It’s not often the passage of a bill in the Vekhovna Rada is greeted as “a miracle.” But that’s the word one civic activist used on Dec. 10 when hailing the approval of new legislation that is designed to build a new civil service with politically independent officials.
The law was supported by 261 lawmakers of the
342 registered in the legislature. The second and final reading of the bill had
been postponed several times, with critics saying that political forces were
trying to intervene.
Mykola Vygovsky, an expert with the Reanimation Package of Reforms civic
group, was elated by the parliament’s move.
“The main part
here is that now society has gained control of top (civil service)
appointments,” Vygorsky said.
“This is a real
miracle,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Alyona Shkrum, a lawmaker with Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party and
head of parliament’s civil service subcommittee, presented the legislation in
parliament.
“We’ve got a
chance to make a revolution in the civil service,” she told lawmakers from the
rostrum.
Experts and activists agree – according to the Reanimation Package of Reforms, which
helped draft the bill, the adoption of this legislation was one of Ukraine’s
international obligations, and a condition for the European Union’s further
financing of Ukraine.
“We’re satisfied
with the wording of the law that was adopted today,” Vygovsky told the Kyiv Post. “It’s close to
perfect. All the norms that were at risk of being lost were saved. We’ve got a
coherent text that will defeat the system of political corruption.”
According to the
new legislation, top civil service appointments will no longer be divided
between political parties under a quota system, but will be made via
transparent competition.
Today, the
Cabinet makes appoints to such bodies as State Aviation Service, Penitentiary
Service, and Employment Service. But starting from May 1, 2016, when the bill
takes effect, a special commission will first vet candidates before the Cabinet
makes the final decision.
The commission
will consist of social activists, along with representatives of Ukraine’s
parliament, the president, government, head of the National Anti-Corruption
Bureau, and members of trade unions, Vygovsky said.
Another important
thing about the law is that it will help depoliticize the civil service, he
added.
“Top officials
will be banned from joining any political parties,” Vygorsky said. “There will
be a difference between political and administrative positions. Each ministry
will get a state secretary, who will oversee the ministry’s staff.”
He said that in
this way even if the political climate changes and new parties take over
Ukraine’s government, the non-political officials will remain in place, as
appointed state managers.
Freelance
photographer Sergii Morgunov stood outside parliament on Dec. 10 hoping that
lawmakers would pass the law.
He was one of the activists who initiated a series of rallies called Tysny
#2490 (Push #2490) to show lawmakers the number of the bill that society wants
passed.
Each time the draft law appeared on the Verkhovna
Rada’s agenda, from 50 up to 500 people had usually gathered near the
parliament with bright posters to show support for the bill.
But on Dec. 10 very few activists showed up. In
the end, Morgunov said, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the issue had
gone viral on social media.
“This is very important, this is how we can put
the lawmakers under pressure, because online everything goes public,” Morgunov
said.
Morgunov said the new measures have the
potential of eliminating the influence that oligarchs and politicians have on
government offices.
“This is the executive branch of government. If
we want something to change in Ukraine, people need to be changed,” he said.
“Otherwise, reforms (passed as laws by parliament) can be stalled in government
offices.”
Not everyone though was optimistic about the
prospects for the new law.
Olena Tregub, a
department director at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of
Ukraine, said the bill “was better than nothing, although it won’t be able to
solve the incompetence of the current state machine, or reform the country.”
The main problem
now is to work out how to attract qualified staff to poorly paid jobs, she
said.
“With low
salaries, ministries turn from bodies that produce policy into dumb
bureaucratic executors, without any thinking. Because people who can think have
to be paid – this is the market,” Tregub said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
