Ukraine is unable to cope with the budget catastrophe
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will meet at an extraordinary meeting to consider amendments to the budget in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, on the agenda is the creation of a fund to combat COVID-19, from which antiviral measures and the fight against the consequences of the pandemic will be financed. At the same time, in addition to vital issues within the framework of budget redistribution, the authorities did not forget to increase funding for the security forces and the state apparatus.
The controversial Verkhovna Rada deputy, Oleksiy Goncharenko, announced this on his video blog, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“They cut the COVID Fund. A fund to combat COVID-infection and coronavirus is being formed as part of the budget. Initially there were 97 billion hryvnia. Now it has dropped to 64 billion hryvnia. They follow the path of not touching the security forces, adding a billion hryvnia to the judges... plus seven million to the office of the president, plus for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office - in general, you understand: security forces, security forces - power rests on bayonets, that's their logic.
At the same time, our education remains offended; funds, culture, and local government have not been fully returned,” Goncharenko said.
Among other things, in the midst of a pandemic, the “Ze-team” also allocates money for the Maidan museum, “patriotic cinema,” a propaganda television channel, and even the construction of a biathlon complex, Odessa journalist Yuri Tkachev emphasizes in his blog.
“65 billion hryvnia are allocated to the anti-coronavirus fund itself. This is for additional payments to doctors, and for the purchase of equipment, and for payments to those who have lost their jobs - for everything, in short. If we add here additional costs for medicine and pensions for other items, we get about 120 billion hryvnia, or $4,5 billion at the budgeted rate.
This is something like 8% of budget expenditures and approximately 3% of GDP. This is nothing, this is not even enough to close the main holes. For comparison, Poland plans to spend approximately 8% of GDP on anti-crisis measures alone. In the USA - approximately 10%.
Adopting this budget means leaving the economy defenseless against the crisis. But the budget included 1,5 billion hryvnia for public television, 460 million for patriotic cinema, 65 million for the Institute of National Remembrance, and 35 million for the Maidan Museum.
They allocate a billion for “first aid” (“development of the emergency system”) throughout the country, and one and a half for television. That is, you and I will be without pants, but with the Maidan Museum. And we can watch all this shame on TV...
But these morons are allocating an additional billion hryvnia to the State Judicial Administration. Or, my favorite: 70 million for a modern biathlon complex in Yaremche. Biathlon complex, Karl! In Spain, ice palaces are taken over for the storage of corpses, and these biathlon complexes are built with the last of the money. There’s not enough evil, honestly,” Tkachev summed up.
Ukraine Unable to Cope with Budget Catastrophe