You're reading: Western-educated members of Ukraine’s government

Ukraine might not have the technocratic Cabinet many had hoped for, but it still has the highest ever share of top- and mid-level government officials with western degrees and international business experience.

At least eight senior positions in the central government and national companies are held by people with impressive business dossiers and western education credentials. Some 20 hold mid-management positions. Most have zero experience in politics, and typically this is considered to be an advantage. But it can also be a hindrance, as they could have trouble navigating Ukraine’s massive bureaucracy, they confess.

The biggest question the nation hopes to the find the answer to is whether they will make a difference in turning a clumsy, dysfunctional government into a modern one, meant to meet the needs its people.

“This is a positive trend because a lot of people, who worked for state for last several years, were deeply corrupt. Ministries needs people with other values and business experience,” says Glib Vyshlynsky, an economic expert from market research company GfK Ukraine.

Some of the Western educated or business-trained appointees were hired through a procedure that resembled a job interview. There were four contenders for the job of the chief taxman, including people who worked for the so-called Big Four global audit firms, says IhorBilous, deputy economy minister in charge of the tax office.

Bilous said that during the selection process “I had to tell the prime minister what I think needs to be done to change the country tomorrow.” Bilous headed Renaissance Capital, an investment bank, in Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe before coming to clean up the nation’s tax collection system. In the past, he worked for UBS, a Swiss global financial conglomerate.

Yuriy Kobolev, the new chief executive officer of Naftogaz Ukraine, a state-owned energy monopoly, described a similar hiring process. He said lawmakers suggested several candidates for the position, including him, and he had to send in his resume. He was selected after an interview with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which took place on a Sunday.

“It was a little unexpected, even though pleasant,” Kobolev said about his appointment at his first press briefing. Prior to getting the job, he ran his own company, AYA Securities. Before that he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Other senior government members include Economy Minister Pavlo Sheremeta, who led the Kyiv School of Economics, advised the government of Malaysia and set up the prestigious Kyiv Mohyla Business School in the past. He holds an MBA degree from America’s Emory University.

Vitaliy Naumenko, a former senior advisor for global auditing company KPMG, was appointed to head the Customs Service on March 12. Maksym Blank of Astrum Investments accepted the position of deputy chief executive officer at state-run railways monopolist Ukrzaliznytsya on April 9. He received his MBA from Graceland University in the U.S. in 1995.

Moreover, former Alfa-Bank CEO Andrey Volkov now heads the State Commission for Financial Markets, while Astapov Lawyers partner Antonina Yaholnyk is nominated to head the Antimonopoly Committee, the government’s anti-trust body.

Most people who come from outside the bureaucracy complain about the poor work environment in the Cabinet of Ministers. Political pressure, employees sabotaging decisions,  office politics and loads paperwork are just a few problems they face. Surprisingly to those coming from the efficiency-driven corporate culture, all documents still need to be signed by the Cabinet and physically taken from one office to another.

“It is not that much fun to work here,” Bilous confesses.

Many of those appointed to government positions are getting paid much less than what they were making in the corporate sector.

But Yevgen Sysoyev, managing partner of Aventures Capital and ex- vice president of Concorde Capital investment house, says money is not an issue for those who worked in senior positions in investment banks. A good resume, he says, matters a lot to them.

But Vasyl Miroshnychenko, one of the founders of Professional Government Initiative begs to differ. The initiative was launched by Ukrainian graduates of top Western universities – such as Cambridge University, Harvard University, London School of Economics – to make themselves available for hiring by the ministries and state agencies.

Miroshnychenko says without a proper reward for their services, a professional government is unsustainable in the long term. But the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development clearly has the same understanding. The bank is designing a program that would allow Ukraine’s Cabinet members to receive competitive salaries for their work, which would also reduce the risk of corruption.

In the meantime, the foreign university alumni community has been accepting jobs with low or no pay. On March 3, they sent a statement to the government that their services are available, and set up an email account for the government to send their staffing requirements, which the alumni said they would address within 24 hours.

Several of them have since received positions in the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education and the State Security Service, among other places. But the alumni themselves are not too happy with the achievements.

“On a scale of 10, I would give the program a six,” says Miroshnychenko, an alumnus of the London School of Economics. He says because the government is temporary, recruiting good staff is not its top priority.

“They have to get more serious about it after the (May 25 presidential) election,” he says.

Kyiv Post staff writer Vladyslav Golovin can be reached at [email protected].