Sokolov "leaked" Bikalyuk's bill on the approval of deputy chairmen and ministers

      Today at a meeting of the committee of the Legislative Assembly, deputy Albert Bikalyuk presented his bill amending the Charter of Kirov Oblast. He proposed adopting it in two readings.

      The document proposes that the Legislative Assembly be able to approve candidates for deputy chairmen and the first deputy chairman of the government, as well as all ministers, and to express confidence in or distrust of any of them. Recall that currently deputy chairmen and ministers are merely presented to the deputies (and not always).

      Member and committee chairman Vladimir Ponaryev supported the initiative. He noted that ministers in the government often change—new ones are appointed to replace the old—yet no one presents them to the deputies and no one expresses a desire to get to know them. As a result, deputies have to go and introduce themselves. And, all the more so, deputies cannot assess the work of the newly appointed officials.

      However, these arguments proved insufficient. Ponaryev said that the bill was supported by the prosecutor’s office, the Ministry of Justice and the Public Chamber, but the governor opposed it. This likely affected the outcome of the vote: two people voted against adopting the bill, two more abstained. And those in favor were not enough to pass it.

      Interestingly, immediately after this initiative another—very similar—one was considered. A group of eight deputies, including Aleksey Potapenko, also proposed amendments to the Charter. They call for granting the Legislative Assembly the right to approve candidates for deputy chairmen of the government and for the commissioners for human rights and for children’s rights.

      Bikalyuk was outraged that his bill had been stalled in the Legislative Assembly for six months, and then suddenly a group of people appeared doing roughly the same thing. In any case, the governor supported the second bill. During the vote, a majority of those present voted in favor.