Executive Summary
The suspension of competitive selection in early 2022 was a necessary emergency measure for the civil service system in the first months of the full-scale invasion. At the same time, several questions remain open regarding:
- whether the use of this practice throughout the entire period of the legal regime of martial law is justified;
- the mechanisms to be introduced to remedy the situation;
- whether the proposed approaches meet the interests of the target audience — civil servants themselves.
This report seeks to answer these questions.
Throughout martial law, the restoration of competitive procedures for civil service positions has repeatedly prompted active debate. International institutions have emphasised the need for Ukraine to return to merit-based, competitive selection. Lawmakers have focused on meeting these requirements, while the target audience — civil servants themselves — do not always share this view.
This study focuses on civil servants’ internal perspective of the current state of play and prospects for staffing the civil service during the legal regime of martial law, as well as their attitudes, needs and expectations.
The internal assessments and attitudes of the civil service were identified through an anonymous questionnaire survey.
Overall, the survey results indicate that civil servants have adapted to the current staffing model and appear to have limited awareness of the potential advantages of competitive selection. A majority of respondents (57.2%) are comfortable with the absence of competitive procedures and, in some cases, openly opposed their restoration, not only during martial law but more broadly.
At the same time, some respondents clearly recognise the need to restore competitive procedures for civil service positions and expect this step to be taken. They associate such procedures with fair selection, reduced subjective discretion and lower corruption risks in staffing decisions. However, this group accounts for only 26.3% of respondents.
Although the prospect of restoring competitive procedures did not receive broad support, a majority of respondents (51.7%) expressed trust in their results. At the same time, almost one in five respondents does not trust the results of competitive selection. As civil servants themselves explain, this mistrust is based on their own negative experience of taking part in competitive procedures.
This experience has created demand among respondents for improving the quality and transparency of competitions. In this context, civil servants identified areas that could strengthen the effectiveness of the Commission on Senior Civil Service and competition commissions, including:
- granting commissions the power to select one winner of the competition and the next-ranked candidate, who may take up the position if the winner declines or if the position becomes vacant within one year after the competition — 29.5%;
- reducing political influence on commission members — 29%;
- specifying liability for interference in the work of commissions — 22.9%;
- training commission members in tools for assessing candidates’ professional competence — 22.5%.
Civil servants appointed without competition during martial law are concerned about their future status once competitive selection is restored. Most respondents (42.8%) believe that such persons should be able to continue in civil service without a competition based on the results of performance appraisal, 26.7% — based on the actual length of service and 22.5% — based on a competition under the general procedure. In addition, respondents suggested combining appraisal results with the time actually worked, as well as simplifying competitive procedures for persons who already have some length of service in civil service positions.
38.6% of survey participants stated that continuation of civil service based on a decision of the appointing authority would improve the quality of public administration, as it creates opportunities to retain valuable and experienced staff.
On the one hand, these results may reflect concerns about competitive selection or an unwillingness to spend personal resources, in particular time and effort, on additional preparation for it. On the other hand, the inclination towards this practice may indicate that the civil servants do not perceive the appointing authority’s discretion as a significant risk and, in some cases, even regard it as a potential advantage and an acceptable alternative to competitive selection.
At the same time, the staffing model is not the main factor shaping the professionalism, prestige and stability of the civil service workforce. Working conditions play an equally important role and are currently neither conducive to attracting highly qualified specialists to the civil service nor to retaining current civil servants.
Only 8% of respondents consider civil service employment to be prestigious. Respondents most often mention: (1) excessive workload, which leads to burnout and resignations; (2) low remuneration; (3) frequent changes in the organisational structure of state bodies (changes in structure, staffing tables and staff reductions); (4) instability of the system of central executive bodies (redistribution of powers, reorganisations and changes in subordination or functions of bodies); (5) ineffective decisions and weak management by the political leadership. These factors encourage civil servants to change jobs.
The adoption of Draft Law No. 13478-1 on restoring competitive procedures will contribute to meeting one of the requirements of the Ukraine Facility Plan for 2024–2027 and to resolving a number of problems related to forming the workforce, serving in and terminating civil service.
At the same time, civil servants are cautious about the draft law’s ability to improve the situation. Only 4.2% of respondents believe that it will do so, while the largest share (29.2%) assumes that the draft law will help resolve the problems only partially. Every sixth respondent (17.8%) is not familiar with the provisions of Draft Law No. 13478-1 at all. This points to insufficient awareness among civil servants of their prospects for continuing in the civil service and the need to strengthen communication activities to prepare them to work under the renewed conditions.
Despite the sceptical attitude of most respondents towards the restoration of competitive procedures, competitive selection remains a tool with clear advantages over the current procedure for forming the civil service workforce.
A meritocratic approach to staffing increases the value of selection both for the civil servant, who invests personal effort in entering the civil service, and for the state body, which has an interest in retaining a professional selected through competition.
Selecting candidates for civil service positions on a competitive basis can potentially contribute to a more balanced distribution of workload among staff, reducing the risk of situations where some specialists have to compensate for the lack of experience or professional training of newly appointed employees. Therefore, restoring competitions is likely to help reduce staff turnover.
The restoration of competitive selection and clarification of certain conditions for entry into, service in and termination of civil service should not be expected, in themselves, to automatically ensure the recruitment of highly qualified specialists or significantly increase the prestige of the civil service. This requires comprehensive solutions aimed at creating working conditions that would be both attractive and acceptable for potential and current civil servants. This concerns ensuring fair remuneration (respondents mention disgracefully low pay), stability in the system of public authorities and improving the quality of managerial competences and decisions of the political leadership, whose effectiveness is assessed critically by some civil servants.
Restoring competitive procedures is a necessary step, but parallel efforts must continue to develop and implement measures that increase the prestige of the civil service and strengthen the state’s image as a reliable and competitive employer.
