The Verkhovna Rada should have more extensive functions of control over the executive branch of power. Such an opinion was expressed by the Head of Kyiv city organization of the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots – UKROP” party, chairman of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Fund Bohdan Yaremenko in the program “Information Day” on the air of 5th Channel. According to him, for this purpose, amendments to the Constitution should be made and the electoral system should also be improved. And now due to the lack of proper levers of control over the government’s activities, Ukraine has many problems related to corruption and distrust of the authorities.
“Today, we have a problem with a current Constitution not only on this issue, but also on the issues of forming the government. In Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers is not a team of like-minded people, because some of the ministers represent a coalition, some of them – the president. The Cabinet of Ministers should be responsible for the situation in the country. And when two ministers – of foreign affairs and defense – are presented by a guarantor of the Constitution, who does not have executive powers and does not manage the budgetary funds, what can we say about it?” noted Bohdan Yaremenko, adding that the Verkhovna Rada should also get levers of control, in particular over the foreign policy.
The representative of UKROP has also emphasized that the current Basic Law does not correspond to the principles of the parliamentary-presidential republic. In particular, the powers of the president included therein contradict the principles of parliamentarism, which should be attained by Ukraine in order to solve a number of domestic political problems and take the path of development.
“The president should be deprived of any executive functions – they should be given only to the government. The head of state may perform representative functions, functions of “arbiter”, and appoint early elections. In general, he should have rather limited powers. Today, under the Constitution, the president not only represents Ukraine in international relations, but also governs foreign policy. This is absurd for the parliamentary-presidential republic,” stressed Bohdan Yaremenko.
