The Party of the Regions intends to reduce the size of the civil service if it participates in the formation of the next Cabinet of Ministers.
Parliamentary Deputy Mykola Azarov of the Party of the Regions faction announced this on the Velyka Politika program on the Inter television channel on February 19.
"Definitely… Do you know by how many people the size of our civil service increased in 2009? By 12,000 people," Azarov said.
In particular, he expressed the opinion that there are too many deputy ministers and that the optimum number of deputy prime ministers should be 4-5.
Azarov also said that expenditures on official trips would be reduced.
"Not ten of our bureaucrats will fly … to Washington to resolve trivial issues. Either they will not fly at all or only one person will fly. Economy class," Azarov said.
He expressed indignation at information indicating that UAH 568 million was spent on media coverage of government activities in 2009.
He described such expenditures as unacceptable.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Parliamentary Deputy Arsenii Yatseniuk of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense bloc has said that the task of the next president of Ukraine is to reduce the expenditures on the civil service.
Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn called for reduction of the wages of civil servants to 4-5 minimum wages in January 2009.
