With these words Yevropeiska Pravda says he began the selection of vice ministers responsible specifically for European integration.
The reaction to his question was predictable, MPs assured him that there had been a genuine competition that had been fair, unbiased, and free of people lobbying for their friends.
Some of those present, however, knew that the way deputies were selected in their ministries could hardly be called fair, and in truth was far from resembling a competition.”
Campaign against secrecy
The idea to have an open competition for vice minister to handle questions regarding European integration first surfaced at the beginning of summer.
The impetus was the Ministry of Justice’s policy for hiring new personnel.
On May 27 Prime Minister Yatsenyuk announced a decision that was supposed to be groundbreaking and end “standard bureaucracy” in areas of European integration.
And so the Cabinet of Ministers elected to introduce the position of vice minister for Euro-integration in all ministries without exception. On the same day the name of the first deputy in the Ministry of Justice was announced.
The appointment was without question quite out of the ordinary.
The position was filled by the 29 year old assistant of Minister Anton Yanchuk, who had precisely zero experienced in Euro-integration, and in fact miraculously spent less than a month in the civil service altogether before his promotion.
Politely put, experts were surprised by such an “unordinary” choice. And so under public scrutiny the government announced that it would shift away from filling positions via non-transparent procedures.
Cabinet Minister Ostap Semerak pledged to run a competition that would select individuals for the posts. Yatsenyuk claimed doing so would increase access to professionals from the public sector as well as experts.
The open vacancies were even shockingly listed on the government’s official website. Granted, the descriptions did not mention the word “competition,” but at least promised “open selection.” No one thought then that difference mattered.
Campaign for secrecy
“For the first time in Ukraine upon the initiative of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk the selection of candidates made publicly. More than 190 applicants applied for the positions,” claimed Semerak during a Cabinet of Ministers briefing on Aug. 21 delivering the results.
Journalists present were even so lucky as to see nine of the freshly appointed “euro-deputies” in the flesh.
Truth be told the number of ministries in Ukraine is ever so slightly greater than 9, but according to Yevropeiska Pravda there were ministries for which no one was chosen, and two where the selection procedure had not yet been completed.
And yet in cases where the selection had been made, the positions were not filled by the winners, but by assistants and friends of the ministers. And so there was no difference from the “secret” process by which the deputy in the Ministry of Justice was appointed.
As a result, social media overflowed with posts about “fake” competitions being held at the different ministries.
And as such Yatsenyuk’s goal to engage people from expert circles was never achieved.
Though there were experts who applied with 10 or more years of experience in European integration, none of them were selected (though sources say that in ministries with open positions individuals working for NGOs stood a chance).
Some of the appointments that were made can only be described as shameful.
The position of Deputy Head of the Interior Ministry of European Integration was given to Tigran Avakian. From 2002 to 2004, he did have a connection to the EU, holding a position in the Foreign Ministry, working on matters related to the EU before leaving the civil service. His CV, however, lists no law enforcement background.
YevroPravda, however, believes, he was chosen because he had been an aid to MP Avakov (currently Interior Minister), or because he had been an executive director of the Union of Armenians in Ukraine.
Minister Avakov did have better qualified candidates. The head of the Ukraine Interpol Bureau, Vasyl Nevola, for example, or the head of Adobe in Ukraine, Danylo Kluchnikov, who has experience in law enforcement. Those two even made it through all stages of the competition and were recommended for submission to the Cabinet. However, in the end, they were not even invited for an interview with the Cabinet, where the final evaluation was to be made.
In the end Avakov refused to sign off, preferring his assistant.
And that was no exception.
The Minister of Agriculture Igor Shvaika also ignored decisions regarding the selection process of candidates despite the fact that he personally signed on to it earlier. Instead, during the government meeting on Aug. 13 (when the candidates were interviewed) he told his minister colleagues and the invited candidates that he had withdrawn all submissions. “My candidate is not here” the minister explained after going through the papers.
So why hold an open competition at all if in the end the position will just be filled by people from officials close circles and not by the commission?
Positive experience
Even in those cases where decent candidates applied, ministers could not restrain their instinct to “adjust” the results in order to guarantee “their man” got the position. Valeriy Geletey, for example, submitted only one candidate, his own loyal deputy Igor Kabanenko.
Yatsenyuk clearly asked that there be at least two candidates for the “competition,” but who cares about the rules?
All the other applicants, who in fact were going through the competition commission and were recommended for positions, served only as extras.
The situation was similar with the Ministry of Energy. In the Ministry of Culture there was a “predetermined winner,” but eventually the position was filled by someone already working for the ministry.
Perhaps ministers assumed that since things remained behind closed doors it could be kept away from journalists and in public they could laud “the first open competition for higher government positions in the history of Ukraine.” But those secrets couldn’t be kept.
Fortunately, some “euro-positions” were filled with qualified people. The previously mentioned Admiral Kabanenko had been Counselor at Ukraine’s Mission to NATO.
Lana Zerkal was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and is known to be one of the best experts in the country on the Association Agreement.
At the Ministry of Infrastructure the competition also appears to have been held fairly. Oksana Reiter, who previously worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a head of the sector of the Department of Justice of the EU, was appointed deputy.
What now?
This “pseudo-competiton” is embarrassing.
Yevropeiska Pravda states that in some cases the situation can be fixed. In particular in the case of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, one of the key issues for European integration.
The fact is that during the “preliminary hearings” in the Cabinet, where the ministers were selecting the best candidates submitted, the Prime Minister was absent. That was when the head of the Ministry of Energy, Yuriy Prodan, pushed to appoint Volodymyr Makukha as his deputy.
At the meeting on Aug. 20, when the selected deputies were confirmed, Yatsenyuk was present. He withdrew Makukha’s candidate, explaining that it seemed the “ person is from an old team. I demanded you find new people”.
Now the question is whether Prodan will organize a real competition, or again push a candidate from his circle.
Thus the ministries with the best chance of success are those which have not selected a candidate yet.
According to the information from sources in the Cabinet of Ministers, the winner in the Ministry of Health comes from an NGO. At the Ministry of the Environment it looks like someone from the non-governmental sector will get the position. In the Ministry of Finance, however, there will be no euro-deputy, and rightly so since the EU clearly has nothing to do with Ukraine’s finances.
The Prime Minister could have changed the appointment of people in other sectors, where the competition was not held fairly, but that poses legal issues.
As mentioned earlier, the selection of the candidates was not technically called a competition, and that means ministers can ignore the results.
“Legally nobody can make a minister submit a candidate for the position of deputy that he or she doesn’t want to. According to the Law of the Cabinet of Ministers, the selection process is purely a competence of the minister,” a Cabinet source told YevroPravda.
YevroPravda reported its EU sources say the EU did not suggest appointing “euro-deputies” in all ministries and say they don’t see why it is necessary in some areas.
For example, euro-integration should not be a high priority for the Ministry of Social Policy because this area is not regulated by the Association Agreement.
Currently, this ministry does not have a separate “European” department as these functions given to the department handling international relations, ranging from Japan to Brazil. Their team currently consists of four people.
And now they would have a vice minister. Is that necessary? Unlikely. Nonetheless, Yatsenyuk spoke and the others simply followed the order.
Serhiy Sydorenko is chief editor of Europeiska Pravda, a website dedicated to the issues related to Ukraine’s European integration.
