Olexandr Saienko: A key principle of good governance is to place the interests of person in the focus of each government decision

A new quality of effective governance is based on the key principle when the interests of a person are placed at the center of each government decision. This was emphasized by the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Saienko in the program "Echo of Ukraine" on the TV channel Priamy (Direct).

The Minister set an example of a decentralization reform in Ukraine when the financial resource had been transferred to the local level, along with devolution of authority.

"Today, it allows building hundreds, thousands of objects throughout the country - kindergartens, schools, hospitals, roads. Moreover, local authorities have received a resource that allows them to leverage investment and develop local infrastructure", said Oleksandr Saienko.

The second issue in the process of developing an effective governance system, according to the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, is the reform of the civil service. Olexandr Saienko stressed that the streamlining of the civil service for the first time in Ukraine is basing on the principles of professionalism and value-oriented approach when a public servant understands that his main task is to serve the interests of people.

"Currently, for the first time, we are introducing a system of evaluation of civil servants, because we want to focus on the specific tasks facing the civil servant and the results that he demonstrates and to objectively make a professional assessment", Olexandr Saienko said.

No less important component of reforms, according to the Minister, is e-governance. "It's much better for a citizen not to contact an official, but to receive any assistance, any decision, permission online, avoiding visiting government agencies", he added.

The Minister reminded that the list of advantages introduced by the Government includes more than 118 electronic services, and in 2019 this number will increase by another 50 services.

"Another important component is the management of state-owned enterprises. Ukraine has 3,500 state-owned enterprises. Therefore, one of the main priorities of today is the effective management in the public sector", said Olexandr Saienko.

He accentuated that in Ukraine first-ever the professional supervisory boards and management are selected, as well as precise tasks of economic activity of enterprises are determined following a mechanism of transparent competitions.

"We express satisfaction from the fact that the year of 2018 gave us the opportunity to admit that the reform was successful, and we have very serious plans to prolong it in 2019", summed up the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Olexandr Saienko.