The situation with the budget project for the upcoming year is, to put it mildly, peculiar: there are no plans for salary increases for teachers and doctors, yet prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials are set to receive more funding.
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SubscribeHow do officials explain this? Nina Yuzhanina, a deputy from "European Solidarity," shared her insights with Telegraf.
Nina participated in budget committee meetings and sought to understand how their faction's proposals were being received. She noted that expenses could potentially be reduced by a staggering 99 billion hryvnias. During discussions, it became evident that the budget includes a program that anticipates an increase in prosecutors' salaries by 2.7 billion hryvnias compared to this year.
The Attorney General and other senior prosecutors decided it was time to raise the minimum subsistence level on which their salaries are based.
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Who else is on the list?
Prosecutors are not the only ones set to receive salary increases. The budget plans to boost expenses for local and appellate court judges by 1.35 billion hryvnias. And that’s not all – another program will add 215 million. Altogether, this will amount to nearly 1.5 billion.
Judges of first instance courts may now receive bonuses of up to 40% of their salary each month. Apparently, due to low salaries in local courts, it's challenging to find individuals willing to work.
Law enforcement agencies are also keeping pace and attempting to align their salaries with new laws. Their payments depend on the minimum subsistence level, which is established at the beginning of the year. Each agency strives to "recover" lost amounts.
In total, it is planned to increase salary expenses for about 70 budget managers. This is linked to a reform that began in 2020 and aims to create a grading system. In other words, salaries will be higher for those who demonstrate better results in the same position.
The Ministry of Finance assures that all requests have been compiled into a single document and submitted for review. However, Nina believes that dialogue with budget managers is necessary to adjust requests and find ways to reduce expenses, rather than simply approving everything indiscriminately.
Nonetheless, it seems there is a lack of political will for this, especially from the Prime Minister, who is responsible for organizing the work of ministries.
Thus, an interesting picture emerges: funds will be directed to support those who are already well-compensated, while educators and healthcare workers remain overlooked. It will be interesting to see how this affects future debates in parliament and the public's perception of budgetary policy.
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