National budget for 2013 to be falsified before president signs it, says Yatseniuk
Leader of the Batkivschyna United Opposition Arseniy Yatseniuk has stated that the national budget of Ukraine for 2013 will be falsified before the president signs it.
"I'll tell you what will happen next. No one has seen the current wording of the budget. They will vote for something now and then they will be sitting for three more days, correcting and changing it. There is no doubt that they will do so," Yatseniuk told journalists on Thursday, while commenting on the passing of the draft 2013 national budget by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
He also stressed that only 11 of the 34 members of the parliamentary committee on the budget took decisions on the national budget for 2013.
"In other words, the committee's decision is incompliant with the law on the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada," he said.
The opposition politician said a crime was committed when the dismissed government filed the bill on the national budget, and the profile committee, which had no constitutional right to consider the bill and vote on it, presented a report on the document in the parliament.
Asked why the opposition did not block the vote on the bill, Yatseniuk said that no one promised to block the vote on the budget.
"The government and the president are responsible for the law on the national budget," he said.
According to Yatseniuk, the opposition political forces expressed their opinions on the document and said that it was unacceptable.
In addition, Yatseniuk said that if the opposition blocked the vote on the 2013 national budget, "[Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych would say [to the people] on the next day – you see, we wanted to pay your pensions and we wanted to pay your wages. And we also cared about you, but the opposition did not let us to pass the law on the national budget, and that's why we have to stop financing."