The regional prosecutor's office has filed a protest against the decision of the executive committee of the Lutsk City Council regarding the provision of new apartments to deputy heads of the regional state administration Volodymyr Panchyshyn and Halyna Yakymchuk as highly qualified specialists transferred to work in another region. By such a decision, the city council merely approved a previously adopted joint decision of the trade union committee of the regional state administration and the Volyn Regional State Administration on providing apartments at the expense of budget funds to officials of the highest executive body of power in Volyn. As stated in the response of the Volyn prosecutor's office to the appeal of people's deputy Serhiy Slabenko, such decisions of the regional authorities are illegal, since the results of the prosecutor's investigation established that family members of the deputy heads of the regional state administration who claimed living space in Lutsk do not need improvement of housing conditions, since they have housing in other cities and do not live together with the said persons. Thus, the issuance of warrants for obtaining housing by the deputy heads of the regional state administration occurred in violation of current housing legislation. Meanwhile, according to the decision of the standing commission on architecture, housing and communal services and everyday life of the regional council, proposals were made regarding priority financing of social and cultural facilities and housing in November-December 2002. The actual volumes of financing approved by the order of the head of the regional state administration as investment intentions differ significantly from those proposed by the commission, however, current legislation does not establish criteria for the effectiveness of the use of budget funds. As long as such a practice of purchasing housing at budget expense — new extremely costly housing for officials of the highest rank — exists, the criteria for the effectiveness of spending budget funds will remain undefined. It is primarily the authorities that are interested in this wastefulness, believes Serhiy Slabenko.