LAW OF UKRAINE

On Civil Service

This Law defines principles, legal and organizational framework for ensuring public, professional, politically neutral, efficient, citizen-focused civil service that functions in the interests of the state and the society, and procedure for Ukrainian citizens to exercise their right to equal access to civil service based on their merits and personal qualities.

SECTION I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Civil Service and Civil Servant

1. Civil service is public, professional and politically neutral activity related to practical implementation of tasks and functions of the state, in particular, in relation to the following:

1) analysis of the state policy at the national, sectoral and regional levels and preparation of proposals for its formation, including the development and expert assessment of draft programs, concepts, strategies, draft laws and other regulatory acts, as well as draft international treaties;

2) ensuring the implementation of the state policy, execution of national, sectoral and regional programs, execution of laws and other regulatory acts;

3) ensuring the provision of affordable and quality administrative services;

4) state supervision/monitoring of compliance with legislation;

5) management of public financial resources and property, control over utilization thereof;

6) HR management of government agencies.

7) implementation of other authorities of government agencies as defined by the legislation.

2. Civil servant is a citizen of Ukraine who holds a civil service position in a government agency or state authority, their apparatus (secretariat) (hereinafter referred to as the government agency), receives salary from the state budget, and executes the authorities directly related to implementation of tasks and performance of functions of such government agency, and adheres to the civil service principles.

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Article 4. Basic Principles of Civil Service

1. Civil service shall be performed in compliance if the following principles:

1) rule of law—ensuring the priority of human and civil rights and freedoms according to the Constitution of Ukraine determining the subject matter and direction of the activity of the civil servant during performance of the tasks and functions of the state;

2) legality—obligation of the civil servant to act solely on the basis of, within the authorities and in the manner provided for by the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine;

3) professionalism—high level of knowledge of the basics of the profession of the civil servant, competent, objective and impartial performance of professional duties, ongoing improvement of professional competence by the civil servant, fluent command of the state language and, if necessary, a regional language or national minority language defined according to the law;

4) patriotism—loyalty and faithful service to the Ukrainian people;

5) integrity—the civil servants’ commitment to protect the public interests and his/her rejection of prevalence of private interest while exercising powers granted to him/her;

6) efficiency—reasonable and effective use of resources for achieving state policy objectives;

7) ensuring equal access to civil service—prohibition of all forms and manifestations of discrimination, absence of unreasonable restrictions or granting unjustified advantage to certain categories of citizens when they apply for civil service positions and perform civil service;

8) political impartiality—preventing the impact of political views on the actions and decisions of the civil servant, as well as refraining from demonstration of own attitude to political parties and own political views while performing professional duties;

9) transparency—free access to information about the activity of the civil servant, except in cases defined by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine;

10) stability—appointment of civil servants for non-fixed terms, except in cases defined by the law, non-dependence of the civil service staff composition upon changes in political leadership of the state and government agencies.

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SECTION IV. ENTRY INTO CIVIL SERVICE

Chapter 1. General Conditions for Entry into the Civil Service

Article 19. Right to the Civil Service

1. The citizens of Ukraine, who have come of age, are fluent in the national language and assigned the level of higher education not lower than:

1) for the positions of category “A” and “B”—Master’s Degree;

2) for the positions of category “C”—Bachelor’s Degree, Junior Bachelor’s Degree, have the right to civil service.

2. The following persons cannot enter into civil service:

1) persons who have reached the age of sixty five;

2) persons declared incapable or of limited capability in the manner prescribed by law;

3) persons who have a record of conviction for an intentional crime, if it has not been removed from official records or expunged in accordance with the law;

4) persons who are disbarred by the court ruling from engaging in activities related to performance of the state functions or from holding the respective positions;

5) persons who were imposed an administrative penalty for corruption or corruption-related offence—during three years since respective decision entered into force;

6) persons who are citizens of other states;

7) have not passed special check and have not given consent to such check;

8) is subject to the ban stipulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Cleansing of Power”.

3. During implementation of citizens’ right to the civil service, no forms of discrimination defined by the legislation shall be allowed.

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Chapter 2. Procedure for Competitive Recruitment to Civil Service Vacancies

Article 22. Competitive Recruitment to Civil Service Vacancies

1. A competition for filling in a vacant civil service position (hereinafter referred to as the Competition) shall be held for the purpose of recruitment of persons capable of professional performance of professional duties according to the Procedure for Competitive Recruitment to civil service vacancies (hereinafter referred to as the Competitive Recruitment Procedure) approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

2. Competitive recruitment shall be based on professional level, personal qualities and merits of candidates seeking appointment to civil service vacancies.

Special characteristics of competition to recruit to civil servants in judiciary bodies shall be defined by the law.

3. The Competitive Recruitment Procedure shall define:

1) conditions of conducting the competition;

2) requirements regarding the disclosure of information on vacant position of civil service and announcement of holding competition;

3) composition, formation procedure and powers of competition commission;

4) procedure for submitting and considering documents for participation in the competition;

5) procedure for testing, interviewing and other methods of assessment of the candidates for filling in the civil service positions;

6) methods of assessing the candidates for filling vacant civil service positions.

4. A closed selection on a competitive basis may be conducted for the positions related to state secret, mobilization preparation, defence and national security.

The list of such positions and peculiarities of conducting competition to given positions shall be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Procedure for conducting competition.

5. Upon reorganization (merger, accession, division, transformation) or liquidation of the government agency, the civil servant shall be transferred to the equivalent or lower position in the government agency (by civil servant’s consent) to which the authorities and functions of such body are assigned, without any mandatory competition.

6. During transfer or delegation of powers and functions of the government agency to the body of local self-government, the transition of civil servant to the position in the bodies of local self-government shall be carried out without compulsory competition, subject to availability of his/her professional competence requirements to the respective qualification requirements for such position and compliance with the conditions of entry into service for the first time following the results of the competition.

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Quelle: Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union, <http://www.center.gov.ua/en/home/item/download/545_0821b8518898627786a8e9e7f5036425>Dokumentation