Yushchenko is trying to build a "vertical of power"

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko intends to deprive the Cabinet of Ministers of Control of local administrations, reports Newsru.ua . In his secretariat, amendments are prepared for three current laws governing the activities of local authorities. These are the laws "On local state administrations", "On local self -government" and "On the Cabinet of Ministers". It is assumed that Viktor Yushchenko will present the projects of these amendments on Wednesday September 19 during a meeting with the heads of local state administrations entitled "strong and responsible local power - a powerful state."

Early elections of the new parliament are scheduled for September 30. The president, reports sources in his secretariat, intends to submit to the discussion of the new Verkhovna Rada these amendments even before the approval of the new Prime Minister. If the consent of the deputies cannot be achieved immediately, Viktor Yushchenko will delay the procedure for approving the head of government.

The presidential side wants to change the procedure for appointing heads of regional and district state administrations - this will actually negate the role of the Cabinet of Ministers in the selection, coordination and appointment of candidates for these posts. The conflict between the President and the Cabinet of Ministers regarding their powers on the appointment and dismissal of governors was marked last year. Now the president’s exclusive right to pursue a personnel policy in the regions, the Yushchenko administration wants to be fixed by law.

According to the current legislation, the heads of local state administrations are appointed and dismissed by the President on the proposal of the government. In the exercise of their powers, they are responsible to the president and the government, accountable and controlled by the executive authorities of the highest level.

Recall that after the president replaced the governors of the Chernihiv and Nikolaev regions on July 10, Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov in the morning of the next day stated that the head of state had violated the law, performing personnel permutations without agreement with the government.

The Party of Regions, the head of which Viktor Yanukovych heads the government, insists that the governors should remain in strict subordination of the Cabinet of Ministers. In addition, they urge the direct elections of the governors so that they are "not appointed somewhere in Kyiv."

The changes proposed by the President should affect the role of local councils. According to Art. 43 of the Law "On Local Self -Government", Art. 9 "On Law" On Local State Administrations "and Clause 10, Article 118 of the Constitution, the President must dismiss the heads of state administrations that have received a vote of distrust of local deputies. Presidential amendments will have to limit the right of deputies to make no confidence to the governors and heads of districts. The powers to fulfill the budgets and programs of the socio-economic development of the region will also be fixed for administrations, having selected them from them, selecting them from selecting them tips.

Governors, in turn, support this initiative, noting that joint work with local councils is difficult - the executive authorities have no mechanisms for the deputies who do not respond to their appeals.

According to the newspaper Kommersant-Ukraine , Yushchenko puts forward these initiatives, because I am already sure that the Bloc “Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense” will not be able to take leading positions in parliament and thereby form a new government. The head of the bloc, Yuri Lutsenko, said: "I hesitated for a long time between Alexander Moroz's ideas about parliamentarism and the ideas of Viktor Yushchenko about the smart strengthening of the presidential vertical and now I am inclined to the second. The president must have a vertical that will be balanced by party interest in tips of all levels."