Daniel Pasko: We have closed 70% of requests for high-educated professionals received from Ukrainian government

Kyiv, the 20th of June, 2014 – “We received 33 requests from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and we sent 443 resumes of relevant candidates. As the result 22 candidates were elected to work on various posts at the Governmental, “- stated Daniel Pasko, member of the initiative “Professional Government” and president of the Harvard Club at the press briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

Representatives of the “Professional Government” initiative reported the results of their work for the past three months and spoke about cooperation with state authorities. According to the graduates from foreign universities, the greatest interest in their assistance demonstrated a few members of the Cabinet. Vice Prime Minister Olexander Sych, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Pavel Sheremeta, Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Kvit had pointed on our offer.  As a result three of our candidates are employed at the Ministry of Economic Development “- said Daniel Pasko. “We are willing to give our time and knowledge to help the country to reform its economy, fight corruption, develop transparent mechanisms of work of public authorities and foster changes in Ukrainian democratic institutions”, – added Nataliya Honchar, the graduate of Columbia University.

The low wages are one of the stumbling blocks in involvement of high professionals to work in Ukrainian government. Dan Pasko emphasizes that it’s next to impossible to attract the best professionals without reforming the system of public administration, because these people prefer business: “We cannot secure attracting the best professionals. Since the salary in government is much lower than generally at the market. This issue should be resolved. There are international investors ready to allocate money for the high-class professionals, but there are legal barriers from Ukrainian side”.

 “Professional Government” is the initiative of the Ukrainian graduates from foreign universities, which unites over two thousand people: graduates from Harvard University, INSEAD business school, Georgetown University in Ukraine, Oxford University, London School of Economics and others. The project was launched in March 2014, its leaders invite the top-educated graduates to submit their resumes for the governmental-backed openings.

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