In terms of the rate of repayment of wage arrears, Volyn has made it into the top three oblasts that are doing this the fastest. Only Chernivtsi and Rivne oblasts are ahead of us. More than 8 thousand Volyn residents did not receive their earned money, to whom a total of 5.5 million hryvnias was owed. Last year this figure was actually twice as large. On the "black" list of debtors is Novovolynsk with two and a half million unpaid, and Lutsk, where, as before, labor inspectors have complaints mainly against housing and communal enterprises. However, there are many positive developments, claims Nataliia Safonova, head of the territorial state labor inspection. One of them is that the state has fully settled with the miners. Wage arrears are being repaid best in Manevytskyi, Turiiskyi, Kamin-Kashyrskyi, Kivertsivskyi, Horokhivskyi, Ivanychivskyi and Lutskyi raions. But in Volodymyr-Volynskyi and Kovelskyi, during the first month of 2005, wage debts managed to increase. In total, based on the facts of non-payment of wages, the Volyn prosecutor's office has opened 27 criminal cases.