A round table discussion “Reform of public administration system. A public recipe” was held on April 13, 2016, in the hotel “Kyiv” with the participation of experts on public administration, governmental officers, and representatives of diplomatic corps. The experts of the civil platform “Reanimation Package of Reforms”, the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, the CCC Creative Center, and “Nova Krayina” presented their vision of the public administration reform in Ukraine in part of legislation concerning functioning of the Government, central executive authorities, and civil service.

Media are currently focused on the process of formation of the Government and the persons to enter the Cabinet. At the same time, effectiveness of reforms mostly depends on the rules to be followed by this new Cabinet of Ministers,
– says Ihor Koliushko, Chairman of the Board of the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, Co-Chairman of the RPR Board.

Therefore, the experts demand amending the laws of Ukraine “On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine” and “On the central executive authorities” to introduce:

1. transparent decision-making procedures based on comprehensive policy analysis;
2. mandatory consideration of all draft governmental resolutions at the sittings of governmental committees;
3. advance publication of draft governmental resolutions;
4. mandatory public consultations regarding the content of governmental resolutions;
5. the right of ministers to select the candidates for the offices of deputy ministers at their own discretion;
6. the mechanism of guidance and coordination of other central executive authorities solely through particular members of the Cabinet of Ministers, not the Government on the whole.

For more details please see the infographics:

The Government shall report not on the actions taken and resources used, but on the goals reached and the success in public policies,
– says Roman Kobets, Head of the European Information and Research Center under the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Ministries should be focused on policy-making, while their territorial bodies should be liquidated, and their administrative functions should be transferred to other central executive authorities. Other central executive authorities (services, inspectorates, agencies) should be divested of the functions of policy-making.

An office of a Vice-Prime-Minister for the public administration reform should also be established in the Government. It will ensure that activity of the ministries towards reform implementation is properly coordinated and that there is a high-ranking official personally responsible for the reform.

Reform of civil service and remuneration of labour of public officers was the topic of the second part of the round table. Unfortunately, there are justified fears that opponents of the reform will try to do everything to postpone enactment of the new law “On civil service” which comes into effect on May 1. Therefore, the civil platform “Reanimation Package of Reforms”, the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, the CCC Creative Center, and “Nova Krayina” stress that enactment of the new law “On civil service” shall not be postponed and call on the factions of the Ukrainian parliament, the President, and the international partners of Ukraine to defend one of the key reforms of the post-Maidan Ukraine.

The new law provides for exclusively competitive selection to all offices, which gives a chance to recruit new civil officers. At the same time, it is evident that if the rates of salaries stay the same, even with all the supplemental payments and bonuses, it will be impossible to encourage new professionals to take part in the competitions to fill the offices of new civil service.

Low-paid civil officers are advantageous only for a corrupt system. Therefore, the system delays even the process of receipt of financial aid from the EU,
– says Denys Brodskyi, ex-chairman of the National Civil Service Agency.

Experts have proposed a new model of payments to new civil officers based on the criteria of integrity and professionalism. The basic principles of such payments are:

1. Remuneration and incentive payments according to CMU Resolution “On approval of the Resolution on the use of incentive payments with regard to civil officers”;
2. Supplemental payments to civil officers of categories “A” and “B” – only to those who passed a competition to fill the civil service vacancies – or to the acting civil officers who have agreed to go through a competitive selection, at the expense of the budget fund of supplemental payments formed out of donor funds.
3. Supplemental payments to civil officers of category “С” shall be made by savings in the labour compensation fund owing to reorganization and optimization of secretariats, automation of document workflow, etc. Also, large part of the authorities of civil officers will be transferred to the local self-government officials within the decentralization reform.

It is only taken as a whole that these measures will allow to transform the Government and ministries into the bodies capable of implementing reforms effectively; to form and implement public policies and transform civil officers into professional, efficient executives focused on ensuring the public interest in the proper implementation of civil rights.