Systemic changes are urgently needed

In Ukraine, a loud wave of accusations of corruption in the energy sector continues. This is already seriously harming Ukraine on the eve of the vital decision of the Europeans and Americans on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. I think it is worth moving away from personal political preferences and focusing on the fundamental causes that constantly lead to new emergency situations.

The problem is that in Ukraine, the key difficulties are related to the legacy of the Soviet centralized planned economy, where large enterprises and monopolies – such as Energoatom, Ukrenergo, Naftogaz, Ukrzaliznytsia, OPZ, ports – are managed by an uncontrolled state apparatus, behind which influence groups stand.

In fact, the state apparatus is very weak and afraid of external “controllers”. I experienced this more than once in concrete examples during my work in the Ukrainian public administration system. I remember one situation: when I worked in Odesa Regional State Administration, I tried to take control of critical ports from Kolomoiskyi’s group.

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I wrote many letters, made loud statements. A few months later, during a reception in Poroshenko’s administration, late in the evening I was asked to go out into the corridor by a very competent and decent first deputy minister of infrastructure. Looking around, he handed me the order of the ministry, by which Kolomoisky’s group was forbidden access to the Fish Port of Odesa, and asked me to urgently go to Odesa and early in the morning, before anyone found out, to carry out this order.

Although in fact it was a direct duty of the ministry, not the governor (Schulmeister resigned within a month). Together with my team and the Odesa police, I arrived at the port at 9 in the morning and expelled the “invaders” from there. This story well demonstrates how weak and dependent the state apparatus is and how afraid it is to take responsibility.

What is the way out of the situation Firstly, sharp reduction of the state apparatus. The first thing I did when I came to the Odesa Regional State Administration was to reduce the number of employees by 50%, and this had a positive effect on the quality of work. According to the calculations of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, it is necessary to leave about 30% of the current state apparatus. First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov predicts a significant reduction of the state apparatus. The fired people should go to the free economy, and those who remain in the civil service should receive a sharp increase in their salaries.

Second, it is necessary to drastically reduce the number of regulations. A separate position of government minister should be created with the sole purpose of radically reducing regulations. Every other minister must in the shortest possible time prove to this special minister the need for specific functions and regulations existing in his ministry. Unless these tools can be proven to be vital and safe from abuse, they should be repealed at the legislative and governmental levels.

If such measures are taken, then the need for supervisory boards will also disappear, as many of them have also turned into parasitic structures.

Without such fundamental steps, we are doomed to the repetition of similar scandals and the further weakening of Ukraine’s position.

Mikheil Saakashvili

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