Ukrainian president's team preparing govt cuts

16:59, 17.07.2019 1 min read

The team of Volodymyr Zelensky is working on a proposal to reduce the number of government members, including "deputy prime ministers without portfolios," deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Ruslan Riaboshapka, said.

"This involves not only cutting government staff, reducing the number of so-called deputy prime ministers without portfolios who do not lead any ministry. It will also involve cuts within the central executive authorities that are not ministries but are within the ministerial sphere of influence or control. Work is ongoing, I cannot provide any more details so far," Riaboshapka said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The much-needed administrative reform counteracts the principle of creating an entire government agency around a particular individual, he said.

"On the contrary: if there are any government functions, we need to look at what central executive authorities could take over such functions," Riaboshapka said.