November 21, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has introduced the new head of Cherkasy Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Velbivets, who previously chaired the local regional council.
Poroshenko stressed that Velbivets is well known in his region. 'I didn’t want to appoint anyone from the top. And Oleksandr Velbivets is a local man,' he underlined.
The president added that for three years, Velbivets have been serving as chairman of the Cherkasy Regional Council. “I think that he has a public support. And president’s choice of the person who would head Cherkasy Regional State Administration is correct if only you support this choice. Do you approve?”, Poroshenko said. Representatives of the regional state body applauded in response, thus saying they supported president’s decision.
Who is Olexandr Velbivets?
Olexandr Velbivets was born on April 21, 1976, Lysyanka, Cherkasy region.
He has several degrees; he graduated from the Ukrainian Transport University (mechanical engineering), Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine (public administration).
He has started his first public service in 2005. Then he was appointed first deputy chairman of Lysyansky district state administration.
A year later, he was elected head of Lysyansky local council (March 2006 – July 2010).
There is no information about the next three years of his official biography.
In April 2014, he headed Lysyansky regional administration (Cherkasy region). A year later, he was elected a deputy of Cherkasy Regional Council on the party’s lists of Petro Poroshenko’s Solidarity bloc. From November 20, 2015, he was the chairman of Cherkasy Regional Council of the VII convocation, and in fact, three years after that, he was appointed the head of Cherkasy Regional Administration.
Family and property
Olexandr Velbivets is married, he has a daughter. According to the 2017declaration, he is the owner of a land plot in Lysyanka ( 1500 sq. m.) and rents an apartment in Cherkasy ( 49.1 sq. m.). His wife and daughter have an apartment in Lysyanka ( 46.1 sq. m.). In addition, his spouse owns a garage (24 sq. m.).
Another family member is indicated in Velbivets’s declaration; probably this his father Ivan Velbivets. He owns a house in Lysyanka (64.6 sq. m.), as well as 1990 Moskvitch-2141.
In general, last year the Velbivtsev family had an income of 21,600USD. This is mainly the salary of the official, the pension and salary of his wife, and study allowance of his daughter.
The family does not have money on its banking account.
Priority goals
President Poroshenko instructed Velbivets to solve the most urgent problems of Smila town.
"I have a favor to ask Oleksandr Velbivets to go to Smila first. You need to normalize the situation. I advice you to move your constituency surgery to Smila for a couple of days, meet with the people, listen to them, and then tell me and regional state administration about their position," Poroshenko said.
The head of the state urged Velbivets to make sure that the locals would not pay for the heating as it was absent.
The new head of Cherkasy Regional Administration thanked Poroshenko for his confidence and outlined his further goals and strategic steps.
"Today we face numerous complicated tasks and challenges. First of all, it is about further implementation of reforms initiated by the president, ensuring stable socio-economic development, attracting investments and introducing energy efficient technologies, coordinating and controlling of modern educational, medical, and cultural services, social protection, support and assistance to Donbas veterans. It is important to focus on quality indicators," Velbivets said.
According to the official, he will do everything possible to meet the expectations of the head of state and society.
Previous governor
In October, the Cabinet of Ministers agreed on the dismissal of four heads of regional state administrations, including Cherkasy region administration.
The region was led by a native of Odesa region, private entrepreneur, honored economist of Ukraine and a tax service adviser of the first rank Yuriy Tkachenko.
“I would like to thank for everything that Yuriy did for Cherkasy,” President Poroshenko stressed during the presentation of the new head of the region.
Read the original text at 112.ua.