Policy

Ukrainian state institutions are becoming “Bureaucrat-Free Territories”

More and more state institutions in Ukraine are joining the awareness-raising campaign “Officials Under the Ban”. This was reported by the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

It was this government agency that launched the flash mob “Territory Free of Officials” as part of the “Officials Under the Ban” project. The day before, they reported that the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine and the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine had joined the flash mob. The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine can also be added to the list, as it also called for a ban on officials on its Facebook page.

Why civil servants opposed officials

The National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service wants to break down outdated stereotypes and change the perception of the civil service in Ukraine.

“State institutions are not the ‘office of the past’, they do not employ ‘officials’. In Ukraine, the civil service employs a team of modern, responsible and motivated people who make changes,” the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service states.

They emphasize that there are no “officials” in Ukraine. This word is a legacy of the Russian Empire, which was built on ranks, privileges, and submission. It is an alien concept from the past that does not correspond to the realities of modern public administration in Ukraine.

“We are building a state where public service is about efficiency, development and work for results. Civil servants are those who work for society, serve people, and build the future,” the agency states and urges colleagues to join the flash mob “Territory Free of Officials” because words matter.

And what does the Dictionary say about “official”?

“The Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language gives the following definition:

“OFFICIAL, a, n. 1. A civil servant of a certain rank in pre-revolutionary Russia and abroad. [Panas:] Poor officials we had: there were such officials that they would rip off a dead man! (Krop., I, 1958, 134); It didn’t take long for an official in a green uniform to come out of the customs office door onto the porch (Rybak, Mistake…, 1956, 34); I graduated from Zin-kiv school in 1903 with a certificate that I had the right to be a postal and telegraph official (Vyshnia, I, 1956, 7).

2. trans. A person who confines himself or herself to the formal fulfillment of his or her duties in a particular matter. For some official from science to lecture Fyodor Shostenko himself… He will not tolerate this! (Silk, Man…, 1962, 283).

How many civil servants, not officials, are there in Ukraine?

According to the results of monitoring the number of civil servants in the fourth quarter of 2024, the actual number of civil servants working amounted to 156,276 people. This was also reported the day before by the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service.

The number of civil service positions according to the staffing table amounted to 192172. The number of vacant civil service positions amounted to 31167.

The number of civil service positions that were cut according to the staffing table increased. According to the results of the fourth quarter, this figure amounted to 4,524. In the previous quarter, it was 1,942.