Bloated staff numbers. Mounds of paperwork. Departments within departments within departments.
Ukraine’s system of government inherited this and more from the Soviet Union, and little was done since 1991 independence to get rid of this unwanted legacy.
Then came the EuroMaidan Revolution, which was triggered not just by society’s disgust with corrupt former President Viktor Yanukovych, but its desire to modernize the way the country is run, along the model of a free-market democracy. Two years later, things are only slowly starting to change.
Staff cuts
Civil service staff numbers are a prime target for cuts.
Ukraine has by some estimates up to 380,000 civil servants working on the national level.
By contrast, the United Kingdom – with 64 million people compared to Ukraine’s 44 million people – has about 400,000 civil servants in all.
Several state agencies have managed to reduce staff numbers, with about 50 percent of the employees of the Economy Ministry (around 800 people) and Justice Ministry (around 12,000 civil servants) being axed.
Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, who resigned on Feb. 3 after complaining about the corrupt interference of a leading presidential ally, was leading the way in trimming Ukraine’s staff-heavy bureaucracy.
“We started the reforms with ourselves, creating an effective team, and reducing an inefficient apparatus,” Abromavicius said on Dec. 9. “First, we replaced 100 percent of the deputy ministers and 80 percent of heads of departments, while reducing the number of departments from 29 to 18.”
Many well-educated Ukrainians have volunteered to serve in Ukraine’s government, hoping to make their country a better place. Some, with Western degrees and extensive private sector experience, have been providing their services for poverty-level public salaries. (Courtesy)
Volga Sheyko, a lawyer at Asters law firm, said some of the staff cuts were achieved by introducing electronic registers and centralizing services. It was long overdue. “We’re so bureaucratized that we need a certificate to get another certificate, and 35 certificates to get that last certificate,” Sheyko said. By getting rid of required paperwork, it became possible to get rid of people employed just to shuffle it around.
Ideally, various electronic registers should then be merged into one, Sheyko said. This would allow citizens to obtain any certificates they need in one place, rather than having to traipse around government departments on a lengthy paper chase, as many still have to do now.
Revolutionary change
The new civil service law, which comes into force on May 1, promises to revolutionize the way Ukraine is governed, Sheyko said.
“I think this law is progressive, but the problem is not that simple,” she said. It will take time to see results, she said. The new law sets out competitive hiring procedures for the civil service, among other innovations.
It is expected to improve skill levels, said Sheyko. She recalled a recently conducted re-certification of civil servants who work at management positions in Justice Ministry agencies. Most weren’t even able to switch on a computer.
After further tests of the civil servants’ knowledge of laws and bylaws, 60 percent of them were dismissed.
“Competitive selection will lead to civil servants being more progressive,” Sheyko said.
Money problems
Employees of the new, leaner and ideally better-skilled civil service should enjoy better working conditions, higher salaries and better prospects for promotion and other benefits.
However, the civil service law doesn’t stipulate that money saved on salaries of former employees should automatically go into the wage fund to pay higher salaries to the remaining workers, Sheyko said.
Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze expected to be able to reallocated salaries of fired prosecutors to the remaining ones. “That didn’t happen,” Sheyko said, referring to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which still has up to 18,000 prosecutors at all levels in the nation. Those who remained in Sakvarelidze’s office continue working for a salary of Hr 1,500 ($57) per month.
While the government recognizes the need to increase wages, Sheyko said the proposed increases aren’t high enough. A civil servant should earn enough “to not be tempted to take a bribe,” she said.
Ukraine’s public sector employment is high. The number of civil servants and local government employees is 380,000. After adding employees of state-owned enterprises and other government services, the estimated public workforce tops 1 million people.
Source: National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service
One of the co-authors of the civil service law, human resources specialist Denis Brodsky, told the Kyiv Post that the wage issue is a cornerstone of civil service reform.
Unfortunately, the wording of the new law doesn’t stipulate high or even adequate wages, he said.
According to Brodsky, top officials in government should be paid Hr 200,000 ($7,620) per month and department chiefs approximately Hr 150,000 ($5,710). “Today, the head of a big enterprise gets this kind of money, so these people are used to working with a good level of payment, which gives them a proper level of living” so that they can do their work “virtuously and conscientiously,” he said.
Brodsky said that most Ukrainians will no longer work for free as many did after being inspired by the EuroMaidan Revultion. “Two years ago a huge number of people were happy to work for free, while now there are almost none of them,” Brodsky said.
Professional development
Alina Sviderska, a member of the board at Professional Government Initiative, told the Kyiv Post there were three ways money could be found to fund a wage rise for civil servants. Ideally, an independent fund sponsored by international donors should be launched. In fact, this option was backed by donors, but wasn’t supported by the government, which she said was wary of “control” from the outside.
The second option is to use a secondment format, in which people from private sector are brought in to work in the state agencies for a couple of years. While this practice works in Canada and the U. K., it has found no support from the Ukrainian government, Sviderska said.
A compromise decision would be to pay state sector wages via donor funds. A transparent scheme for this is found in the civil service law, but it needs further development and approval from the Cabinet of Ministers.
Besides a good salary, civil servants should be given the opportunity to develop their skills, Sheyko said. The law aims to make the appreciation and reputation of a state official’s job outweigh the temptation of taking a bribe, she said.
Moreover, the law aims to break the dependence of subordinates on their chief. In many state agencies, employees still get a small official salary, topped up with monthly bonuses (often worth much more than the basic salary) awarded at the discretion of a department boss.
The overarching goal of the new civil service law, according to Sheyko, is to change the public’s attitude to the civil service, making it an attractive profession, rather than one tainted by corruption.
“This is an anti-corruption law in its essence,” she said.
