СЕКЦІЯ 2. PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM IN UKRAINE

Lysukho I. V., student

Scientific supervisor – Demchuk N. I., professor of the department

of finance, banking and insurance

Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University

PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM IN UKRAINE

Public Administration is a part, even though a large and important part, of administration. Administration means performance of the executive functions of the state. Public Administration lends itself to two usages. It refers to the practice. Also, it means a field of intellectual enquiry or discipline. Public Administration refers to the study of the activities of the State, but these activities may relate to the executive or the legislature or the judiciary.

Francis Fukuyama in his book ”State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century” emphasised, that the primary goal of reforms in developing countries is the strengthening of state institutions. In Ukraine this is twice true: this country had its own state too long ago, enjoyed its brief independence between two world wars (less than three years of armed confrontation on several fronts), but inherited weak and ineffective state institutions from a totalitarian Soviet Union [2].

For more than two decades the Ukrainian government was functioning under the influence of a post-colonial heritage Soviet system, which focused on managing assets unnecessarily owned by the state (Ukraine has 100 times more state-owned enterprises than the average European country), coercive inspection and control, and administrative services delivered at convenience of the state bodies and not the citizens. All these also nourish extreme corruption [3].

Looking backwards, we can see that the common European principles of public administration – separation of politics and civil service, transparent legal framework, alignment of policy priorities with financial constraints, clear definition of functions of institutions, transparent accountability, citizen oriented public services and e-government, were unattainable for decades in Ukraine. In 2018, the OECD/SIGMA program made its first thorough assessment of Ukrainian public administration, outlining these and other shortcomings, against the commonly agreed European principles of public administration. This assessment now stands as a baseline for further public administration reforms.

In order to make all the necessary sectoral reforms, we need people capable to do this at the level of government. That is why public administration reform in Ukraine is a key priority for the EU and the local civil society, and now also for the government. The major goal is to free ministries from obsolete, redundant and overlapping functions and focus them on priority tasks — analysis, development and implementation of relevant public policies. This transition would not be immediate, as long as it is connected with privatisation, the administrative services reform and the inspection reform.

Until now the law on civil service was adopted, this created a legal basis for the reform and introduced depolitisation of the civil service. Now the reorganisation is already in progress in 10 ministries. It is made up of three major changes concerning – people, structures and processes. New structures (called directorates) are being created for policy analysis and development; new people are coming through open contests (higher salary and guaranteed interesting employment usually means increased competition and better standards by people with new values).

Obsolete functions will gradually be transferred, cancelled or outsourced, by this way corruption opportunities will be eliminated. The management processes also are a subject of change: impact assessment, policy evaluation, consultations with stakeholders and “evaluate first” principle are being set as a key rules. Clear responsibilities and key performance indicators are being introduced to gradually replace micro-management (first appropriate changes to the Government Rules were already adopted). Government policy planning will be evidence-based and aligned with budgeting process. The government activity should be based on a medium-term plan containing the key development projects. New government decisions should only be made on the basis of an analysis of the effectiveness of the previous ones, and key performance indicators should be monitored continuously. The process of policy development should be clearly standardised.

Last but not least, ministries will be transformed into compact teams of higher-payed motivated professionals who deal only with the main task, i.e. solving the country’s development problems. The government processes will be greatly simplified, standardised and algorithmic. This means a significant increase in the speed of passing draft decisions, reducing the load on key people, eliminating bureaucracy, duplication, and voluntarism. The government should become an attractive place to work for decent and professional people, and an understandable and responsible partner for foreign governments.

It is important that the change will be visible for the society, as all citizens want to reduce bureaucracy and spending on the state apparatus, improving the quality of public services, professionalism and responsibility [1].

There is now a certain critical phase, as the coming year brings presidential and parliamentary elections. Thus, we need to concentrate on key issues: finalising reorganisation at the 10 pilot ministries, finalising the introduction of impact assessment and other process changes, as well as use the last year of the parliament to adopt legislative changes. To make a reform, as Francis Fukuyama uses to say, we need to create a wide coalition. This is exactly what the reform task force is doing. The practical experience of Ukrainian reforms proves: when a reform becomes “fashionable”, it will be successful.

References

1. Kovalchuk V. High education system challenges in the context of requirements of labour market and society / Vasyl Kovalchuk // Scientiic letters of academic society of Michal Baludansky. – 2016. –  pp. 88–90.

2. Fukuyama F. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century / Francis Fukuyama // London, Great Britain . – 2015. – 208 p.

3. Usachenko L. M., Timtsun V. I. History of Public Administration in Ukraine: Teach. manual / Usachenko L. M., Timtsun V. I. – K.: Scientific-production enterprise “Interservis” Ltd. – 2013. – 292 p.