November 2 President Viktor Yanukovych expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of the National Action Plan for 2011 to implement the Program of Economic Reforms for 2010-2014.

"The analysis of the current state of performance of the National Target Plan for 2011 shows that many quite achievable tasks have not been implemented... Only about a half of the measures have been realized," said Viktor Yanukovych.

According to the President the situation is caused by the lack of willingness to implement reforms in the executive power. "We need to understand the reasons for this situation and immediately take appropriate steps to correct it," said.

Also, the President said, to a large extent the problem is in the inability or even unwillingness of some managers to abandon outdated methods of control, as the lack of reforms in the area of control is often convenient for corruption schemes and abuses.

"How does the society react to that? The answer is well known - the delay of important reforms reduces their support because people are waiting for real results, and hear only about the intentions,” he said, adding that this trend is a threat, because lack of support for government actions may be the reason for discrediting the very idea of modernizing the country.

Viktor Yanukovych reminded that for 2011 were identified such key priorities as ensuring fiscal and monetary stability, deregulation of business, preparing the grounds for agricultural land market introduction, continuation of privatization, energy market reform, social benefits reform, healthcare system reform.

The President also criticized the work to prepare legal framework for reforms: only 25 laws have been adopted in the framework of the National Target Plan. "But this is only a part of the legislative and organizational work that we had to do. Of the 79 bills that were to be introduced to the Parliament, only 39 have been actually brought in. That, dear colleagues, does not stand up to any scrutiny," said the President.

As a result of this criticism, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych declared that officials who cannot fulfill their duties must resign, expressed his discontent regarding the work of Health Minister Oleksandr Onishchenko and Minister for housing and communal services Anatoly Blyzniuk and at the end dismissed the governor of Lviv region Mykhailo Tsymbaliuk and the governor of Zaporizhzhya region Borys Petrov.

Premier Azarov supported criticism by the President and in his turn criticized the work of Defense Minister Mykhailo Yezhel, Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk and a number of governors.

ForUm asked politicians and experts whether the extended meeting of the Cabinet and President's angry speech was just an impetus to speed up the process or the first sign for other officials to look for a job.  

Yuri Myroshnychneko, Party of Regions MP, president's representative in the parliament:

- It depends on whether certain officials feel ready to fulfill President's Reforms Plan.

President voiced the problems, set the time to solve these problems and gave a chance to the ministers to correct their mistakes. At the end of December, after 20th I think, the President will estimate the results of their work.

He did not rule out that in case of failure a tough reaction could be expected from the President regarding negligent ministers.
 
Volodymyr Tsybulko, expert:

- To understand the meaning of the extended meeting of the Cabinet, we need to take into account such matters as fulfillment (or non-fulfillment) of the Reforms Plan, second wave of crisis and Association agreement and free trade area with the EU.

The main factor, which prevented the President from cutting off heads, is tender system over future Cabinet. 

The current composition of the Cabinet was called to strengthen the power of Yanukovych. For the moment his power is pretty strong, and the Cabinet is stalled. Apart from empty declarations the ministers are doing nothing.

Our country has not gained anything it was counting for. For example Tabachnyk (education minister - ed.) - it does not matter how much they speak about him as about some annoying factor, he is still in place. And even if he had been dismissed yesterday, it would not have satisfied anybody today. Due to the concentration of the power the only responsible person is the President.

Serhiy Taran, director of Institute of mass media:

- As a rule, similar rumors on staff rotation are being spread to make "the last Chinese warning" to officials and to speed up the work of lobbyists.

The second reason is incipient feeling of these very rotations in the society. Taking into account the current situation in the country, it is difficult to call the reforms effective. And it is not surprising that rumors on staff rotations appear among experts and very politicians. 

Volodymyr Kornilov, director of Ukrainian branch of CIS Institute:

- You understand that all these 'voluntary' resignations have taken place because the resigned received 'black marks'.

As soon as the President decides that this or that minister should leave we will hear about 'voluntary' resignation. And nobody will wait till December 20.

Gennady Moskal, Our Ukraine faction MP:

- You understand that there are officials ready to be dismissed. But there is the other side of the matter. Once Kuchma (Leonid Kuchma, former president of Ukraine - ed.) said that the bench is small. Well now Ukraine does not have the bench at all.

It's not a problem to dismiss, the problem is to appoint. We need a person which meets standards and criteria. Ukraine needs to abandon the principle of party spirit and buddies. The country must be ruled by managers and regulators.

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