Yatseniuk obliges heads of local authorities to pay wage arrears

Wage arrears in the regions exceed UAH 53 million, and the government reprimanded 34 heads of district administrations, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.

Opening a cabinet meeting on Wednesday he said that information that there are wage arrears in some regions and districts arrives.

"This is the debt not from the national budget. This is the debt that was to be paid from local budgets… and local budgets have money, if the district does not have, the regional budget has. Why additional revenue in the form of 40% are billions of hryvnias which local budgets received in the past nine months are not distributed between those districts that require aid and why the debt is not paid?" he said.

The premier said that the total debt today is UAH 53.4 million.

"This is a small sum, but this is not the figure, but attitude to people," he said.

Yatseniuk said that the government has taken measures towards those heads of local authorities who did not pay wage arrears.

"The largest debt is in Chernivtsi and Sumy regions," he said.