Article 7.1.
Public sector

In Ukraine, the legal and institutional framework for the civil service is defined by the Law of Ukraine On Civil Service ("Civil Service Law"), adopted in December 2015. The Law defines approaches to the formation of the civil service system in Ukraine. The Civil Service Law, inter alia, defines: general requirements for entering the civil service; competition for civil service positions; appointment to civil service positions; civil service performance; and termination of civil service.

There are three categories ("A" - the highest category, "B" and "C") of civil service, which cover nine ranks. Each category contains requirements for professional activity and corresponds to the position held by an employee in the system of public authorities. The higher the category, the higher the level of duties and responsibilities assigned to the civil servant. The National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service (“NACS”) is responsible for the development and implementation of state policy in the civil service. The Commission on Senior Civil Service (“Commission”) conducts competitions for civil service positions of category A and conducts disciplinary proceedings against civil servants of category A.
1) Competition for the “A” category civil service position
The decision to announce such a competition is taken by the appointing authority. Based on the results of the competition, the Commission shall submit to the appointing authority proposals for candidates for such positions in the total number of no more than three persons.

2) Competition for the “B” or “C” category civil service positions
The decision to hold the proper competition shall be taken by the head of the civil service in the relevant body, and the competition itself shall be held by a permanent competition commission.
3) Tailor-made competitions are carried out for civil service positions which are prone to corruption
Tailor-made competitions are carried out according to separately-determined procedures under, largely, relevant laws (NABU Law, Public Prosecution Law, Corruption Prevention Law, etc.). They concern positions of high responsibility or positions with a high level of corruption risks (e.g., Head of NACP, Director of NABU, Director of SACPO). Following the Rules of Procedure for competition for civil service positions, there are nine stages of the competitions. At the same time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain stages of the competition may be held remotely by decision of an authorised person.

During the war, competitions are held under a simplified procedure. The applicant must submit an application, a completed personal card in the prescribed form and documents confirming the Ukrainian citizenship, education and work experience in accordance with the requirements of the legislation established for the relevant positions. Transparency of competitions is ensured through video and audio recording.

The commission decides on no more than three candidates who have received the highest number of points at all stages of the competition. Their candidacies are submitted to an authorized person, who selects the winner of the competition at their discretion. The results of the competition can be appealed to by the participants in court within 10 days from the date of announcement of the results. The grounds for appeal may be a violation of the procedure or conditions of the competition. During their tenure, civil servants must undergo annual performance appraisals. The Civil Service Law also provides for ongoing professional training, enhancing competencies and qualifications of civil servants. The level of professional competence of civil servants is enhanced during their service, including advanced training – at least once in three years.

Despite provisions that appear effective, the law is oftentimes amended. Over the last three years, the law has been amended 17 times. Civil society experts who were interviewed noted that such amendments violate the principle of legal certainty and permanence of the civil service, which harms the formation and implementation of public policy in this area.

Civil Service Competitions
Unified Portal of Civil Service Vacant Positions
The established requirements for the proper publication of all civil service vacancies are met at a high level. All announcements together with information about the competition are published on the Unified Portal of Civil Service Vacant Positions. It allows for real-time tracking of the vacancies available in all government agencies. It provides an opportunity to submit documents for participation in the competition in electronic form. The portal also allows you to go through individual stages of the competition (e.g., tests). All of this combined contributes to the transparency and openness of competitions. Despite sufficient technical facilities for applying documents through the Unified portal, state bodies carry out consideration and approval of these documents in different terms. Some public bodies confirm the package of documents in a few days, but others can do it in a week.

The NACS also creates conditions for improving the use of the portal’s functions. For its part, in 2018, to reduce the number of formal refusals to accept documents, the NACS issued a practical guide on mistakes typically made in submitting documents of candidates for vacant “A” category civil service positions. Training in the use of the portal was conducted twice in 2021. As of the end of September 2023, the portal is not functioning due to the war. Additionally, the announcements are published on the website of a state body where the competition was announced, and on other job search websites.

The published announcement of the competition shall specify all the necessary conditions, including the job responsibilities of a candidate; terms of remuneration; requirements for the professional competence of a candidate; a clear list of documents required for participation in the competition, and the deadline for their submission. The experts are convinced that despite a detailed list of conditions for entering the civil service, there are cases when a person may be faced with functional responsibilities for which they are not ready. This may cause the dismissal of the civil servants in prospect.

Peculiarities of conduction of competitions for civil service positions
The characteristic features of сompetitions for the civil servants in Ukraine are simplified access to the civil service and unified competition procedures. The latter factor in some cases has a negative impact on the competition. The open competition procedure has been changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conduction of competitions has been temporarily terminated by the corresponding law. For the period of quarantine instead of general competitions, for almost one whole year, a special selection procedure was used, specifically, the conclusion of fixed-term contracts. They were concluded based on the interviewing results, without any legal or regulatory criteria for the interview. Almost 20,000 people (approximately 10% of the total number of civil servants) were hired to the civil service without competitive selection).
Although contracted persons are subject to open competition, the equality of all participants is not ensured. New candidates are in unequal conditions compared to those who have previously worked in the body. This can be seen for instance by the extra-selection procedure applied to the state secretaries of ministries. In four ministries, the state secretaries were appointed by the extra-selection procedure in 2020 and in 2021, all of them were appointed based on the results of already open competitions. This was deemed a negative period by the experts interviewed for this report, as it was possible to recruit people who, in the case of open procedures, could not complete all the necessary stages of the competition. But there is a safeguard that the new employee may hold the position until the winner of the competition is appointed to the position or until the expiry of the 12-month period after the end or cancellation of martial law.

