According to the results of monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of Ukraine, Volyn, as of the beginning of April, ranked 25th among 27 regions in terms of the rate of repayment of wage arrears. And according to the latest month, we are in last place by this indicator. The amount of debt as of the first of April was 14 million 361 thousand hryvnias. Since the beginning of the year, the arrears have grown by four and a half million. These figures were made public by Volodymyr Kets, head of the main department of labor and social protection of the population, at a meeting in the regional state administration. He noted that it is especially worrying that debts are being accumulated at operating debtor enterprises, of which there are currently 255 in Volyn. This is the so-called current arrears, which by the beginning of last month had grown by more than 5 million 200 thousand hryvnias. According to Kets, there are no objective reasons for its growth; most likely, district leaders are not paying due attention to this problem. Evidence of the leadership's irresponsibility is the increase in debts in Kamin-Kashyrskyi, Manevytskyi and Rozhyshchenskyi districts. According to Kets, the rate of repayment of arrears is also affected by the fact that debtor enterprises do not comply with schedules for its elimination. In addition, he says that district and city "social welfare offices" are not doing enough. There are districts where "social welfare workers" have not conducted a single inspection, and in four months of 2005 only three criminal cases were opened over the fact of non-payment of wages. Therefore, in the near future the work of these organizations will be properly assessed, and this could threaten their heads with dismissal.
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Volyn ranks last in Ukraine in terms of wage growth rates