"We will make our best to ensure that the work of the parliament meets all European standards," Acting Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat Volodymyr Slyshynskyi

We provide full interview of Volodymyr Slyshynskyi to the press office of the Parliament’s Secretariat.

The year of 2016 is crucial in the process of reforming the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s Secretariat. Chairperson of the Ukrainian parliament Volodymyr Groysman stresses that the Parliament’s Secretariat should become a modern high-quality service center. How will these complex reforms be put into practice? What have been already done and what work is ahead? Almost a year has passed since you got acquainted with the work of the Parliament’s Secretariat from inside. What in your opinion was surprising, ineffective, or maybe useful?

In my opinion, in the Parliament’s Secretariat there are many effective and useful things, years of worked-out processes, including preparation of draft laws. On the other hand, among the Secretariat’s employees are a lot of isolated and biased people. And it was a surprise for me. I would like them to be more open.

Of course, in order to improve the image of the Parliament, we should make it more transparent and open. And to achieve this we should implement a number of measures.

Given the new modern requirements, it is necessary to shift to new quality of work, introduce new electronic technologies, and now we are engaged in this transformation. We have elaborated certain ground for the introduction of electronic technologies and electronic document management, for being able to jointly work with documents. But the next step will be a change of employees’ competence and staffing table as requires the introduction of modern information technologies.

In your opinion, are people ready for changes? Definition of "reform" each person understands in his own way. But we live in the modern world and of course there is such cliche as "modern parliament." What is a "modern parliament," in your opinion?

From my point of view, the Secretariat is ready for reforms. But I would like to draw attention to the fact that the current Parliament should also remain conservative. Institutional memory must be preserved in order not to forget those good traditions that have been accumulated for years.

Such approaches exist in the United States, Israel and other countries. Generally speaking, national parliaments’ approaches to the traditions have something in common - they are a little bit conservative.

Sometimes speaking about the work of the Parliament in a "new way" we mean quick adoption of decisions, quick response, but it is dangerous for the legislature because it leads to inconsistency with other legislative acts, the Constitution, and then there arise a lot of problems in their implementation.

From my point of view, the Parliament should approve small number of laws. Let them be little, but very serious, profound, well-thought-out, and scrupulously delineated. This is important.

And the Secretariat’s employees should first of all ensure - let me say - institutional memory, in order to regardless of changes of deputies, previous experience could be taken into account by future convocations.

One of the main features of democracy is openness of the authorities. How do you see the coverage of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s activities?

In this direction, I see not only the coverage of the deputies’ activities, but all structures of the Parliament - in particular, the work of the Committees and the Secretariat. Note that at present the website of the Verkhovna Rada provides information not only about each MP, but also about any manager of Parliament’s Secretariat, and income declarations.

They cover all Committee meetings, keep electronic record, in fact in a real time mode you can monitor all events taking place in the Parliament. I can add also that we are trying hard to make our voters be familiarized with all aspects of the Parliament’s activities, including where and how budget funds are spent. And now we are preparing for signing a Memorandum on open data where in real time will appear information about the activity of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

You control the Secretariat’s work and at the same familiar with the problem of the deputies. Are there any problems in cooperation of people's deputies with the Secretariat?

There are certain difficulties connected with the current legislation. It must be reformed. And in this process Pat Cox mission helps us ("Needs Assessment Mission" mission of the European Parliament headed by Pat Cox - Ed.), which already next month should offer a strategy of changes in the Ukrainian Parliament as well as in the Verkhovna Rada’s Secretariat. This applies to the formation of the Committees, the secretariats’ functioning, and coverage of the Parliament’s activities.

Proposed will be the whole range of measures as it is impossible to settle all problems existing in our Parliament in one step. I think that the proposals that will come from the European Parliament, will give new impetus, a new lease of life to the Verkhovna Rada. And we will do all possible to ensure that the work of the Parliament meets all European standards.

But these reforms require financial support.

We count on the support of the European structures, on grants. The Verkhovna Rada will also allocate money to ensure the reform is conducted efficiently.

Now we are working on the introduction of electronic technologies - a new system of document management, draft laws adoption. Used will be modules concerning the improvement of the reporting system, information content. This will enable citizens to see how the legislative process is taking place, what this or that MP is occupied with, what the Committees are engaged with.

We are also working on making committee meetings be carried out on-line, that is we are doing everything for maximum openness and transparency. Much attention will be focused on this.

In addition, we will provide the opportunity to our citizens to participate in the discussion of draft laws that already exist, so they can make their comments and suggestions.

In addition, the site already has a section of electronic petitions. Now it works in a test mode, but we can already say that it works very effectively. We will do everything possible for the people to actively engage in the process of lawmaking. At this, in particular, are directed the funds being allocated by our foreign partners, and also from the budget of the Parliament.

Concerning lawmaking optimization – are you familiar with the appeals of the citizens? What the society is concerned with?

Now, unfortunately, the society is concerned with social protection. This is a rather problematic issue. It is essential for the Verkhovna Rada to be engaged in explaining the laws it has adopted: how they will help to improve the lives of our citizens and how to apply them.

I want to specify that if to analyze the adopted legislation, the current Parliament is very effective. But the problem is that the path from the adoption of laws till their implementation takes quite a long time. And now the laws adopted by this Parliament, they have not yet started being implemented in full. That is why people do not see the reforms, they feel no changes, and this is the biggest problem.

But what surprised me is the fact that the Parliament has no analytical structures that could analyze certain events, there is no structure engaged in the preparation of the legislation at the up-to-date level, able to analyze the application of the law – and we should created all these structures. Because without them we can not move forward.

Laws, of course, should be understandable for the people, in particular regarding the decentralization.

Concerning the decentralization, the laws on this subject started being adopted a little more than a year ago, so one can feel that at the local level it has already given some effect as territorial communities began receiving more revenue in their territories, and therefore were able to implement more orders of the voters. It was fiscal decentralization.

But the point is that communities should be given more power in decision making. Because, despite how hard we try sitting in Kyiv, we have no ability to know all the problems existing at the local level. Unfortunately, not all legal relations have been regulated by law that is why we raised the question of amending the Constitution concerning the decentralization and the introduction of such a term as "a subsidiary liability."

Having this in mind, probably the society should also take responsibility for the development of the State?

For sure. And exactly NGOs should play the most important part in this process, they should work together with the Parliament at the stage of legislation adoption and then, at the stage of its implementation – through explaining, training. This is a must. From my point of view, this work is extremely necessary.

It is also important to build closer cooperation among people’s deputies and NGOs. As experience shows, for example, only thanks to the participation in the legislative process of the Reanimation Package of Reforms last year approved were 55 draft laws. Of course, at present we have a lot of problems concerning the quality of draft laws submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. But when the public will become more engaged in expert discussion of draft laws, they will be better. So, I think this work should be enhanced.

How would you like to see the Verkhovna Rada at the end of 2016?