Legal integrity of public authorities

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the state of management activity of public authorities in Ukraine, as well as to the disclosure of such a social and legal phenomenon as the term “integrity of public authorities”, providing its legal definition, and revealing its meaning. It was noted that the first steps on the way to fundamentally reforming the old system of public power with the support of our European allies, starting in 2014, were carried out in Ukraine through the initiation of relevant reforms, of which 18 are key reforms. In order to implement the aforementioned, appropriate amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine and relevant laws were drafted. Thus, the movement towards the specified goal, the implementation of the aforementioned reforms by the public authorities of Ukraine depends entirely on its capacity, integrity, primarily in the field of law, in the spheres of lawmaking and law application, i.e. ensuring the supremacy of law over state arbitrariness. The article reveals the concept of “integrity” as a psychological factor, which is based on the tendency to be organized, responsible and hardworking, and also notes its connection with the law, and the legal category “legal integrity”, which is closely related to professional ethics. Related to legal integrity is legal ethics, which plays a certain role and importance of moral principles in the sphere of justice and law enforcement, as well as in other human activities related to law. Attention is focused on the fact that the analysis of the state of implementation of the planned reforms by the public authorities of Ukraine indicates a very slow progress in the fulfillment of the corresponding obligations regarding democratic transformations in the state, since a certain part of them have not been implemented so far. At the same time, new challenges have appeared during the wartime period, the implementation of which largely depends on the “legal integrity of the public authorities”, which, in turn, can affect the speed of military aid to Ukraine from our allies. First of all, this concerns the need to complete the planned reforms. It is emphasized that one of the negative dynamics, which is surprisingly important for Ukraine, is the slowing down of reforms in the security and defense sector. This is one of the most important public administration reforms, the purpose of which is to strengthen the quality of security sector management (SSC) by means of effective and efficient security provision under conditions of democratic supervision and control. In parallel with it, the reform of the defense industry should be carried out. One of the reasons for the mentioned shortcomings is the absence of a state personnel policy, which leads to the occurrence of grave consequences for national security, to the occurrence of acts of corruption, theft of state funds, and state treason. It was established that the confirmation of the above is only a fragmentary involvement of public authorities of civil society in the normative regulation of public life, regarding the regulation of social relations in the relevant spheres of life, as well as the involvement of citizens in the development and adoption of management decisions, which does not correspond to the provisions of Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Evidence of ignoring the rights and interests of citizens on the part of the public authorities is the legislative, regulatory “deterioration” of the pension legislation in 2018 regarding persons released from military service, which was performed without involving citizens in the discussion; the veteran movement of the security and defense sector was split by the authorities. A significant shortcoming of the functioning of public authorities is that in their activities they often do not perceive the modern European democratic principle of orienting authorities to the fulfillment of social requests of society regarding its further development, but instead act on the contrary – offer and lobby their personal vision of directions for the further development of society, which often does not coincide with society’s aspirations and leads to the emergence of social conflicts. And therefore, only in the case of sharpening attention to emerging social problems, in compliance with the obligations assumed to adhere to European democratic principles, the public authorities have the opportunity to jointly solve existing problems with civil society, thereby consolidating society and increasing the efficiency of public administration.