(Not) to restore Minregion. Have the consequences of Kubrakov’s poor governance been realized on Bankova?

Today, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Vice Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister of Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov. 272 votes in favor.

But this is not just a personnel decision. They could restore the work of Minregion.

When it was being liquidated, the editor of the politics department of “Dzerkalo Tyzhnia” Inna Vedernikova wrote not only about the threat that arose for decentralization and regional policy but also predicted what would happen:

What were the predictions?

Inna Vedernikova

editor of the politics department of "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia"

As a result, three people were left at the table where international donor resources would be allocated: Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, leader of the Servant of the People party and the relevant parliamentary committee Olena Shuliak, and Vice Prime Minister, head of the unified Ministry of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov (who is also a potential Prime Minister and the only one hypothetically capable of making adjustments to the menu).

International partners of Ukraine essentially saw serious corruption risks in the legislative field for transparent reconstruction. This concerns the scandalous urban planning “reform” 5655, which Kubrakov and Shuliak are still trying to push through in various formats.

As for experts ready to strengthen the country’s regional policy, they have spoken about informal pressure from the ministry on donors, particularly USAID. Indeed, an important project in the public sector for the country lost its funding.

The consequences of such governance are dismal for the country because the European Commission’s report for the past year states that the state has achieved limited progress in regional policy, with a number of tasks remaining unfulfilled. The relevant ministry has done nothing significant to implement the legislative changes adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. This refers to the law “On the Principles of State Regional Policy”.

After MPs worked on changes to the law, the relevant ministry was supposed to develop a strategy for local development, a recovery and development plan, and a comprehensive spatial development plan. However, this did not happen.

Since the end of 2022, we have been receiving poor-quality products in the form of the State Strategy for Regional Development, which is in a perpetual stage of revision, and the Geoinformation System for Regional Development, funded and supported by the European Commission and the World Bank. In particular, the Ministry declares that this system should ensure the full cycle of forming, implementing, and monitoring regional policy. However, currently, as seen in the image below, the system produces low-quality content.

Note the strategic goal “11111” and its operational goal “123”.