Government budget, parliamentary oversight over the executive branch, and decentralization reform: weekly agenda of the Verkhovna Rada

02 November 2020
Government budget, parliamentary oversight over the executive branch, and decentralization reform: weekly agenda of the Verkhovna Rada
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Government budget, parliamentary oversight over the executive branch, and decentralization reform: weekly agenda of the Verkhovna Rada

During the first plenary week after the local elections, MPs plan to make several important decisions. A draft bill on restarting the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is not on the parliamentary agenda yet. Today in our digest: government budget-2021, parliamentary oversight over government institutions, and new proceedings in the decentralization reform.

Government budget-2021 (4000)

Status: first reading. The Cabinet and MPs can still submit amendments.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, business, government bodies, local government, doctors, teachers, and servicemen.

What does it change:

  • government budget-2021 draft project could be adopted in the first reading, the Cabinet will receive recommendations on how to amend the budget project
  • expected government budget-2021 revenue is ₴1.071 trillion, expected expenditures are ₴1.330 trillion. Thus, the budget deficit will be over ₴250 billion.

Why this is important: government budget projects are the most important documents that the Verkhovna Rada ever adopts. Budget projects define priorities in each state policy for a year. Timely adoption of the budget is important for the proper functioning of all state institutions.

What is wrong: according to the Budget Code, the draft budget project should have been adopted before October 20, 2020.

What’s next: the budget project has to be adopted in the second reading before November 20 and finalized before December 1.

Hearing date: Thursday, November 5.

Parliamentary oversight over the executive branch (4131)

Status: first reading. MPs can still submit amendments.

Who is affected: government bodies, the Cabinet, MPs, Ukrainian citizens, and business.

What does it change:

  • the bill introduces a procedure on how the parliament considers reports from the heads of the Security Service, the National Bank, the Anti-Monopoly Committee, the Accounting Chamber, the State Border Guard Service, the State Property Fund, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the SBI director, and the heads of other state institutions and officials
  • the bill defines the requirements for government action programs, the role of parliamentary committees in considering these programs, and deadlines for program implementation reports.

What is right: one of the key functions of the government in democratic countries is oversight over the Cabinet and other executive bodies. The high-quality parliamentary oversight enhances the government’s performance.

Hearing date: Thursday, November 5.

Decentralization reform continues (3651-d)

Statusfirst reading. MPs can still submit amendments.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, local governments’ and state administrations’ employees and leaders, the Cabinet.

What does it change: to implement the decentralization reform, the bill introduces a procedure of creating and dissolving raion state administrations and local governments.

What is wrong:

  • the bill should have been adopted much earlier: either when the decision to amalgamate raions was made or, at least, at some point before the local elections
  • the main scientific and expert department of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada has found a number of flaws in the bill:
  • there is no provision on how functions and tasks of the dissolved bodies will be passed to the newly-created bodies
  • to make the reform implementation easier, the law on the administrative and territorial structure should be adopted before the bill in question
  • the bill does not address land legislation.

Hearing date: Tuesday, November 3.

On Friday, MPs plan to consider draft bills on languages in education (3077 and 3077-1). For more details, please check our previous digest.