100 days of Government: experts and ministers announced the evaluation

July 21, 2016

The results of first 100 days of Groysman`s Government were discussed on june 21 by more than 160 experts, Government members, NGO representatives, diplomats and journalists to summarize the first 100 days of Volodymyr Groysman`s Cabinet of Ministers.

The «100 Days of Government: The First Evaluation and Future Expectations» forum was organized by Reanimation Package of Reform as a part of CEDEM project «Strengthening the RPR coalition» with the European Union support.

Berend de Groot, Head of Cooperation in Delegation of the EU in Ukraine stated that new government efforts are notable, but since the majority of actual questions have not been resolved yet, the reforms tempo must not be slowed.

«We had a high-leveled expectations about new government work, but we still have no program of microeconomic IMG_9273support of already started reforms. Real steps in privatization, decentralization and improving the citizen`s competence in these questions are necessary. As well as accelerating the union of territorial commons to give the powers to local level and engagement the law-knowing youth to public finance management, resolving bank and customs office problems is needed. And international donors want to participate», – said Berend de Groot.

Among the reasons of reform difficulties, experts named the lack of responsibility.

«Today society feels deeply an injustice. It applies not only to economic questions. Neither old politicians, nor the new ones are responsible for something. Nobody is punished for corruption or abuse, nobody is iprisoned. It is impossible to persuade society that gas prices must be heightened, when there is no justice in the state. Why do the odious judges are not imprisoned or at least fired? And there are many similar questions», – stated Taras Shevchenko, CEDEM director and co-chairman of RPR Council during the forum opening.

«The biggest social demand for heightening salaries, pensions, reducing the prices can not be realized for first 100 days of work. Only populists could do it by take credits, thus undermining the state economy.»

At the same time he considers some achievements to be possible during this 100 days, but them wasn`t realized.

IMG_9352«The communication support of changes, approved or planned by Government, is insufficient. There is lack of messages about plans to be done, deadlines and instruments to watch the changes. People must receive the ability to check the way of their country», – said RPR Council co-chairman.

Taras Shevchenko thinks that the Government powers and influence limits also must be considered.

«Courts, prosecution, National Bank, Parliament should also be responsible for reforms. Unfortunately, Government have no influence on them», – speaker noted.

RPR Council co-chairman marked several problems in Government work:

«We have claims complaint about customs and tax office work for corruption reasons and appointments. This public authorities are the beacons for investment and foreign companies, marking whether to invest in Ukraine. Both authorities are accountable to Government and require fast changes».

During the first panel of the forum, experts and government representatives discussed about effective management on national and local level.

In particular, Oleksandr Sayenko, Minister of Cabinet of Ministers, reported, that the strategy of governance isIMG_9381 already applied, and from August 15 the Government will use only electronic flow of documents in communication with central executive authorities.

«It will allow us to minimize the quantity on paper documents, fasten the Government units work and help us speed up all matters», – he mentioned.

In addition, task group is developing changes in Cabinet of Ministers` regulations to increase the efficiency of government decision passing. These proposals will be legislated in Government on next week.

At the same time, Ihor Koliushko, Head of the Board of Centre of Policy and Legal Reform and RPR Council co-chairman is sure, that “hand control” mode is being used in the Cabinet of Ministers.

IMG_9451«It is the indicator, which shows: if Prime Minister will not mark the key reforms and support them personally, these reforms will not be realized», – he explained.

Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Justice, reported, that his ministry set an ambitious goal to fully reload the justice system for several months. Approximately 20% civil servants have been already fired

«The reduction of our unit is going, as well as service powers transition to local authorities. We also are transiting most of functions to online services», – minister said.

During the second theme, the main topic were economic reforms. Discussion was started by Ivan Miklos, co-chairman of Group of Strategic Advisors on the Support for Reforms in Ukraine. He is sure that several reforms have been implemented during this 100 days, but they are not irreversible:

«We still have to struggle for the reforms», – he assured.IMG_9538

Stepan Kubiv, first Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, told about his unit results.

«We have notable success in state-owned enterprises reform. For example, Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukrposhta already have new directors. Privatization will also go on. We`re increasing Ukrainian presence in foreign markets and working to maximize our export. Some actions to attract the investors are already done: the obligatory registration of investment is cancelled, deregulation is going on», – he explained.

Oleksandr Danyliuk, Minister of Finance, reported about the ongoing negotiations with IMF. He proved that the IMF Board of Directors meeting, where the Ukrainian tranche issue had to be discussed, would not be held on. The delay is caused by Verhovna Rada incapacity to approve the fund market regulating laws.

IMG_9554Additionally, every participant could vote for one of the priorities for Government work. The results will be analyzed by RPR and driven to Government to be accounted in further work.

REFERENCE: Specially for Forum, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation held on an expert poll about government work. Experts ranked Volodymyr Groisman`s work higher, that his Government`s one. New Cabinet received 4.6/10, while Groisman received slightly betted mark – 5.3/10.

The most successful part of Government work were the collaboration with President (6.2/10). Also the successful one were the work with international organizations (6,2/10) and civic society (5,4/10) The worst were the personnel policy.

This article includes photos and information from PRP press service