1) While Ukraine has established principles and regulations for public consultations in policymaking, these processes are not functioning effectively in practice.
2) Central executive bodies and local governments have not properly implemented rules for consultation and public participation remains tokenistic rather than meaningful.
3) Institutional weaknesses, unclear responsibilities, lack of oversight, and passive civil society have prevented public consultations from realizing their democratic potential in Ukraine.
Адміністрування ПДВ як чинник розвитку експортних галузей
What prevents Ukraine’s system of public consultations in the central executive body policy-making process from working as it should?
1. What prevents Ukraine’s system of
public consultations in the central
executive body policy-making process
from working as it should?
December 12, 2012
Ivan Ratushniak
2. Plenty has been done to
institute public consultations
in Ukraine
3. Regulatory environmentc
The principles and basis for state policy
have been defined and legislated.
The legislative basis and mechanisms
for consultations are in place.
A Procedure for holding public consultations
related to the formation and execution of state
policy has been approved.
4. Organization: Primary responsibility (1)
Responsibility for holding public consultations:
Council of Oblast and Municipal
Central Executive
Ministers of (Kyiv/Sevastopol)
Bodies (CEBs)
Crimea State Admins
Subunits
5. Organization: Auxiliary support (2)
CEBs and local executive bodies (LEBs) now have advisory civic
councils attached to them that:
– coordinate effective interaction between executive bodies and the public;
– bring public opinion into play in the formation and execution of state
policy.
In practice, CEBs and LEBs have
begun to post draft legislation and
regulations on their official sites.
6. What does the government say? (1)
Presidential Decree №212 “On the Strategy of state policy to foster the
development of civil society in Ukraine” dated March 24, 2012, notes:
– “The work of CEBs and LEBs continues to be opaque, closed and
excessively bureaucratic rather than moving towards effective dialog
with civil society.”
– “The mechanisms for civil society to be engaged in the process of
formulating and executing state policy are not being properly used.”
– “Positive instances of effective cooperation between CEBs, LEBs and civil
society institutions are the exception rather than the rule.”
7. What does the government say? (2)
The President continues to emphasize the importance of engaging
civil society in the policy-making process.
During a meeting with student leaders
on November 14, 2012, the President
stated,
“When reforms directly affect voters,
it’s very important for voters to
understand why they are taking
place.”
Viktor Yanukovych
8. How is it that, given all the attention
to democratic development on the
part of those in power, civil society in
Ukraine remains uninformed, unheard,
and unsatisfied?
9. The problems (1)
“Need to include civil society in the process” remains
more declarative than actual:
– In practice, CEBs and LEBs do not follow the
Cabinet Regulation or the Procedure for
holding consultations.
– As a rule, the consultation process comes
down to merely publishing draft legislation
and regulations.
– The democratic standards of public
participation are simply ignored.
10. The problems (2)
The institutional capacity of CEBs and LEBs
makes it difficult to hold high-quality
consultations:
– Sub-units of CEBs and LEBs responsible for
interacting with civil society lack the necessary
knowledge and skills.
– The staffing of such sub-units is frequently too
small.
11. The problems (3)
Neither the Law “On central executive bodies” nor the
standard provisions regarding ministries and CEBs
define the functions of these bodies with regard to
holding public consultations.
As a result, such functions are also
missing in the provisions on sub-
units attached to the
administrations of these bodies and
in actual job descriptions.
12. The problems (4)
Oversight, as a means of upholding legislation on engaging
civil society, is ignored.
Officials, whose powers include calling to task those
responsible for violations, follow the law at their own
discretion: if they feel like it, they respond; if they don’t
feel like it, they don’t. So public consultations depend
directly on their will and whims.
Such officials are not answerable to anybody for their
biased actions and thus go unpunished.
13. The problems (5)
The law does not specify responsibility and
penalties for such direct violations as failure to
follow the procedure for holding public
consultations.
14. The problems (6)c
The public consultation process is not properly regulated.
Provisions in individual laws only partly regulate this
institutions:
– The law only extends the requirement to hold public consultations to
the Cabinet of Ministers, CEBs, LEBs and local governments.
– There is no requirement whatsoever to hold public consultations when
legislation is being drafted by National Deputies of Ukraine as a
legislative initiative or in the Law “On the Regulation of the Verkhovna
Rada.”
– Nor is the President bound to hold consultations when drafting decrees
and other legal acts: Presidential Decree №970 dated November 15,
2006, allows this requirement to be applied selectively.
15. The problems (7)
Civil society institutions are:
– overly passive in exercising their rights and
defending their interests in the policy-
making process;
– not making use of existing levers of
influence on the government.
16. What steps might bring hope?
1. Civil society needs to pressure the government to move from declarative to real
actions in terms of public consultations.
2. The institutional capacity of government bodies to hold public consultations
needs to be improved.
3. A basic law needs to be adopted that will:
– set the minimal standards, mechanisms and procedures for public
participation based on the existing Procedure for public consultations;
– be binding on all government agencies, without exception, including the
President of Ukraine and VR Deputies.
– establish the specific violations for which specific officials will be held
accountable.
1. A system of independent state oversight needs to be set up that would
automatically penalize officials for inaction in terms of holding public
consultations.
17. Recommendations to civil society and
donors (1)
Demand that the Government provide a
transparent institutional chart of the executors and
a chart of state oversight for holding public
consultations.
Demand that the President and Government draft
and incorporate changes to the provisions on CEBs
and individual job descriptions to make it
mandatory to hold public consultations.
18. Recommendations to civil society and
donors (2)
Demand that the Verkhovna Rada adopt a basic law
that properly and fully regulates public consultations.
Demand that the Government hold responsible all
officials who fail to follow the procedure on holding
public consultations.
Broadly disseminate current legislative and regulatory
documents on public consultations and demand that
government bodies uphold them.
Notas del editor
I have added explanatory phrases to this title and the next one.
There is too much on this slide. It should be broken up into two or three.