Gov't Pay Raised Ahead Of Elections

KIEV, Ukraine -- In what looks like a populist move to win votes, Ukraine’s government raised salaries for many state employees by about 30 percent on March 9, three weeks before the heated March 26 parliamentary elections.


The resolution, signed on March 9, goes into effect retroactively, starting Jan. 1 of this year. It affects hundreds of thousands of state employees: advisors and low-level staff at the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet employees, officials at regional and district administrations, and staff at prosecutors offices and the tax administration.

Few would disagree that cash-strapped state employees deserve salary hikes. Their current salaries are often as low as $150-300 per month.

Appearing on Ukrainian television channel 1+1 late on March 21, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said that the salary hikes are part of a strategy to reduce corruption within the echelons of Ukraine's government.

"This is one of the elements in fighting corruption," he said, referring to larger salaries as a method of removing the motivation behind the taking of bribes and kickbacks within the halls of government.

Now, the salaries of senior-level officials at the Presidential Secretariat stand at almost Hr 2,400 ($475). A deputy chief of staff at the Kyiv City Administration will be getting just under Hr 1,800 ($350), far below the income of many Kyiv residents. In comparison, computer programmers and bartenders at popular Kyiv venues can earn monthly incomes in the $300 range. However, they often do not declare their income in full to tax authorities, if at all.

Questionable timing

While most agree that such pay raises are due, many are questioning the timing of the resolution, suggesting that the announcement was made weeks ahead of the parliamentary elections in order to win votes for the Our Ukraine bloc, loyal to President Viktor Yushchenko. Prime Minister Yekhanurov and many top officials in the government are members of the bloc.

A senior government official tried on March 17 to calm concerns that the raises were politically motivated. The salary hike was envisioned in this year’s budget, said Bohdan Butsa, chief of staff of the Cabinet.

Since taking office in January 2005, the Yushchenko administration has managed to boost budget revenues 64 percent by encouraging big businesses to pay more of their fair share of taxes.

But a senior governmental advisor who was contacted by the Post described the timing of the raise as “pure populism.” Salaries could have been increased earlier, he said.

Political analyst Volodymyr Polokhalo, a member of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Byut bloc, said the resolution was clearly postponed closer to the election to win support for Our Ukraine.

“Abuse of administrative resources has not died out,” he said, referring to widely reported abuse of office by Yushchenko’s predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.

The Our Ukraine-controlled government made a conscious decision regarding the timing of the raise, he added.

While the state employees affected account for less than 1 percent of the electorate, winning their votes is important, considering that Tymoshenko’s Byut bloc is in a dead heat battling Our Ukraine for similar sectors of the electorate. Each bloc has about 20 percent voter support. Viktor Yanukovych’s Regions of Ukraine bloc has about 30 percent voter support, according to recent polls.

Polokhalo compared the move to the much-criticized pension hikes adopted by Yanukovych just ahead of the fall 2004 presidential elections, when he was a presidential candidate serving as Prime Minister.

“It’s a standard method used in Ukraine to encourage loyalty within the state apparatus,” said political analyst Mykhailo Pohrebinsky. “It’s not much different from what was done under [former Ukrainian President Leonid] Kuchma.”

Source: Kyiv Post