On 06 December 2018 at the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service (NAUCS) seminar “Costing Strategies as an Integral Part of the Strategic Planning Process” was held. The event was organized by the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, NAUCS and the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union within the framework of the Panel on Governance and Public Administration of the Platform 1 “Strengthening Institutions and Good Governance” of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership”.
First Deputy Head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service Volodymyr Kuprii and Advisor to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandra Betlii in their welcome speeches outlined that the proper and effective public administration, which meets the requirements of modernity and European standards and principles of good governance, is the key to the successful implementation of any reforms as well as the necessary condition for successful European integration.
During the Plenary Session 1 of seminar participants discussed European experience of costing strategies. In particular, expert of the ОЕСD / SIGMA Programme Peter Vagi presented the experience of the SIGMA Programme on the preparation, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of public administration reform and sector strategies as well as outlined the main problems in medium-term planning and possible ways of overcoming them. Director General for International Cooperation and Assistance Programmes of the Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro Admir Šahmanović and Public Finance Management Expert of the Republic of Latvia Sandra Brigsa presented experience of costing of the normative acts in Montenegro and Latvia respectively.
In the framework of the Plenary Session 2 the attention of participants was focused on the issues of improvement of the public administration system and public financial management system in the countries of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership’’ and the EU candidate countries. State Expert of the Expert Group of Analytical Support of Decision-Making of the Directorate for Coordination of State Policies and Strategic Planning of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Andrii Zhminko, Director General of the Directorate for Strategic Planning and European Integration of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine Oleksii Zhak, Head of the Wage Policy Department of the Civil Service Office of the Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic of Armenia Armine Matosyan, Advisor-Consultant of the Constitutional Law Unit of the Department of the Constitutional and International Law of the National Centre of Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus Vitali Dzisko and Senior Advisor of the State Examination Center of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rufat Jahangirbayli presented key achievements and challenges of the public administration reform in the respective countries.
During the Plenary Session 3 participants reviewed costing strategies as a strategic planning element. In particular, the representatives of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” Valeriy Tertychka and Nina Chala focused attention on the features of the selection of development indicators as well as discussed why assessment and costing of strategies are difficult to implement in modern conditions. In turn, Senior Strategy and Budget Expert of the Strategy and Budget Office of the Republic of Turkey Presidency Ali Karagöz presented Turkish experience with costing strategies as well as Senior Policy Adviser of the Administration of the Government of Georgia Giorgi Bobghiashvili presented specifics of policy planning and coordination reform and costing of strategies in Georgia.
Representatives of the central executive authorities of the countries of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership”, who are responsible for coordination and implementation of the process of developing and defining the costing strategies, representatives of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, representatives of the EU Member States and the EU candidate countries, civil society institutes, international and Ukrainian experts took part in the event.
