A popular joke in Ukraine goes that when Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says “Good morning” to his Cabinet, what he hears back is “Gamarjoba genatsvale,” a traditional Georgian greeting loosely translated as “hello friend.” The reason for the joke is because Georgians have become the second most prevalent nationality in Ukraine’s government.
Currently, at least five representatives of this nation of 4.5 million people are working in top jobs in various agencies, and at least eight are working as experts.
Many of them held senior positions in the Georgian government in 2004-2013 during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili. The former president now oversees Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s advisory council on reforms.
The new appointees hope to repeat in Ukraine their success of creating a liberal economy and introducing the rule of law in Georgia. They expect that Ukraine’s reforms will be less radical, more prolonged and hopefully more sustainable in the long run.
Giya Getsadze, who was appointed deputy justice minister in February, told the Kyiv Post that Georgian reforms achieved results quickly. But he said that Ukrainian reforms “may be better from the standpoint of public control and democracy.”
Getsadze, who was a Georgian deputy justice minister in 2004 and a deputy interior minister in 2005, is tasked with simplifying the state service for registration of vital records, property and business, devolving the ministry’s registration functions to notaries and banks, switching to an electronic document system and introducing private-sector bailiffs to cut bureaucracy and corruption at the Justice Ministry.
Getsadze joins three other Georgians at the Justice Ministry who are currently working as experts and waiting to get officially appointed. They are former Georgian Deputy Justice Minister Dzhaba Ebaonidze, former official of Georgia’s state registration service Georgiy Tsiklauri and former top official of Georgia’s bailiff service Khatia Shelia, who will upgrade the same agency in Ukraine.
Some of the Georgians have already been around for three months.
Eka Zguladze-Glucksmann, who was appointed deputy interior minister in December, is working on a pilot project to create an entirely new traffic police force staffed with new people. Candidates for the new road patrols in the city of Kyiv are being vetted and expected to hit the streets in June. Several other big cities will be getting their own patrol forces by the end of the year.
Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili, also appointed in December, wants legislation to secure purchases of pharmaceuticals through the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. The change is an effort to bypass corrupt Ukrainian government procurement schemes.
He has also drafted bills to ease the registration of pharmaceuticals certified in the European Union and the United States and switch from funding based on the number of beds to financing based on the amount of services provided.
Kvitashvili created a health care system almost from scratch in Georgia, where most hospitals are private. In Ukraine, he will set up a mix of state-owned, non-profit and private hospitals.
Another Georgian official, David Sakvarelidze, was appointed a deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine in February to oversee the reform of the prosecutor’s office.
Although many praise the appointment of Georgians as evidence of upcoming change, others are not happy. Some nationalists like Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh, for example, have wondered why no worthy Ukrainians had been found for the jobs.
Georgia’s incumbent authorities, who replaced Saakashvili’s administration in 2012, have also criticized the new appointees. Two of them, Saakashvili and Zurab Adeishvili, a former Georgian prosecutor general who is helping Ukraine to draft anti-corruption laws, are wanted by Georgia in what Saakashvili says is a political witch hunt.
The Georgian reformers stay in touch, Getsadze said. They are like-minded people who share free-market ideas and Western values.
Many of the Georgians supported the EuroMaidan Revolution that last year forced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych out of power. “I rented an apartment on Mikhailivska Vulitsa because it was close to Maidan Nezalezhnosti,” Getsadze said, adding that he was helping demonstrators.
The Georgians say the revolution was just the beginning of difficult changes. But they say that while Georgia’s changes came from the top down, Ukraine’s civil society is stronger and will lead the way. “Business is ready, and people are ready,” Getsadze said. “Here the non-government sector and civil society know exactly what they want.”
The Justice Ministry’s Shelia, former head of the legal department of Georgia’s bailiff service in 2010-2014, says that she came to Ukraine two months ago because she wanted to share her experience.
“What was done in Georgia was done well but this basis should be improved,” Shelia said. “The Ukrainian model can be done better because we already have that experience.”
The Georgians are also lending a hand in revamping Ukraine’a army.
David Makishvili, a Georgian who trains Ukrainian troops, said the military should adopt NATO standards.
Similarly to Ukraine, Georgia faced Russian military aggression in 2008 when its northern neighbor invaded the country and recognized Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries.
Ukraine’s military should focus on better training and creating small mobile groups instead of large, clumsy units, Makishvili said.
Another Georgian volunteer, Brigade General Giorgi Kalanadze, told the Kyiv Post that he is also training Ukrainian army units in the Donbas. He was the commander of Georgia’s fourth brigade, which fought in South Ossetia in 2008 and also headed Georgia’s army in 2010-2012.
Saakashvili will oversee all reforms. In February he was appointed a presidential adviser and head of Ukraine’s Advisory International Council for Reforms.
Deputy Justice Minister Giya Getsadze plans to cut red tape, switch to an electronic document system and introduce private-sector bailiffs.
Ukrainian reforms will not succeed without concerted efforts to drastically change different areas simultaneously, Getsadze said, adding that these changes should necessarily include tax cuts, better tax administration and large-scale privatization.
“If there is no teamwork, reforms won’t succeed in separate spheres,” he added.
