Land reform, new heads of customs service and space agency: decisions by Government and President

20 November 2020
Land reform, new heads of customs service and space agency: decisions by Government and President
Home > Monitoring > Land reform, new heads of customs service and space agency: decisions by Government and President

While top state officials are still self-isolated after contracting COVID-19, government bodies continue to work. The Cabinet has boosted land reform and appointed new heads of the Customs Service and the Space Agency. The President has dismissed a head of the SSU regional department. The Parliament has gathered for a plenary meeting and considered three major pieces of legislation.

New Head of the State Customs Service appointed

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, businesses, importers, exporters, the Ministry of Finance, the Cabinet, and Customs Service employees.

What does it change: Pavlo Riabikin, a former general director of the Boryspil International Airport, has been appointed the Head of the State Customs Service.

What is wrong:

  • the newly elected head is the fifth head of the State Customs Service appointed since April 2020. To change the management of a state institution so often can be problematic for consistent implementation of a government policy and will have negative consequences for the Customs’ HR policy
  • the new head was appointed via a “lockdown” competition. The aim of such competitions is not to select the best of the best professionals but the candidates most loyal to top government officials. Such an approach impedes the effective work of government bodies and makes their heads dependent on the will of the Cabinet and the informal influence of the Office of the President.

New Head of State Space Agency appointed

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: business, the Cabinet, and employees of space industry enterprises.

What does it change: Volodymyr Usov has been dismissed as the Head of the State Space Agency. Mykhailo Lev has been temporarily appointed in his stead.

What is wrong: Volodymyr Usov has been dismissed using a provision that allows the Cabinet to fire almost any civil servant within four months after a new Cabinet or a minister has been appointed. The provision does not help to develop effective sustainable institutions but instead allows a new Cabinet or a minister an opportunity to dismiss all civil servants appointed by predecessors.

Head of Security Service department in Mykolaiv oblast dismissed

Decision-maker: the President.

Who is affected: employees of the Security Service, corrupted officials, terrorists, criminals, and businesses in Mykolaiv oblast.

What does it change: Vitalii Hersak has been dismissed as the Head of Security Service department in Mykolaiv oblast.

What is wrong:

  • according to the Constitution, the President can only propose a candidate for the Head of the Security Service to the Parliament. The President does not have the authority to appoint anyone else within the Security Service of Ukraine
  • the unconstitutional appointments of the heads of the Security Service undermine the legitimacy of the Service and affect its efficiency.

What else: the President has also dismissed Oleksandr Stadnik as the Head of the Mykolaiv oblast state administration and temporarily appointed Heorhii Reshetilov in his stead.

Cabinet boosts the land reform

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, businesses, local governments, and the Cabinet.

What does it change: the resolution sets the following tasks:

  • for the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre, to speed up inventorying state-owned agricultural land and transfer it to communal ownership
  • for the Ministry of Economy, to address draft bills on providing financial assistance to farmers, enhancing management and deregulation in land matters, facilitating transparent online land auctions
  • for the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy, and the State Service for Geodesy, to stimulate amalgamated territorial communities to hurry up and register their land rights on state-owned agricultural lands.

What is right: amalgamated communities will own agricultural lands.

What is wrong: the Government has adopted the resolution because it was demanded by the President’s decree, although the Head of the State has no authority to influence land policies.

Because the previous plenary week was shortened, the Parliament worked just one day and made the following decisions:

  • adopted a resolution on informing the public about lockdown restrictions (4320) and failed to cancel the “weekend lockdown” (4381)
  • failed to adopt a bill on postponing the mandatory requirement for sole proprietors to use cash registries (4313-d)
  • started to consider the bill on publication procedure for adopted legislation (4334)

For more details on the last week’s parliamentary agenda, please check our previous digest.