A budget, a scandal, and a tarnished reputation: this is what Ukraine received in one blow after the ambassadors of the US and Canada in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian regional officers of the World Bank and the EBRD, signed an appeal to the President of Ukraine, in which they expressed concern over Leonid Kuchma’s alleged decision to discontinue the reform of internal budgetary relationships, which, along with other actions, created an impression of a possible departure from the reform program approved by the Ukrainian government and parliament. Hence the appeal’s authors strongly advised pressing for budgetary reforms. The letter of appeal, long the subject of rumors in the Kyiv corridors of power, was made public by the newspaper Fakty on September 29, as was the letter from the President to the premier, in which Mr. Kuchma claims that the complaints expressed in the ambassadorial letter are difficult to understand and accept, because, first, the 2001 draft budget has not yet been submitted to the President; secondly, no decisions have been made in this connection; and, third, it is the word of Verkhovna Rada that finally counts in the budget matters. The President is unaware of “any other measures taken over the past few weeks,” which the ambassadors think testify to a departure from reforms.
This might possibly have caused an international scandal. This would at the same time have been a serious domestic scandal because, no matter what kind of differences exist between the President, the government, and parliament, no foreign interference seems to be required to settle them. Otherwise, this could create the impression that Ukraine is really a unique kind of banana republic exclusively manipulated by Washington and Ottawa. But those who unequivocally support the Yushchenko government have found themselves in a most delicate situation.
Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko tried to find a simple way out of the situation: he stated that the US and Canadian ambassadors, as well as the World Bank and European Bank representatives had no cause to speak about Ukraine folding up its budgetary reform. Interfax-Ukraine quotes Mr. Yushchenko as saying the appeal authors were a bit misinformed (by whom? — Ed.) about the course of the budget process. According to Mr. Yushchenko, he instructed then Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk and Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov to meet the diplomatic corps and explain to them the real state of affairs. Moreover, Mr. Tarasiuk was ordered to voice a protest to the letter’s authors over interference in the state’s internal affairs.
Mr. Mitiukov met on September 29 the G7 ambassadors and Gregory Jedrzejczak, chief of the World Bank country office in Ukraine, and asked them “to give accurate information about the state of affairs in Ukraine.” For, as Mr. Mitiukov said, he felt at the annual meeting of the finance ministers of IMF member states that these ministers “were misinformed about the efforts the President and the government are making to carry out reforms.” The ambassadors were told they are free to turn to the Ministry of Finance for all information on the budget debates. On the same day Borys Tarasiuk made a protest against the violation of the Ukrainian national interests to the ambassadors of Canada and the US and to the representatives of the World Bank and EBRD in Kyiv.
None of those who signed the appeal have made any comment as yet.
