RANG assists VRU's committees to assess the efficiency of the legislation

On April 10, the VRU Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional, and Urban Development discussed the results of the post-legislative scrutiny (PLS) report on the cooperation of territorial communities. The research was conducted under the support of the USAID Rada: Next Generation Program and Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

The aim of the research was to analyze of the effectiveness of the cooperation between territorial communities during the local self-government reform and within martial law, as well as the effectiveness of such cooperation. The PLS Research was carried out in accordance with the methodology of post-legislative control used by the UK Parliament.

According to the results of the survey:

• 78% of participants noted that their communities cooperate with other communities;
• 69% answered that such cooperation is stipulated by the contract;
• the implementation of joint projects became the most popular form of cooperation (49% of survey participants recognized it as the most effective one);
• cooperation in the spheres of health care, economy, housing and communal services is considered the most relevant;
• 46% noted that the martial law had a negative impact on the cooperation between communities;
• most of the remarks concerned the lack of financial and economic stimulation of such cooperation by the state;
• respondents believe that, for the most part, cooperation has strengthened, especially in terms of humanitarian missions, support for internally displaces persons and implementation of social projects; the activities related to the restoration of community territories have expanded, security issues and internal information security have become relevant.

The Research was presented at the VRU Committee’s hearing, it was discussed with stakeholders at a subcommittee hearing. Also the Research helps the VRU Committee to prepare recommendations to the Ministry of Infrastructure on improving the legislation.

Tthe USAID RADA: Next Generation Program assists the Parliamentary committees in the post legislative scrutiny in order to strengthen the government accountability, improve legislation, involve the public in law-making process, make parliamentary work open and understandable to Ukrainian citizens, as well as to increase the level of public trust in the Parliament of Ukraine.

PLS is a systematic and regular parliamentary supervision of laws implementation and their compliance for the purpose for which they were adopted. PLS evaluates the impact of the legislation, and therefore, whether it has become a solution to problems and the satisfaction of the state and voters’ needs.

PLS pilot projects are carried out within the Program "model committees". The secretariats of the VRU Committees selected some laws in order to analyze their application and effectiveness:

1. Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights: Law on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Improvement of Legal Regulation of Telework, Homework and the Work with the use of flexible working hours;
2. Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development: Law on the Cooperation between Territorial Communities;
3. Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services: some provisions of the Law on Energy Efficiency.