Public Administration Reform

The public administration reform is critical for countries with a transitional economy. Public administration performance directly impacts the standard of life, the ease of doing business, GDP, and other economic figures.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine can effectively form public policy only when a professional, successful, and effective accountable executive exists. An effective system of public administration is one of the important prerequisites of democratic governance based on principles of the rule of law.

In 2016, the Government created and approved the 2020 Strategy of the Public Administration Reform and the Action Plan for its implementation in line with European standards of good governance. The reform principally aims to build an effective system of public administration that can produce and implement an integrated public policy focused on social sustainable development and adequate response to domestic and foreign challenges.

Ukraine enjoys powerful EU support in pursuing this reform. For example, the Government of Ukraine and the European Commission signed a financial agreement in December 2016 to support Ukraine in implementing the 2016–2020 Strategy of the Public Administration Reform within the EU Program Support to Comprehensive Reform of Public Administration in Ukraine.

The reform is coordinated by the Coordination Council on Reform of Public Administration chaired by Oleksandr Saienko, the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Why is this reform so relevant?

According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, Ukraine ranks quite low in terms of competitiveness. Its position can be improved by reducing the administrative burden of public regulation, improving the quality of administrative services, and making sure administrative action is lawful and predictable.

The reform should produce a public administration system that guarantees proper implementation of political decisions and legal rules, is transparent, predictable, and client-oriented, focused on sustainable economic growth and promotes entrepreneurship and investment. In addition, good public administration should be marked by a rational use of financial and human resources, creation of conditions for people's self-realization, and transformation of the state into an attractive and effective employer.

Key changes proposed by the reform

One of the key stages of the reform is to enhance the capacity of ministries and turn them into analytical and authority centers that will take the lead of reform implementation and enhance the Government's activities in general.

1. Shifting ministries' focus to policy formation

The public administration reform shifts ministries' focus from producing regulations and managing assets to forming policies in sectors that the ministry is responsible for.

This means that the ministries' effort will be concentrated on continuous analysis of problems and search for potential solutions, formation of respective policies and assessment of potential or existing consequences of their realization. Ministries will also be monitoring dissatisfaction and evaluating stakeholders' proposed policies and possible solutions. They will be analyzing the impact of solutions already under implementation on the problem for the purposes of real-time adjustment.

Policy formation will be the key function of new structural units created in ministries — policy directorates. Newly created directorates of strategic planning and European integration will assume the functions of coordination, policy prioritizing, and strategizing.

This will in turn enable the Government to build a balanced hierarchy of strategic goals. The national budget will be formed in line with these goals. Three-year budget planning will provide adequate funding for the achievement of goals. Continuous monitoring and assessment of results of policies will allow their performance assessment and adjustment on the basis of existing strategic goals.

2. Improving the quality of government decisions

By introducing new procedures for generating government decisions, the Government has to shift from working on events and activity plans to working with problems, options, and consequences. In turn, this will make the Government's decisions more:

clear — by explaining the problem to be resolved and the proven connection between the proposed solution (instrument) and the expected result.
calculated — by analyzing existing solutions to the problem and justifying the most optimal one.
aligned with each other — by analyzing a wide range of impacts on different areas of social life and the solution's consequences for other areas of public policy.
integrated and comprehensive — by analyzing the correlation between an individual solution and the logic of previous and subsequent solutions, its position in the system of other options, an uncontroversial and consistent nature of following the selected course of action.
balanced — by projecting and evaluating the impact of the solution on different stakeholders' interests and their possible response, and finding an acceptable compromise.
open by having problems, options, and solution impacts discussed by those facing their consequences and those in charge of their implementation during their design and review.
realistic — by analyzing required resources (financial, human, material, organizational, communications), implementation risks and limitations.
consistent — by ensuring that a decision may be canceled or its substance adjusted only after analysis and justification of such changes.

3. Clear subordination and allocation of functions

The reform also concerns central government agencies (CGA) and their interaction with CMU. A rational and transparent system of CGA subordination and accountability will be created, their powers listed, areas of responsibility clearly defined, and duplication of functions by different agencies eliminated. Organizational structures of ministries and CGAs will be reorganized and optimized, with highly qualified staff hired to new positions through competitive selection.

4. Improving the area of administrative services

There are plans, among other things, to introduce an administrative procedure based on EU principles, improve the quality of administrative services and increase the proportion of services available electronically, and reduce the administrative burden on businesses and people.

5. Forming a professional public service

This is another area of reform related to public service and human resource management. Already in place at CMU and ministries, state secretaries are top-ranking officials appointed through competitive selection and responsible for effective work of the ministries. Ministries have also started forming "reform teams" made up of highly qualified and competent state experts who can procure the implementation of reform and support a quality process of policy formation and analysis in top-priority sectors.

By using contemporary personnel management methods, the state can turn into a competitive and reputable employer. Public service should be focused on the result rather than the process and have clear performance indicators. In addition, e-government systems and a clear system of balanced indicators with their impact analysis will make public service more effective. The introduction of a transparent and fair system of compensation of civil servants will play an important role, too.

You can view new public service vacancies within the public administration reform at career.gov.ua.

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