Kyiv, July 22, 2015. Local level public administration reform is of no less importance than a nationwide civil service reform, and needs to start right after the latter, stated Dieter Shimanke, Senior Advisor at GIZ, German Agency for International Cooperation. “You will be moving in parallel by introducing new requirements for civil services after the new law is adopted and by enacting decentralization reform. This task is not easy. It is a challenge for Ukraine,” noted Schimanke.
According to Schimanke, the same principles that are used to change central authorities need to apply to reforming local level public administrations: openness, transparency, impartial candidate selection, regular evaluation of work, fair pay as well as building an easy-to-understand schematic for the career promotion for civil servants.
Based on the experience of countries that went through similar transformations, Dieter Schimanke assumed that public administration reform at the local level may take longer than civil service reform. Shimanke used the example of the German experience, in which after the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, the similar reforms took from six-eight years to enact.
Schimanke also opined that the bill on civil service is progressive: “The adoption of this document will be a huge step forward for Ukraine, as it resolves basic governance problems.” Though the expert noted that it is time to develop a clear implementation plan so that its practical execution can start immediately after the law is passed.
