the first half of 2006 [compared with January-June 2005]. The main thing is that this money preserved the health of a lot of babies in the first year of their lives.
KP: Is this seven percent the ministry’s information?
YP: This is information from the State Statistics Committee.
KP: So will the program be canceled?
YP: I believe that it won’t. There is another important fact about this program … The fact that the number of orphans increased from the end of 2005 until the present doesn’t show that there are more parents giving up their children, but that orphans are getting more attention now. Today, there are almost no children in Ukraine who have the right to orphan status but cannot get benefits. Monitoring held in the middle of 2005 demonstrated that there were violations in 90 percent of the cases of orphans, and the children who had a right to this status did not get it…
KP: There have also been negative reports about the program on the construction of new homes for young families, can you comment on this?
YP: When I became minister there were a lot of complaints about the operations of the state fund for the construction of new homes for young families. This is why it was reorganized and very seriously examined. The decree that regulates the fund’s operations was changed, there were some staff changes, and a range of new programs was started.
KP: The Prosecutor-General’s Office recently announced that you are being investigated for misuse of public funds because you attended World Cup matches in Germany, in which Ukraine’s team was playing. The Prosecutor-General’s Office said that the ministry’s officials had spent about Hr 200,000 [$40,000] on their trip, and accompanying fans consisted mostly of businessmen. What’s your response?
YP: It’s difficult to comment on this, because we have only the information that was announced in the media…
KP: But where does the case stand now?
YP: I have neither a document from the Monitoring and Inspection Administration, which was supposedly the basis for starting the criminal case, nor a letter from the Prosecutor-General’s Office. According to unofficial information, the case concerns two youth NGOs and two state enterprises under the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport.
KP: Can you recall which ones?
YP: The Ukrainian Youth Center and the Informational Resource Center. The ministry is currently holding an investigation into the affair. A commission has been created to check these and other organizations. Based on the results of the commission’s work, questions will be raised at the ministry’s collegiums. And if there are violations, there certainly will be administrative reprimands.
KP: Is this case political?
YP: I cannot rule it out that these cases have a certain political element. My suspicion is based upon the fact that since September – and it is Oct. 11 now – it’s been three weeks and we haven’t received any official information despite the fact that we’ve sent a request to the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Main Monitoring and Inspection Administration…
KP: What are the chances that Our Ukraine will join the opposition with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko?
YP: I am not ready to make any predictions right now. Regarding the future of Our Ukraine, there obviously will be decisions by the presidium and the political council [of the Our Ukraine party]. And I think that the final decision will be taken by an Our Ukraine party congress, which is scheduled for Oct. 21.
KP: Is the party split now?
YP: I do not believe in any splits in Our Ukraine, despite the fact that there have been two opinions in Our Ukraine. One group has been inclined toward work with the opposition [to the government], and the other on the formation of a grand coalition. A decision was taken despite this to keep the party united.
KP: What do you think about Ukraine’s chances to host the European Football Championship along with Poland in 2012?
YP: Our chances to host the championship remain very good. We certainly thought that we would get a final decision on Dec. 8, but during the last meeting of the UEFA executive committee, they decided to delay it until April.
KP: Why did they do that?
YP: I think it was because of the [football] corruption scandal that took place in Italy and the political crisis in Hungary [protests against premier]. I think this did not allow UEFA’s commission to conduct a complete verification and give an objective evaluation of Hungary and Croatia’s applications [to host the championship].
KP: Would hosting the championship require government spending?
YP: The budget of 2005 allocates Hr 15 million [$3 million] for all necessary activities to present Ukraine to the UEFA executive committee. This work is in progress now. We successfully passed all the stages: the first stage to shortlist three applicants and the stage to present our application in April, 2005. We received very positive reports after the special UEFA commission visit in September…
KP: Would the spending be justified in terms of expected returns?
YP: I can say that there was not a single European Football Championship, starting with the very first one, that wasn’t successful in terms of profits, both for the country and the organizers. This is a successful commercial project that brings big investment into the country. It means an upgrade of roads, airports, tourism and, of course, the sports infrastructure. It brings it up to a European level. If we take a look at the last championship, which was hosted by Portugal, we’ll see that after the European Championship, Portugal radically changed - primarily, with regard to sports facilities. This all stays in the country. And of course it all brings big profits.
This is why this is a very successful commercial project for the country. This is why countries compete so hard for it.
