The conference was attended by heads of public authorities responsible for the implementation of public policy and functional administration of the civil service from 14 countries, including Ms. Maria Barrados, President of the Public Service Commission of Canada, Mr. Timofiy Motrenko, Head of the Main Deparment of the Civil Service of Ukraine, Mr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, President of the Trudeau Foundation, Mr. Bryan Andrews, Chief Executive of the Public Appointments Service of Ireland, Mr. Manvel Badalyan,  Chairman of the Civil Service Council of Republic of Armenia, among others.  

Participants from the Ukrainian side included Deputy Heads of the MDCSU Mr. Andriy Vyshnevskiy, Ms. Olena Tertyshna, Mr. Mykola Borsuk, Director of the Center for the Adaptation of Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union, Ms. Tetiana Kovtun, and Director of the School of Senior Civil Service, Mr. Eduard Zakaharchenko.  

A second day of the conference was opened with the presentation of a topic “The administrative-political interface and its implications for the accountability of senior bureaucrats” was presented by Mr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, President of the Trudeau Foundation. The topic was discussed in working groups, which were moderated by Mr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, Mr. Timofiy Motrenko and Mr. Bryan Andrews, Chief Executive of the Public Appointments Service of Ireland.

During the final plenary session, participants of the working groups presented results of their discussion. Mr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, President of the Trudeau Foundation, delineated the most important themes which were touched upon in the discussion, namely, accountability in the civil service, loyalty and trust to public servants.

In her closing speech, the President of the Public Service Commission of Canada, Ms. Maria Barrados, praised organization of the conference and contents of discussion, as well as open and fruitful dialogue among participants. Mr. Bryan Andrews, Chief Executive of the Public Appointments Service of Ireland, announced that the next Profession in Perspective conference would be held in Dublin, Ireland in 2010.

In his closing speech, the Head of the MDCSU Timofiy Motrenko expressed his gratitude to all those who contributed to the successful conduct of the conference, first of all to Ms. Maria Barrados, Mr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, Ms. Larysa Bizo among others.   

Reference: Profession in Perspective was initiated in 2005 as a network to bring together senior practitioners in the area of senior public servant management and development from around the globe.  Through annual meetings, such as the conference being organized in Ukraine in September 2009, this network of senior executives gathers to share knowledge and expertise, to discuss new ideas and common public sector management challenges, as well as to learn from one another’s experiences.  Past meetings have included the Netherlands (2005), Finland (2006) and Canada (2008). 

 More details about the conference can be obtained at the conference official web-site.