President Liquidates State Committee on Nationalities and Religions

On Thursday the presidential press service published Decree 1085/2010 of the President of Ukraine "On Optimization of the System of Central Bodies of Executive Power." According to the report, the decree was issued in order to optimize the system of the central bodies of the executive power, eliminate duplication of their powers, ensure reduction of the number of administrative personnel and costs of upkeep thereof, increase efficiency of state government in accordance to Paragraph 15 of Part 1 of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine.  

In total, 6 types of the central bodies of executive power have been defined: Ministry, Service, Inspectorate, Agency, independent regulators, and bodies with a special status. The 112 bodies of the central executive power have been reorganized into 63, including 16 ministries, 28 services, 13 agencies, and 7 inspectorates.

The "liquidation" part of the presidential decree lists the following institutions:

-- State Committee of Ukraine on Industrial Security, Labor Protection and Mining Control, the functions of which have been given to the State Service of Mining Control and Industrial Security of Ukraine and the State Inspectorate of Technological Security of Ukraine;

-- Supreme Certifying Commission of Ukraine, the functions of which have been given to the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports;

-- Ukrainian Institute of National Memory;

-- State Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship;

-- State Committee of Ukraine on Nationalities and Religions.

The power to implement government policy on religion was passed to the restructured Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. International relations and the protection of national minorities in Ukraine also came under the jurisdiction of this ministry.