Treasury makes payments, but only justified expenses financed – Finance minister

The State Treasury Service is making payments, but only justified expenses are financed, taking into account the intended purpose, the financial situation is controlled, said Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.

"I emphasize that the financial situation is controlled and does not cause concern. The Treasury makes payments. But only justified expenses (taking into account the intended purpose) are financed after the corresponding payments are received," Marchenko said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, responding to the question of the situation with the financing of state budget expenditures.

"Every time at the end of the year, the managers of budgetary funds try to accelerate the use of the accumulated funds. This vicious practice has been dragging on for years and it is high time to abandon it," he explained.

According to the minister, the main managers of budgetary funds must observe strict financial discipline throughout the year, but they cannot cope with this task.

"It is necessary to plan expenses more efficiently and rationally use the allocated budget funds," the head of the Ministry of Finance added.

He noted that as of December 1, in the general fund of the state budget, the administrators and recipients of funds did not fulfill the planned indicators for January-November in terms of expenditures in the amount of UAH 101.0 billion. Last year, this figure was UAH 68.4 billion.

"At the same time, the Ministry of Finance will not allow anyone to waste budget funds thoughtlessly," said Marchenko.

"Over the past few months, budget holders have made changes to the list (redistributed costs and made transfers between programs) for a total of more than UAH 8 billion," the minister said.

At the same time, he recalled that at the beginning of December, there was UAH 19.8 billion on the Single Treasury Account.

"According to the treasury account: as of December 1, 2020, there is money on the Single Treasury Account. This is about UAH 19.8 billion. For example, in 2018 on the same date there was UAH 17.2 billion, in 2016 – UAH 27.6 billion," Marchenko said.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua