Against the background of the scandal with “disabled” prosecutors: MP tells about an attempt to increase the salary costs for prosecutors at a record level
Kyiv • UNN
MP Yuzhanina proposed to reduce spending on prosecutors' salaries by UAH 2.7 billion in the draft State Budget 2025. The working group supported the proposal, but its further fate is unknown.
The draft State Budget for 2025 includes an additional UAH 2.7 billion for prosecutors' salaries. This means a record increase in the prosecutor's salary fund, despite the fact that the number of prosecutors has not increased significantly, and the state budget needs to be revised as never before. The details of this situation were reported in a commentary to UNN by Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada's Finance Committee, MP.
According to her, MPs are currently working on amendments to the draft state budget for next year. And at yesterday's meeting of the working group, MP Yuzhanina made her proposals to reduce spending on prosecutorial activities.
"It was proposed to reduce expenditures on prosecutorial activities in terms of general fund salaries - 2 billion 744 million, and another item of expenditure - 172 million. That is, in fact, the salaries of prosecutors only, this is without SAPO prosecutors, were planned to be increased by 2.7 billion," explained the MP.
Yuzhanina also noted that prosecutors' salaries are steadily increasing from year to year and explained how this happens.
"The prosecutor's salary consists of several parts, the basis being, of course, the official salary. The official salary is tied to the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, the amount of this subsistence minimum is set as of January 1 of the calendar year. This is Article 7 of the State Budget.
And now (I will explain - ed.) what manipulation is taking place. In 2020, the official salary of a prosecutor of the District Prosecutor's Office was 15 subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons. Why do I use 2020? Because if you take this Article 7 of the state budget for 2020, it clearly states the subsistence level for able-bodied persons - UAH 2102. And the official salary was formed from UAH 2102 - 15 subsistence minimums. 31 thousand 530. They also have various allowances, bonuses, etc. Then, starting from January 1, 2021, the official salary consisted of 20 subsistence minimums, and from January 1, 2022 - 25 subsistence minimums. When all these increases took place, the state budget itself allocated a lower subsistence level for prosecutors and made an exception - UAH 1600, because they were catching up with this difference by raising the number of subsistence levels, and they were raising it so much that every year we had an increase in spending on the prosecutor's office. I took a few years, in 20 there were 5.7 billion for salaries, in 23 there were already 10 billion for salaries. What is happening now for 2025 is that they are adding another 2.7 billion," the MP explained.
She added that the Prosecutor General's Office had filed a request with the Ministry of Finance and the agency supported the request to return the calculations of prosecutors' salaries based on the minimum subsistence level of UAH 2,102. She noted that currently the salary of a district prosecutor is UAH 68 thousand.
According to Yuzhanina, the working group supported the proposal to reduce the prosecutors' payroll by UAH 2.7 billion. However, this happened against the backdrop of information about "disabled" prosecutors from the Khmelnytsky Prosecutor's Office.
"When I started that discussion (at the working group meeting - ed.), there were 10 minutes of silent negotiations, everyone was talking to the person sitting next to them, because everyone was in a daze about what was happening with the prosecutor's office expenses. There was some kind of manipulation, apparently no one thought that we would start to look into it. And at the moment when we were meeting, information about "disabled" prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi appeared, and everyone understood that if I put this amendment to the floor for consideration, everyone would support it, to reduce labor costs by 2.7 billion. That's why this amendment was taken into account, but it was taken into account only at the working group," said the MP.
According to her, the Prosecutor General is planning to attend the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada committee, and she does not know what the fate of the proposal to reduce spending will be.
"So far, I don't see any possibility that this proposal of the working group will survive, because it still has to be voted on by the relevant committee, then by the parliament, then sent to the government for preparation for the second reading... I understand that there is no desire to cut spending at all. For example, the possibility of awarding bonuses of 40% of the salary to judges was also prescribed, and UAH 1.5 billion was allocated for all these bonuses," Yuzhanina said.
According to the MP, she has submitted amendments to reduce various types of expenditures by more than UAH 99.6 billion. But will it be possible to achieve such a reduction? The MP is not sure, as she does not see a great desire to actually cut state budget expenditures.
Recall
The Prosecutor General has ordered an internal investigation into prosecutors in Khmelnytsky region over information about unlawful disability claims. The investigation will cover 50 prosecutors and other prosecutorial bodies.
