An issue on implementation of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform for the period of 2016-2020 has been raised during a meeting of the Ukraine-EU Strategic Dialogue on Public Administration Reform.

The Ukraine-EU Strategic Dialogue on Public Administration Reform with participation of the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Saienko and Head of the Support Group for Ukraine Peter Wagner was held, at which the results of implementation of the Action Plan in 2017 were summarized.

Oleksandr Saienko in his welcoming speech admitted: “Year and a half later, since the reform support groups have been introduced, we reached a point where it should be moving to the next stage of cooperation. We made considerable progress, and now it is time for consolidating our achievements. At the next stage, we intend to focus our efforts on priorities as privatization, effective management of public enterprises, public administration reform and enhancement of the business environment. We also want to expand the scope of the support program, introducing the reform support group in other ministries and departments. These teams are not only important for reforms, but they are a potential basis for a modern, professional and efficient civil service in Ukraine. "

Head of NAUCS Kostiantyn Vashchenko took part in the event and briefed on the status of implementation of the Concept on the introduction of reform staff positions and next steps for further its realization. It was noted that 204 reform experts were appointed from the date of announcement of competition, as of 21 March 2018.

In his speech he also focused on legislative background of civil service, in particular amending the Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service”, as well as introduction of HRMIS.

It was observed that work on preparing the technical specifications and tender documentation for the procurement procedure is almost completed for today. All acts will be developed till the end of March and sent for consideration to the World Bank at the beginning of April. The procurement is scheduled for the end of 2018.

Kostiantyn Vashchenko also informed that a rightsizing of civil service is launched in an evolutionary way based on functions and organizational structure of government authorities. Thus, the Government approved the Concept on Optimization of the System of Central Executive Authorities (as of 27 December 2017 No 1013-r), which provides for:

• separating the functions on formulation and implementation of public policy;
• adoption of ministries status involved in policy formation, strategic planning policy, monitoring and assessment of its implementation;
• distribution of functions not able to be exercised by the same body among other central government executive authorities.

A draft Action Plan for the Concept implementation was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In general, a total number of civil servants in 2017 decreased by 18.2 percent compared to 2015.

At the meeting, issues on financial provision of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform for the period of 2016-2020, functioning of coordination structures for reforming the public administration, communicative campaign and system for monitoring the Strategy were also considered.

In addition, the improvement of strategic planning system, policy development, changes to the Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, moving towards an electronic document circulation during the development of documents by ministries and interagency communications were discussed.