December 7 2005, 08:49

Ukraine: AgMinister accused chief vet inspector of tricking out funds from government on bird flu pretext

LIGABusinessInform agency has cited Agrarian Policy Ministry of Ukraine Olexandr Baranivsky, who said that he did not support the idea of developing vaccine against bird flu in Ukraine, because he believed that State Veterinary Inspector of Ukraine Petro Verbytsky was using this as a pretext "to improve financial position of his department".

The minister said this in an interview on Tuesday.

"When all the countries around say "there's no vaccine"…, and then someone tells me that it can be produced within 2 months, only some funds are needed… I, sort of, took this as bobbing out funds using disaster as a pretext", explained the minister.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko said on Monday that he intended to dismiss State Veterinary Inspector of Ukraine Petro Verbytsky from his position. He also expressed assuredness that top officials of veterinary service in the Crimea should be resigned as well, because at the initial stage of the infection outburst veterinary services proved unable to curb the threat and made inadmissible professional errors.