OREANDA-NEWS. On March 1, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine presented its project for the verification of social welfare payments and pensions. The Ministry of Finance is actively working to improve the effectiveness of the use of public funds. Following the initiative of the Ministry of Finance, the Parliament adopted amendments to the legislation in December 2015 which pave the way for the verification of all social welfare recipients.

During the presentation, the speakers told about the key objectives of the verification, its mechanisms and expected results. They also mentioned international experience in this field. "Ukraine has limited financial resources and has to use it in a really well-targeted way to support citizens who are really in need. If we use this limited resource for fake recipients, it is unfair. Our goal is not cut expenses, but to make them more effective and targeted", Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko said.

Telling about the verification mechanism, deputy Minister of Finance Roman Kachur pointed out that the Ministry of Finance will be only analyzing data from official sources to verify social welfare payments and this process will not pose any discomfort for citizens. «Cooperating with banks in the course of the verification, the Ministry of Finance will only be requesting a minimum set of data about social welfare recipients and will be treating them in a confidential way», deputy Minister of Finance Roman Kachur said.

According to the most conservative estimates of the Ministry of Finance, the verification of all social programs in 2016 only can result in saving UAH 5b of public funds. By March 10 the Ministry of Finance will be able to deliver its first recommendations to the ministries in charge on the compliance of social aid recipients, the verification process is expected to be finalized by the middle of 2016.