In mid-December, the Verkhovna Rada approved government draft law No. 12245 as a basis for updating the Budget Code provisions and ensuring Ukraine meets its obligations to international partners. The initial draft included provisions to revise the remuneration procedure for State Audit Service employees. However, following the Budget Committee’s recommendation, these proposals were removed after the first reading.
During the preparation of the draft for further consideration, MPs incorporated several proposals to change the status of the State Audit Service and its employees. On January 10, the relevant subcommittee approved an amendment that:
– grants the State Audit Service a special status;
– establishes a special title for the agency’s civil servants;
– defines the structure of their salaries and grants the government authority to determine the amounts of their official salaries.
If the proposed changes are adopted, the government, rather than the law, will determine the amount of salaries. This could leave the official salaries of State Audit Service employees vulnerable to potential budget constraints or shifts in political priorities.
Furthermore, the Parliament is preparing for the second reading of a draft law that introduces a unified classification of civil service positions and a standardized remuneration system based on grades. In this context, granting the Cabinet of Ministers additional authority to determine the salary structure for the State Audit Service appears questionable. It is worth noting that there are currently no calculations to justify a reasonable revision of salaries within the agency.
Also, there is no necessity to grant the State Audit Service a special status or to establish special titles for its employees, as the amendment text offers no practical application for these changes beyond addressing salary-related issues.
We believe that revising the salaries of State Audit Service employees should be accompanied by other significant reforms concerning the agency’s activities, as previously discussed.
The first step should be to coordinate the powers of the Accounting Chamber and the State Audit Service. Following the adoption of the law that expanded the Accounting Chamber’s authority to audit local budgets, the overlap in functions between these bodies remains unresolved. This issue is acknowledged by the Budget Committee and has been emphasized by the European Commission.
The next step should focus on enhancing the agency’s effectiveness and capacity by introducing competitive selection processes and re-certifying current employees to serve in the updated State Audit Service. These changes will create opportunities for qualified specialists to receive decent working conditions. At the same time, it is crucial to enhance approaches to specific control measures.
In light of the absence of a comprehensive solution to the issues mentioned above, TI Ukraine urges MPs to refrain from supporting fragmented proposals in draft law No. 12245 concerning the organizational aspects of the State Audit Service’s activities.
