Yanukovych has started to act

New president of Ukraine Mr Yanukovych has started to act and first he ordered a research or better say an audit of state budget expenditures as well as disbursements from the IMF loan facility. The audit order was given to a consortium of State Prosecutor and the Accounting chamber. President also complained that exporters get their VAT on an ad hoc basis and that the prosecutor should also look into that as well as into all the state officials who do not complain to the law of Ukraine.

All this is to create pressure on Julia Tymoshenko who is still a Prime Minister and refuses to quit. Verkhovna Rada will hold a vote of no-confidence on the governmnet on March 2, which is likely to be successful. So far Tymoshenko has reacted only through convening an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet scheduled for March 1.

New president was also outraged by the tax administration's idea that the taxes could be paid by firms "voluntarily" 3 months in advance of the due date. Such a method is used by tax authority to manipulate with the cash flow to the budget in order to avoid state coffers getting sort of empty. Indeed, this method shold be avoided if Ukraine is to speak of restoring any kind of fiscal discipline.

Looks like until Tymoshenko is still in CabMin the State Prosecutor Medved'ko will be new president's de-facto both Minister of Economy and of Finance.