The Cabinet of Ministers has instructed the Finance Ministry to draft and submit to the parliament amendments to the 2008 state budget that are aimed at allocating funds for financing organization of early parliamentary elections.

The Presidential Secretariat’s first deputy head Oleksandr Shlapak announced this to journalists.

«[The Cabinet of Ministers] has proposed urgent drafting of amendments to the state budget that would resolve this issue in an appropriate manner and [instructed] the Finance Ministry to submit this document to the parliament,» Shlapak said.

Asked whether the parliament could adopt a decision on allocation of funds, Shlapak suggested that the question should be directed to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

«It is difficult for me to comment on a logic that I do not understand,» Shlapak said.

Shlapak expressed the belief that the Cabinet of Ministers has all the necessary legal grounds to allocate money for financing the early parliamentary elections from the state budget’s Reserve Fund.

Shlapak stressed that Article 24 of the Budget Code stipulates that expenditures that are not provided for during the drafting of the state budget are to be financed with money from the Reserve Fund of the state budget.

Moreover, according to Shlapak, the Law on the Cabinet of Ministers and the Constitution stipulate that presidential decrees that introduce decisions of the National Security and Defense Council must be implemented.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Cabinet of Ministers refused on October 14 to allocate money for financing the early parliamentary elections from the Reserve Fund of the state budget.

On Monday, October 13, President Viktor Yuschenko instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to allocate money for financing organization of the early parliamentary elections to the CEC by 17:00 on Monday.