Regional challenge: how Zelensky’s team will solve the problem of staffing bottleneck

One of the Lviv bloggers offered to appoint Petro Poroshenko to the position of the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration. And there is nothing strange in this: in this region Poroshenko received the greatest support of voters in the elections. As an expression of his gratitude, the incumbent President even went after Easter to Lviv region, where he was greeted very warmly. But the armchair of the Head of the Regional State Administration is not the goal for him. This complicates the situation for the newly elected President and the Cabinet of Ministers, who will have to look for candidates for both the Lviv region and other region. "Apostrophe" tried to figure out when regions will receive new governors, and what difficulties arise already.

Normal European practice

Alongside with the loss of the head of state in the presidential elections, several governors declared their readiness to resign. These included: Oleh Syniutka (Lviv region), Henadii Moskal (Zakarpattia region), Stepan Barna (Ternopil region) and Oleksii Savchenko (Mykolaiv region).

"I believe that every head of the Regional State Administration should do this, first of all. Secondly, we have to thank the acting President Petro Poroshenko... despite all the things that were happening around us. I must leave with him," Savchenko explained his decision in his comments to "Hromadske".

A similar message was announced by Syniutka, who is the only one of the governors who was able to ensure the victory of Poroshenko in the regions. "It seems to me that it is absolutely normal European practice, when I clearly gave a signal to the public that the President's cadence has ended, and together with the person who entrusted me the position of the Head of Lviv region, I am leaving this position, allowing the new President to form his management structure," he said on the air of the channel "112".

At Moskal’s no reasons of the application for resignation were provided though the letter of resignation was already submitted.

We should note that according to the legislation, such applications have to be considered and signed personally by the President, the Cabinet of Ministers in this case doesn't make the decision.

And the Governor Barna decided to write nothing yet, he intends to leave after the inauguration of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Such turbulence at the local level is a response to the unstable political situation in the country. Of course, not all governors appointed at Poroshenko’s presidency hurried to write statements, and to dismiss them now also there is no sense. They will lose their position in any case after the inauguration of President Zelensky. Perhaps, someone will be able get reassignment, but nobody can guarantee it. And although lately there is a fake, that supposedly after Zalensky takes up office all governors should automatically quit, in fact it is not true.

"In case of election of the new President of Ukraine heads of local state administrations continue to exercise the powers until the appointment of new heads of local state administrations in accordance with the established procedure," the law "On local state administrations" states. Therefore, there is no need to fear that the state may lose key people at the local level.

There is nobody to appoint

Of course, this situation is still not encouraging. It is unclear, who can become the governors under the presidency of Zelensky, as well as it is unclear whether there will be early parliamentary elections.

According to "Apostrophe", Zelensky’s team experiences serious staff shortages. Both their opponents and colleagues speak about it.

"You say regions? There is still no understanding who will head the Defense Ministry or the Security Service of Ukraine. And we have not even talked about the governors yet," complains the source of “Apostrophe” in Zelensky's campaign office.

According to "Apostrophe", Zelensky's team experiences serious staff shortages

Also, the team can not name an adviser who would be responsible for regional policy. Nobody is engaged in such activity among the people presented publicly by Zelensky.

Due to the lack of a clear distribution of areas in the campaign office of Zelensky there are fears that former regionals, odious businessmen and other equally toxic individuals will take advantage of the situation. They can seize powers at the local levels and force the new President to negotiate with them.

This scenario is possible under the current law "On local public administrations". Thus, in 2017, the Parliament abolished the norm on holding a competition for the election of governors. According to the new regulation, they are appointed by the President on the proposal of the Cabinet of Ministers. That means the chair of the head of regional administration could be occupied by the person who was suitable presidential Administration.

"We plan to make an open competition," the interlocutor of "Apostrophe" in Zelensky's team claimed. How, when, how transparent this competition will take place - the answers to these questions are still unknown.

"As to the heads of the regional state administrations, they will automatically have to write applications for resignation. Here is the question of their effectiveness. I think that there are enough decent people in Ukraine to take up all the key positions in the country and finally start working for people, not for enrichment", this is the official position of the campaign office, which was announced at the briefing by the speaker Dmytro Razumkov.

The fate of decentralization

The opponents of the new President are happy about such a mess and expect that the appointment of governors will take place according to the norms of the current legislation. However, this joy is not shared by those who do not understand what will happen to decentralization.

Expert Anatolii Tkachuk reminds that Zelensky has not yet said anything about decentralization. But the speaker of the Zelensky’s team Dmytro Razumkov said that the reform is good and requires further integration, but its success largely depends on the governors.

"If the Head of the Regional State Administration does not interfere, the process moves ahead rapidly. And if the Head interferes, it either does not move ahead, or moves very slowly," Tkachuk said in comments to "Apostrophe".

The expert believes that if Zelensky does not take a proactive position in the process of appointing governors (under the existing law), the Cabinet of Ministers is likely to propose its candidates.

"Each candidate for the position of a governor is a product of a compromise between the President, the Cabinet Ministers and regional elites," Tkachuk emphasized.

And if someone falls out of this process, it will lead to a possible confrontation between the government and the President.