You're reading: Western-educated Ukrainians seeking to transform government from key posts

Since the EuroMaidan Revolution, many Ukrainians who lived in the West have dropped their well-paid jobs and returned to Ukraine, inspired to change the country with their newly aquired knowledge.

So far, they have achieved mixed success in key government roles, where they have not always been welcomed.

In March 2014, a group of the Ukrainian alumni of the Western universities launched the Professional Government Initiative to help authorities overcome the economic downturn by matching educated Ukrainians with government bodies in need of professionals.

Members of the Harvard Club of Ukraine, followed by alumni from the London School of Economics, INSEAD business school, Columbia University, University of Oxford, Cambridge and others joined the initiative. Today it unites more than 3,000 Ukrainians willing to offer their skills to the government.

Their mission is to help Ukraine achieve what the West expects of it: accelerate economic reforms, eliminate corruption, strengthen the rule of law and democracy, and promote a transparent hiring process for government positions.

To bring professionals into government Professional Government Initiative started a website for hiring, www.proukrgov.org. Now one can upload a CV to the website’s database of professionals. When a government body addresses the initiative with a list of vacancies, it gets a list of suitable candidates within 24 hours.

Professional Government Initiative already found jobs for more than 50 applicants. Its coordinator Oleg Goncharenko says that while the young Western-educated Ukrainians want to work for the state, the state doesn’t always want them.

“The problem is that some people in the government are against newcomers,” he says.

Sergiy Konovets got hired as deputy board chairman at state-owned energy monopolist Naftogaz in May 2014. With an MBA from Switzerland, he applied with a CV, being at “an emotional peak after the Revolution of Dignity,” and was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.

“It was done very quickly and transparently,” he says. “And since then I got many questions from different people, like ‘Whose interests you represent in Naftogaz.’”

Konovets said the initiative helps. “It could expand not only to the central government, but also to the regions,” he says.

Working in Naftogaz for more than a year, Konovets is satisfied with his team. “It would be very difficult to change the situation without like-minded people,” he says.

Konovets has not seen any new corruption schemes appear in Naftogaz while he’s been working there and the new team has been trying hard to squeeze out the old ones.

“We significantly improved our transparency over last year, and openness to the society,” he says.
He won’t talk about his salary, but says it is lower than his previous job at Boston Consulting Group.

“Historically people paid for the positions in the state-owned company, like Naftogaz,” he says.

“Getting into this company at the top position allowed them to steal money.”

Low public salaries are an impediment to good government. “The result of not solving this problem is that I cannot hire good people in the state-owned company,” he says.

Working long hours, Konovets describes his “biggest frustration” as focus turf — an individual ministry or department — rather than the greater good.

Sergiy Petukhov, a 31-year-old lawyer who graduated from the University of Cambridge, was hired as deputy minister for European integration at the Ministry of Justice on July 27.

But it took awhile. “Some people had never called back, some positions were canceled,” he says.

Petukhov twice applied to become a deputy with the Ministry of Energy because of his relevant background. He was rejected twice before the ministry canceled the position. “For some reason this ministry still doesn’t have the deputy minister for European integration,” he says.

In his new job at the Ministry of Justice, Petukhov plans to concentrate on legal issues involving the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s east.

“The biggest problem now is that Ukraine doesn’t recognize any legal documents issued in Crimea, like birth and death certificates,” he says.

Petukhov doesn’t think that Western-educated Ukrainians are necessarily better professionals, but have valuable experience. “Probably, the European education is more valuable right now since we are integrating into Europe,” he says.

Petukhov still doesn’t know his salary, but expects it to be low and plans to live on savings.
Olena Tregub, who works in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, says her money is running out after six months on the job.

Tregub, a graduate of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in U.S. and Central European University in Hungary, dropped her own consulting company in the U.S. to work for the Ukrainian government. She also has contributed to the Kyiv Post on occasion.

In the ministry, she gets Hr 12,000 a month. She says her savings will be enough for six more months. “To be able to have this kind of job, you already need to be financially independent person,” she says.

In the ministry she leads a department involved with international funding and technical assistance from abroad.

“When American diplomats are here and they hear that I’m from the Fletcher School, they immediately have some level of respect, because they graduated from this school themselves,” Tregub says.

While Tregub works with programs involving millions of dollars in donor aid, her department lacks the money for basics. She had to pay for two Wi-Fi routers to get Internet service, for example.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliana Romanyshyn can be reached at [email protected].