February 26, Kyiv: Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Regional Councils under the support of UNDP "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme" held a roundtable to discuss the draft law Draft Law "On Service in Local Government Bodies". It is expected that the Law be adopted before June 2013, and it will become effective in 2014.
Draft Law of Ukraine "On Service in Local Government Bodies" was developed by Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council in cooperation with the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration, taking into account comments and suggestions of associations of local governments.
The main innovation of this project was presented by Olena Savchenko-Sviatko, head of HR and local government service unit of executive office in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast’ council. The project includes a new classification of positions into 5 groups and subgroups, contains requirements for the political neutrality for local government officials and describes competence requirements for the persons applying for jobs administrative positions in local government. The law improves the system of remuneration for employees of local governments, sets the minimum salary for the position in local government at a level not less than two minimum salaries. Individual articles governing bonuses and other encouragements, social package, pensions and financial support local government officials. Ms Savchenko-Svatko noted that this project takes into account the three previous drafts and more than 200 proposals from almost all regional councils of Ukraine and associations of local governments.
Vyacheslav Tolkovanov, head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service noted that the law "On Service in Local Government" and "On Civil Service" shall come into force at once. Mr. Tolkovanov, noted that Chapter IV, concerning the remuneration, should be agreed with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Pension Fund of Ukraine.
Mr. Alexander Kasyanyuk, head of the Department of Personnel Policy of the Department of Regional Personnel Policy of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine noted that the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service is responsible for the preparation of the project, and announced a of map the draft revision so the law could be adopted in June 2013.
Participants, including representatives of associations of local authorities have stated that the formation of the staff arrangements of local government, as well as staff salary scale, cannot be done under standard structures. It is contrary to the basic functions of local government - deliver quality services to local communities.
It is worth mentioning that UNDP / MGSDP has always followed the above mentioned statement. Since 2004, UNDP/MGSDP is cooperating with 29 municipalities to implement the principles of sustainable development and improve living standards. For this purpose, MGSDP encouraged municipalities to create MSU within 2-3 persons (depending on the city) to perform tasks at the local level. Later, these structures developed into Resource centers to attract investments to the city. The Program builds capacity of these departments. The main argument against the creation of such departments has always been a position that it is not in the default list of the local authority structure.
30 participants and representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Presiadential Administration of Ukraine, the Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on State Building and Local Government, the National Agency of Ukraine Civil Service, State Fund for Local Government of Ukraine, the Association of Ukraine, the National Association of village councils and others attended the discussion.
For more information, contact Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer, tel. (044) 584-34-75 or e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
