Bill to reduce Cabinet’s powers, liquidation of advisory bodies, and new executive appointments: decisions by President and Cabinet

During the previous week, the Cabinet and the President worked hard and adopted a number of decisions that will affect Ukrainian citizens, businesses, government bodies, and the balance of power in Ukraine.

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, businesses, civil servants, the Cabinet, and ministries (of Internal Affairs, Culture, Health, Economy, etc.).

What does the bill change: the Cabinet will be stripped of 55 of its uncharacteristic powers, including the authority:

• to determine salary budgets for local state administration employees (they are already determined by the Law on Government Budget)
• to define the grain declaration procedure (the authority to do that will be transferred to the Ministry of Economy)
• to approve blank forms of identification cards and armbands of the members of citizens groups for the protection of public order and state border (the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be responsible for that)
• to determine which population categories are required to undergo periodical medical examinations (the authority to do that will be delegated to the Ministry of Health).

What is right:

• any government power should be exercised by a state body most suited for the job. Since the Cabinet has a huge amount of responsibilities, it sometimes cannot properly perform some of its functions and it is right to delegate some of the duties to the ministries
• this is a case unprecedented in Ukraine when a government body attempts to optimize its own powers.

What’s next: the Parliament will vote on the bill.

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: the Cabinet, employees of some of the central executive bodies, specialized NGOs, experts, and Ukrainian citizens.

What does the resolution change: 33 consultative, advisory, and other auxiliary bodies under the Cabinet have been liquidated. That includes the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office, the Interdepartmental coordination group on the anti-corruption reform, and the Steering committee on preparation for the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the renaissance of the National University of Ostroh Academy in 2019.

Why this is important:

• consultative, advisory, and other auxiliary bodies are not a part of the government and cannot make any decisions. They just help the Cabinet to exercise its functions and assist with public engagement
• before the resolution has been adopted there were 218 such bodies.

What is right:

• consultative, advisory, and other auxiliary bodies are created to accomplish some particular tasks and after that should be liquidated. If they are not dissolved, the number of bodies that exist only on paper grows
• although such bodies do not get any money from the government budget directly, their continued existence takes up the time of the employees of the Secretariat of the Cabinet and other civil servants. Thus, the resolution will save some budget money in the long term.

Decision-maker: the Cabinet.

Who is affected: the Cabinet, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, and Ukrainian citizens.

What does it change: “lockdown” competitions for the following positions are announced:

• deputy head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Art and Art Education, Digital Development, Digital Transformations, and Digitalization
• head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management

Why this is important: since April 2020, there are no proper competitions for civil service positions in Ukraine. During this time, the Cabinet has announced 126 “lockdown” competitions for positions of category A.

What is wrong:

• “lockdown” competitions reduced to mere job interviews do not facilitate the development of high-quality civil service. Such competitions do not guarantee the impartial and unbiased selection, the winners are selected by subjective criteria
• the winners of “lockdown” competitions are often not the candidates with better scores but candidates loyal to a particular minister or the Government. Instead of professional civil servants at high governmental positions Ukraine can get politicians.

Decision–maker: the President.

Who is affected: employees of the Anti-Monopoly Committee, businesses, and Ukrainian citizens.

What does it change: Mariia Protsychen is dismissed as the Anti-Monopoly Committee state commissioner.

What is wrong: according to the Constitution, the President can only submit a proposal concerning a candidature for the Head of the Anti-Monopoly Committee and has no other powers over the institution, so he cannot dismiss the Anti-Monopoly Committee state commissioner.

Proper solution: since the position of the Anti-Monopoly state commissioner is not mentioned in the Constitution, the commissioner can be appointed only by the Cabinet and under the procedure defined by the law.

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