Despite broad support from experts and European Union, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko is slowing down plans to overhaul Ukraine's bloated, rigid, corrupt and politicized governmental bureaucracy.
Сivil service
reform was once one of the top priorities of the autumn parliamentary session.
No longer.
At the National
Reform Council meeting on Sept. 18, Poroshenko arrived at an unexpected
decision to withdraw the civil service bill and set a new working group for
preparation of new legislation, citing the EU’s alleged dissatisfaction with a
current draft.
However, the EU’s
position on the bill seems to be rather positive.
A Sept. 22
statement by Jan Tombinski, head of
the EU Delegation to Ukraine reads: “The new law of Ukraine on
civil service is a key in order to create an enabling reform environment within
the public administration.
“Not
only is the bill consistent with the “international experiences and the
principles of public administration,” but it “also proposes effective solutions
to the main current challenges of the Ukrainian civil service” through a clear
differentiation between political and civil service positions, introduction of
open selection procedures and framework for transparent salary within the civil
service, statement says.
In
addition, a bill got approval from the Support for Improvement in Governance
and Management Program, a joint initiative of EU and Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development, according to Volodymyr Kupriy, coordinator of the
Ukrainian National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern
Partnership.
Given
the EU’s readiness to allot Ukraine about 800 million euro if the parliament
passes a civil service bill, Poroshenko’s decision caught experts flatfooted.
A bill on civil
service was passed in the first reading on April 24, but it has since run out of steam and is yet to go forward for the final
reading.
Denys Brodsky,
ex-head of the National Agency on Civil Service, believes that establishment of
a new working group is unnecessary. “I’m absolutely confident that … drafting
of a new bill will lead to the same result in a half-year or year,” Brodsky
said at the Crisis Media Center on Sept. 22.
“During almost a
year we were trying to reach a compromise decision between our revolutionary
ideas and desire of parliament to implement them,” Brodsky said, noting that
the new group will inevitably try to implement the same values: political
neutrality, decent salaries, high professionalism, and appointment through an
open selection process.
“This is how Europe
lives,” expert said.
Although a bill
represents a compromise, this is currently the best option for Ukraine, Alex
Ryabchyn, a lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna party said.
For years, civil
service has attracted little popularity among young people and businessmen
because of high level of politization, low salaries and corruption. Now the
situation has changed. “But the patience and desire to self-sacrifice isn’t
infinite,” warned Ryabchyn.
To reinstate the
institutional memory of ministries in times of rapid change of governments in
Ukraine, the legislation also proposes to introduce a post of state
secretaries, who will administer the daily work in each Ukrainian ministry even
of the ruling coalition cracks and ministers resign.
The turnover of
personnel in ministries with an arrival of new political forces amounts to 75
percent, said Viktor Tymoshchuk from the Center for Political and Legal
Reforms.
“As a result we
have the state apparatus which can’t put a country together. That is why for us
it is obvious that this bill is vital… This is a question of our country’s
survival,” Tymoshchuk said.
A
civil service in Ukraine has 340,000 employees, which can’t be fired and hired
again every time new government comes to power, expert explained.
Besides,
Ukraine needs to develop a stable business climate to allow investments,
reminded Ihor Koliushko, head of the board of the Center for Political and
Legal Reforms. Thus, institutional reforms such as decentralization, reform of
civil service and judiciary are inevitable.
However,
fate of these reforms remains unclear despite clear commitment in the coalition
agreement and government program to introduce them by the end of the year.
“I
want a professional discussion in the parliament,” Ryabchyn said, referring to
alleged imperfections of the bill. “I don’t want to pass laws which
International Monetary Fund needs and flunk bills Europe doesn’t like. I want
to adopt a law which serves Ukrainian needs.”
The Kyiv Post’s legal affairs reporter Mariana Antonovych
can be reached at [email protected]
