Tiraspol, 30 June. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The criticism of the government by the Supreme Council was the main topic of today's new conference held by government members.
The day before the parliament had heard the report on the government's activity in 2015 and assessed it as unsatisfactory.
«It is an unprecedented situation for our republic — one branch of power, legislative in this case, evaluates the work of another, executive," said the head of the government, Pavel Prokudin, during the news conference.
The prime minister underscored in this respect that the constitution did not stipulate the supremacy of one branch of power over another, which is why it was «at least inappropriate» to blame the government only for 2015 problems.
«The system of checks and balances where someone is correct and more equal, and someone is constantly to blame," he told journalists.
The prime minister maintained that the Supreme Council was equally responsible for the processes that took place last year.
According to him, the main reproach the parliament expresses towards the government was an economic decline and 30% underfunding of wages and pensions.
Prokudin admitted that the decision about the 30% underfunding had been painful for the republic, although in that situation the state in fact had no choice. He underscored that had all budget funds been allocated for the payment of wages and pensions, the state couldn't have maintained social facilities and the army, couldn't have purchased medications and food.
The prime minister also reminded journalists that in 2015 the economies of most countries had shrunk, and Pridnestrovie was closely integrated into the global trade. Therefore, a decline in trade turnover had been caused by objective factors.
«The world economy shrank. It was a global decline. We are not a state separated from the rest of the world. We are experiencing twice as many problems during economic recessions. We cannot borrow funds form international financial institutions," said Prokudin.
In the meantime, the situation got even more aggravated in 2015 because of Ukraine's unfriendly stance, and the state had to prepare for worse scenarios.
«When Poroshenko says that the Moldo-Pridnestrovian conflict should be defrosted, the government of any country will launch a mobilisation plan and create food and POL reserves, etc. But how to create these reserves? Through funds," said the prime minister.
Pavel Prokudin is sure that the Supreme Council's arguments about the inefficient work by the government are biased because the indebtedness to public sector workers and pensioners was finally cleared off and the government prevented the development of the recession.
«The government does not agree with the Supreme Council's arguments: pensions were repaid last year and wages arrears in May 2016. While the social payments were underfunded, many [private] enterprises cut wages. They have not returned this money to their workers," noted Prokudin.
As for the accusations against the government of having unfunded the payments for public sector employees and pensioners, whereas «the funds were in fact available», the prime minister said one more time that the money for purchasing medical equipment, repairs of schools and construction of kindergartens had been allocated by the country's main ally (Russia, ed.).
«There was target money allocated by our friends. Off-budget funds. It was said: this was for the construction of a kindergarten, for supplying medical equipment and so on," said Prokudin.
He expressed confidence that in the pre-election year of 2015 the government and president would not have made unpopular decisions had they financial means to avoid the consequences of the crisis.
«The politician cares about the next elections and the state acres about the next generations," Prokudin believes.
