Better business environment for IT sector, aid for people that lost their homes due to Russian aggression, and commission on gender policy: decisions by Government and President

While MPs work in committees, other government bodies continue to make important decisions. Today in our digest: the President once more oversteps his authority by meddling in the Cabinet’s affairs, the Cabinet issues a regulation on paying compensations to people whose homes were damaged or destroyed due to Russian aggression and creates a commission to ensure the equality of women and men.

Decision-maker: the President.

Who is affected: IT companies, Ukrainian IT employees, and foreign IT specialists interested in relocating to Ukraine for work.

What does it change:

• the Cabinet is obliged to:
• develop draft bills to stimulate IT business
• make employment regulations in IT sector more liberal
• introduce temporary changes to taxation for IT companies in order to fight the problem of hidden wages
• propose changes to the Criminal Code that will prevent unjustified pressure on IT sector by law enforcement agencies
• simplify the immigration procedure for foreign IT specialists
• support the development of the IT education and improve the process of re-education of unemployed IT specialists.

What is wrong:

• Zelensky’s decree is unconstitutional, because the President has no authority to give orders to the Cabinet. The power to implement state policy on business, including IT business, belongs only to the Government.
• hidden wages are paid in many business sectors, not just IT, so this problem should be addressed on a larger scale. It is necessary to fundamentally change the system of taxation and the pension system. Also, Ukraine still uses the Labor Code adopted in 1971 that even after all the amendments is not suitable for a market economy.
• a law to protect business from unjustified searches and seizures of servers was adopted at the end of 2017. Pressure on business by law enforcement agencies is the result of the abuse of power and not the shortcomings of the law. Thus, the problem cannot be solved by legislative changes, but only by effective parliamentary control over the activities of law enforcement agencies, inevitability of punishment for violations made by law enforcement employees, and dissolution of authoritarian structures like the department of economic security under the SSU.

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: people whose homes were damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian military aggression.

What does it change: new government regulation establishes a procedure of distributing funds from the government budget to provide compensations to persons whose homes were damaged or destroyed due to Russian aggression. The Cabinet set the upper limit on such a compensation, approved a damage evaluation procedure and a procedure for submitting requests to government bodies or civil-military administrations to evaluate the damage. All damage compensations will be included into the consolidated reclamation against Russia.

What is right:

• after the procedure of distributing funds from the government budget has been established, people that lost their homes due to Russian aggression against Ukraine will start to get financial aid
• damage evaluation and application procedures will minimize the risk of corruption and other violations
• documenting the damage and its evaluation will help to get compensation from Russia in the future.

What’s next: Donetsk and Luhansk civil-military administrations are obliged to create commissions on providing financial compensations and get an approval from the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories. Affected persons will be able to apply for the aid to their local councils or to their local civil-military administration.

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: government bodies, local government, business, and Ukrainian citizens.

What does it change: newly created advisory and consultative body under the Cabinet will develop a unified gender policy within the system of government bodies. The commission includes Deputy Prime Minister of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament, and Deputy Ministers.

What is right: the work of a designated commission will help to develop a unified approach to ensuring gender equality, so the state policy on the issue is going to become more efficient in fighting discrimination. Involvement of women in all social spheres will bring positive social and economic effect for the state.