In 2021, competitions for the civil service were resumed. After the resumption of competitions in Ukraine, two procedures operated in parallel, namely regular competitions and competitions for “additional selection" for vacant positions (so-called “dobirna vakansiia”, where a contract is concluded). The number of competitions held in 2021 demonstrates a constant need for staff in the public sector. With the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, the procedure for holding competitions was again simplified. Most competitions are held without submission of declarations and documents proving proficiency in the official language. At the same time, for positions in some agencies (e.g., National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) or Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SACPO)), the competition is open with all documents submitted. On the one hand, it increases the transparency and impartiality of the competition, but on the other hand, potential candidates face difficulties in preparing all the necessary documents.

In general, the experts interviewed for this report express their concerns over competitions (including the temporary extra-selection procedure). In particular cases, existing competition procedures can be bypassed, and it is possible to appoint a person, even if she or he is less qualified than other candidates. The extra-selection procedure only simplified these opportunities. Professionalism and candidates’ position suitability are also questionable. The reasons are both the unwillingness of citizens to go into the civil service and the lack of state-employer branding. The experts suggest possible safeguards against non-transparent competitions. One of these may be to prevent candidates from being admitted to the competition at the stage of acceptance of documents if they do not meet the established requirements. To do this it is necessary, firstly, to check candidates’ documents to evaluate the person’s suitability for a position, and, secondly, to introduce any selective external control over competitions and the individuals going through them.

Peculiarities of competitions for individual positions
In 2019, to improve the quality and integrity of the selection of candidates for civil service positions, particularly for certain civil service positions (“A” category, reform specialists, and candidates for NACS), the Center for Evaluation of Candidates for Civil Service Positions was established (“Center”). Despite the war, the Center organised 132 competitions (in terms of testing) for civil service positions, involving a total of 2,409 candidates. The Center allowed to unify competitions, improve quality and transparency of each individual stage of the competition, and to create equal conditions for participants. Further actions need to be taken to expand the center’s capacity as well as expanding the coverage of candidates for civil service to include other public authorities.

Competitions for positions of directors of independent bodies (e.g., NACP, NABU, SACPO, etc.) were held according to one of two models. One model was with domination of international experts’ opinion, and the other with prevailing of decision made by experts delegated by the state. The most trusted competitions are those that ensure the predominant influence of international experts. The competition for the position of the NACP Head, that we mentioned in Article 6, is an example. At the same time, competitions in which the state-delegated members of the competition commission have a big or decisive influence on the competition result have been criticized; such competitions have proved to be inefficient. Recently held competitions for the hiring of the director of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, Bureau for Economic Security, and the commissioner of National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, demonstrated in real life how to appoint the “right” person with personal or political links, rather than the most competent candidate. Some positions with high corruption risks (in a broad sense) are elected or appointed, i.e., those held without open competitions (Prosecutor General, Head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU), Chief of the National Police, etc.). This method of appointment negatively affects the transparency and independence of the related bodies.

Peculiarities regarding dismissal from civil service and appealing the results of competitions
There are certain specifics regarding dismissals from the civil service. In 2019, the Labour Code was supplemented by an article that allowed the CMU) to dismiss “A” category civil servants without specifying the grounds for such dismissal. Owing to that, in 2020, the heads of State Tax and Customs Services, as well as other officials, were dismissed. Instead of the dismissed, other persons were appointed without holding a competition (as the extra-selection procedure was in place). According to the experts, it violated the principles of permanence of the civil service and the independence of the personnel of the civil service from changes in the political leadership of the state, negated the progress already achieved in civil service over the past three years. In 2021, the article was abolished. As of 2023, the abuse of the right to civil service can only be challenged in court. According to the interviewed experts, this situation puts civil servants at a disadvantage and deprives them of the opportunity to more quickly appeal and protect their rights, as the judicial system in Ukraine is overloaded and cannot quickly defend the interests of civil servants. Appealing to court costs money and is time-consuming; moreover, unwillingness to challenge the competition results in a body where a person can be possibly working in the future, if the appeal is successful, does not in any way motivate future civil servants to appeal competitions in court.

Education and advanced training of civil servants
The NACS is responsible for the advanced training of civil servants. Within these powers, the NACS:

• Created the Knowledge Management Portal to ensure the professional development of civil servants, heads of local state administrations, their deputies, officials of local self-government. As of 2022, the site contained 1493 advanced training programs including the English courses and anti-corruption ones, and 72 master’s degree educational programs. In total, almost 95 thousand registered users, 121 educational institutions, 16 projects/programmes of the Ministry of International Development and other NGOs.
• Supports the activities of the Ukrainian School of Governance (the USG), i.e. an institution of postgraduate education that is managed by the NACS. The interviewed experts argue that the USG needs to be reformed and improve the quality of services it provides to civil servants. The USG should focus on providing more practical and hands-on training, as well as on developing a more rigorous curriculum. They also believe that the USG should be more transparent and accountable to its stakeholders. By making these reforms, the USG can play a more effective role in improving the quality of governance in Ukraine.

In addition to the NACS, the state provides a master’s degree program in Public Administration at the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine (“NAPA”).

The interviewed experts believe that despite the reform of the NAPA, its negative approaches to training and retraining have been not changed. In general, the interviewed expert note the low quality of civil servants' training, arguing that approaches to training are outdated. The courses conducted mostly do not provide new information, but rather teach what civil servants already know. Numerous training materials and certificates do not reflect the quality of such training. At the same time, there is no research on the effectiveness of the conducted training materials. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the obligatory training of civil servants on issues of corruption prevention. However, the interviewed experts underline that, given the formal approaches to their conduct, the level of understanding of the materials and the effectiveness of their application in practice remain low.

Legal framework after State evaluation.

Implementation in practice after State evaluation.