Civil servants: servants of the people or politicians?

On November 20, 2019 AIK has held moderated discussion related to development and implementation of coherent policy and functional administration of civil service with participation of:

– Oleksandr Starodubtsev, Head of the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service

– Alyona Shkrum, Member of Parliament of Ukraine

– Igor Koliushko, Ukrainian politician and scholar, founder and chairman of the Center for Political and Legal Reforms 

Panel discussion has been moderated by Roman Kobets, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Speakers have shared their vision on how to solve the following problems: to what extent is it possible to transfer organizational practices from business to the civil service; how can be satisfied  public demand to re-launch civil service. 

Among the key problems of the civil service have been identified:

– short-term planning and lack of long-term strategic planning;

– insufficient demarcation of political and executive authorities;

– influence of big business on the political system and civil service.

Among the ways to overcome existing challenges the following was identified:

– formation of the state service on a professional basis through competitive selection process;

– ensuring sustainability of public administration, in particular by introducing and maintaining social guarantees for civil servants;

– bringing salaries of civil servants in line with the labor market conditions, which should be introduced in combination with increased accountability and mandatory declaration of income;

– further digitalization of governance processes.

Oleksandr Starodubtsev urged the active citizens including businessman, to participate in the further development of the civil service, which needs updating and introduction of new approaches.

The meeting was held in the off the record format.

Good Governance Program is  supported by a grant from Luminate and National Endowment for Democracy