Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, presiding over an emergency Cabinet of Ministers meeting on March 23, said that new laws will be passed in Ukraine that will be "complicated and hard to accept" but intended to stabilize the situation and reduce corruption.
The fight against “corruption, illegal weapons and thuggery — these are three main tasks nowadays” of Ukraine’s government, Yatsenyuks said.
He said that one of his predecessors as prime minister, Mykola Azarov, “bankrupted budget and we will take all possible steps to meet the
deadlines for social payments” including pensions and other subsidies. Azarov served from 2010 under overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych until Jan. 28, when Azarov was forced to resign. He is now living abroad and under criminal investigation on suspicion of financial crimes.
Yatsenyuk said the new government is going to introduce public accountability for the first time in the sales of state assets and in the issuance of state contracts.
“People should know about all tenders, who wins them and on what basis,” Yatsenyuk said.
He also called for stronger customs and border controls.
He also pledged a crackdown on corruption and prosecution of lawbreakers.
“The government has taken measures for our security,” Yatsenyuk said. “The Interior
Ministry will prosecute old and new officials who commit crimes. We need to
clean our authorities for the past 20 years.”
Yatsenyuk ordered ministers to take a press conference and to tell people about a plan to settle 23,000 refugees from Crimea in up to 17 oblasts of Ukraine, following the Russian government’s annexation of Crimea.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Torhan can be reached at [email protected]
