Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post tracks the progress made by Ukraine's post-EuroMaidan Revolution leaders in making structural changes in the public interest in six key areas: economy & finance, security & defense, energy, rule of law, public administration and land.
The following report draws on a Reanimation Reform Package report on the government’s performance and looks at the reform process a year after the government coalition was formed on Nov. 27, 2014, in the fields of constitutional change and public administration.
Overview
With allegations of corruption mounting against key allies of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and key legislation being watered down or not being passed, some feel that the window of opportunity is already closing for the nation two years after the beginning of the EuroMaidan Revolution. With no government progress report having been presented, the wider public has been left with little clue of what has been achieved. Only civil society groups have noted that one year has passed since an ambitious, post-revolutionary coalition agreement was signed on Nov. 21, 2014.
A sign of fatigue – coalition and faction infighting – has come to the fore. Initially controlling 67 percent of the seats in parliament, the coalition now takes numerous re-votes to get the required simple majority to pass a number of bills that have piled up due to general foot-dragging and the prolonged session break in October for local election campaigning.
Key bills were enacted at the insistence from the European Union, such as establishing an agency to prevent corruption or the inclusion of an anti-discrimination article in the labor code.
Reformist lawmakers had to scramble to prevent the watering down of key anti-corruption initiatives, and to prevent “I scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine” approaches even in important issues such as appointments to the new Anti-Corruption Bureau.
It often took battles to adopt laws that were mere consequences of earlier adopted legislation, like actually giving the recently set up consolidated local communities the right to act as legal entities.
There is still no certainty that the newly established anti-graft agencies will lead to change in the current climate of impunity – considering that there has been a lack of will to let the existing public prosecution office and the courts go after top officials.
Rule of law
Over the year, parliament had established an Anti-Corruption Bureau, a Bureau of Investigation, an Asset Recovery Office and an Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, but the degree of independence of the lead special anti-corruption prosecutor was weakened by parliament, as were illicit asset arrest powers.
This left the impression that loopholes had been created, with the risk that some of the alleged billions of looted dollars would never be returned to state coffers.
The proposed constitutional changes have been split in three: Decentralization of public administration, independence of the judiciary, and human rights. Only the first part has been reviewed by parliament at first reading, and four national guardsmen were killed in front of parliament in August during a protest against that legislation.
Ihor Kononenko, the deputy head of the president’s faction in parliament, said on Nov. 26 that the parliament was foot dragging on judicial reform. It’s problematic because a number of other initiatives don’t make much sense without a reliable court system. All three portions of constitutional change require a two-thirds majority in parliament to pass, and it is an open question whether that can be achieved.
A fourth direction of the constitutional reform, i.e. balancing the branches of power within the parliamentary-presidential form of government, has yet to commence.
The sustainable development of Ukraine is seen as impossible without an effective Constitution.
Even without constitutional changes, the reform of local government and transfer of powers from Kyiv to the lowest possible level, has made some headway, introducing elements of fiscal decentralization.
Increasing transparency and accountability, parliament on Nov. 26 obliged local elected bodies to make public how council members voted. Non transparent votes on use of public funds and land plot distribution had been a major source of corruption and power abuse.
Public administration
Parliament had yet to pass a comprehensive bill transforming the overly bureaucratic, arbitrary and corrupt post-Soviet public administration into a service-oriented organization. The proposed law will introduce competitive hiring procedures for all civil servant positions and aims to decrease undue political influence over administrations. On Nov. 26 the vote on the law was yet again postponed, this time to Dec. 1.
And then again to Dec. 8.
Kyiv Post staff writer Johannes Wamberg Andersen can be reached at [email protected]
