The Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine is the absolute leader in the ranking of central executive authorities’ capacity to engage in dialogue. The State Audit Office of Ukraine, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine are further down in the rating. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, and the State Space Agency of Ukraine are among the outsiders. Igor Lavrynenko, a leading analyst at the Office for Effective Regulation (BRDO), presented such results of the rating during a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Mr. Lavrynenko noted that for the most part central executive bodies are predictable. “They are able to plan on drafting regulatory acts and inform citizens about it. […] However, some authorities forget about it or do not find it necessary to inform the public about their plans. Antimonopoly Committee well illustrates that, ” the analyst said. On predictability part the Antimonopoly Committee received zero points. Igor Lavrynenko noted that some ministries showed reluctance or inability to publish analytical information on draft regulatory acts. “One example is Ministry of Sport. […] They do not consider their acts as regulatory at all, ” Mr. Lavrynenko said. He added that there is also a significant difference in the quality of informing citizens and business on regulatory activities. Many agencies publish data only once a year, in formats inconvenient for future work, or do not provide information on changes applied to the acts. The analysis of the regulatory acts’ effectiveness on most part is only formal. “We believe that public authorities are able to carry out a real analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness not only of draft regulatory acts, but also of existing regulatory acts,” Igor Lavrynenko said.
“The state declares readiness for dialogue, […] but what we get in reality is a ready-made project, which business representatives are only asked to comment on,” Kateryna Hlazkova, Executive Director of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs said. Natalia Oksha, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communication, Head of the Department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, emphasized that business and the public need to be involved in the dialogue and consultations at the stage of revealing specific problems, and not only when the project is ready. “We must switch to an approach, when through consultations, the problem is first being detected and clarified, and only then it’s possible solutions are discussed. While the act itself should not be discussed,”Maksym Malashkin, State Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, said.
Yevhen Shkolnyi, Expert of the Сentre of Policy and Legal Reform, stressed that in order to secure protection of citizens’ and business representatives’ rights when adopting regulatory acts, the Bill on Public Consultation and the Administrative Procedure Bill should be adopted.