Financing of the agro-industrial complex in 2017 occurs with serious violations by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy

Submitted by bashun on Fri, 11/24/2017 - 14:04

The current budget year goes to the finish line - there is only a month before the end and summing up.

However, even now we can state that the situation with the financing of certain budget programs of the agro-industrial complex during this year was critical and requires an immediate solution.

Thus, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in response to the requests of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association of September 20, 2017 and No. 119/11 of 09.11.2017, reported that in the first half of 2017 there were no expenses for such budget programs as "Financial support for activities in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of credits", "The expenses of the Agrarian Fund are related to a complex of measures for storing, transporting, processing and exporting objects of state price regulation of the state intervention fund", "The State Treasury governmental support for the livestock sector ", "International activities in the field of fisheries.

" The lack of funding during this period, the relevant ministry explained the need to amend the relevant regulations and approval of the necessary measures to implement these budget programs. That is, money was provided for in the State Budget for 2017, but did not reach the recipients because the Ministry of Agrarian Policy did not manage to prepare the relevant subordinate legal and regulatory framework.

While the lack of funding for the "International Fisheries Activities" has justification (the adopted changes to the Plan of Measures for the Sale of Funds have been approved by the Order of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy No. 134 of March 15, 2017, on payment of the country's dues by one payment, rather than several, as before), then It remains incomprehensible to block funds in other areas that require regular funding.

In particular, the changes in the procedure for using funds under the budget program "Financial support for measures in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of credits" were made only on July 12, 2017 by Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 502, after which the Ministry of Agrarian Policy issued Order No. 391 of July 28, 2017 on the division of expenditures for this budgetary program. In turn, changes in the procedure for using funds under the budget program "State Support to the Livestock Sector" were made only in August 2017 by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 573. That is, as you can see, changes in mechanisms for using budget funds were made only at the beginning of the second half of the year that deprived proper and timely financing of important directions in the agrarian sphere for six months. Why this was not done immediately after the approval of the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2017" in December 2016 or early 2017 - a rhetorical question. It is unclear what matters for officials were more important than ensuring timely financing of the agro-industrial complex.

But, for objectivity, it is necessary to recall that the financing of these budget programs was not without procedural problems in previous years. According to the decision of the Chamber of Accounts of March 21, 2017, at the end of 2016, according to the budget program "Financial Support for Measures in the Agro-Industrial Complex through the Reduction of Credits", 5,185.7 thousand UAH of budget funds were left unused, was caused by certain shortcomings in regulatory acts regulating the use of state funds budget for these purposes and inadequate state of internal control by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy as the main administrator of funds.

In 2015, the balance of unused funds for this budget program was 9,353.5 thousand UAH for the same reasons as in 2016; as well as for the inadequate state of internal control on the part of the managers of lower-level funds, that is, structural subdivisions of regional state administrations. Despite the fact that only 20% of the planned amount of funds (61 268, 2 thousand UAH) was allocated for this budget program for 9 months, it can be predicted that in 2017 will not be an exception, and under this program there will be unused funds.

In turn, in accordance with the decision of the Accounting Chamber, the amount of unused state appropriations for the budget program "State Support to the Livestock Sector" in 2015 amounted to 209 million 415, 2 thousand UAH. And the problem was the untimely approval of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of the regulations on the commission and the samples and forms of the relevant documents.
So, you can be sure that the financing of the above-mentioned budget programs over the past few years is taking place with systematic violations by the chief administrator - the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, which leads to non-use of funds at the end of the budget period (current 2017 may not be an exception). According to Iryna Palamar, the head of the USBA, the Ministry should immediately change the approach to financing these budget programs, as they are very important for the domestic agricultural sector, and their non-use leads to complicating the justification of the budget request for agrarians for the next year.

Another procedural problem in the budgetary activity of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is the later approval of budgetary programs. As of November 14, 2017, the passports of the programs for KPVK 2801250 have not yet been approved. "The expenses of the Agrarian Fund are related to a complex of measures for storing, transporting, processing and exporting objects of state price regulation of the state intervention fund" and at KPVK 2804070 "Breeding in fisheries and reproduction of aquatic biological resources in inland waters and the Azov-Black Sea basin ". The Ministry of Agrarian Policy assures that the passports will be developed and submitted to the Ministry of Finance for their subsequent approval after approval of the necessary measures, in particular the adoption of certain regulatory documents governing the use of funds under these programs, at the level of the Cabinet and the Ministry itself. Despite the fact that the budget year is already coming to an end, in this case there is a violation of the 45-day time limit for the adoption of passports (from the date of the entry into force of the Law on the State Budget) approved in the Order of the Ministry of Finance "On Passports of Budget Programs" No. 1098 .

Passports for the rest of the programs are officially accepted, but most of them were approved with a significant delay, for example, passports for 2017 under the budget programs for KPKVK 2809020 "anti-epizootic activities and participation in the International Epizootic Bureau" and KPKVK 2801580 "Financial Support for Agricultural Producers" were officially approved by orders of the Ministry only in April 2017.

Another 3 passports of budget programs were approved only in March this year.
Responsible for such violations are directly the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the Ministry of Finance, because under the law they should guarantee the timely preparation and adoption of passports of budget programs. These state bodies should seriously take up the solution of these problems and take appropriate steps to eliminate the phenomenon of untimely adoption of passports of budget programs in the future. Perhaps this is a kind of "saving" of public funds, and then allows you to report on the positive budget indicators? Otherwise, state funds should be under-invested, apparently, from the pockets of officials who did not provide timely and legally correct implementation of programs in the agricultural sector.

If we consider what part of the funds have already been realized for the most part of the outgoing, it can be seen that some budgetary financing programs are progressing very sluggishly. So, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association on the request of No. 119/11 on 09.11.2017, for 9 months of 2017 only 11% of the planned funds were allocated for the budget program "Financial Support to Agricultural Producers". Some of the other programs were allocated about 20% of the figure in the current State Budget for 9 months.

These include, in particular, "Financial support for measures in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of credits" (20%), "Improving the skills of specialists in the agro-industrial complex" (22%), "Elimination and environmental rehabilitation of the territory affected by mining operations of the state enterprise "Solotvynskyi Solerudnyk"  of Tiachivskyi region "(23%). During this period, only half of the funds were allocated to the budget programs "General management and management in the agro-industrial complex" (47%), "Research, applied development and training of scientific personnel in the field of forestry" (46%), "Forestry and hunting farms, protection and protection of forests in the forest fund "(50%).

Commenting on the general situation of the budgetary process in the agrarian complex of 2017, the chairman of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association, Iryna Palamar, summed up: "Financing of budget programs in the agro-industrial sector in 2017 occurs with serious administrative violations and shortcomings, namely: later amendments to regulatory acts, regulate the procedure for using funds under budget programs, which entails a lack of funding for a long period of time, as well as the lack of adopted passports for some budget programs at the end of the budget year, is an unacceptable violation of the budget process. The current problems with financing are not a unique phenomenon, but a negative trend from year to year, which leads to inefficient financing of the agro-industrial complex as a whole. "
 

English

Read more