Ukrainians, like parrots, repeat the same thing year after year – “We need to reduce the number of officials. Officials are harmful. Ukraine does not need such a large state apparatus.”
But what we get in return are empty promises. We have been told for years that there will be a reduction in officials. But let’s be honest, officials will not reduce themselves out of their own good will and conscience. We have to put pressure on them. But to be able to exert pressure, there must be arguments. In order not to go far, I will provide them to you.
Argument N1
The number of civil servants in Ukraine as of January 2024 is 159,904. These, I emphasize, are officials with the status of “public servants”. And besides them, hundreds of thousands of officials do not have the status of “civil servants”, but also work for the state. In total, according to rough estimates, the number of officials in Ukraine is more than 1.8 million people.
944,000 people work in local government bodies, 560,000 in ministries, 160,000 in the civil service, 155,000 in state agencies, 2,800 in state inspectorates, and 1,800 in national commissions.
Do we need such many officials? Not.
Argument N2
Officials cost the state dearly. The price of the state writes that in 2024 they plan to spend 112 billion hryvnias on the bureaucratic apparatus. Last year, this figure was UAH 99.79 billion. It is not entirely clear how promises to reduce civil servants and increase expenses for their maintenance exist in the same reality.
And now let’s count something. If 50% of the officials were to be reduced – this is realistic and even necessary, then spending on them could be reduced by UAH 56 billion. For these UAH 56 billion, the state could purchase approximately 1,240,000 FPV drones (assuming that one high-quality, well-equipped drone costs UAH 45,000).
That number of drones would help us change the course of the war. The Armed Forces of Ukraine would bombard the Russian positions with kamikaze drones.
As of February 2024, 470,000 Russian occupiers were fighting in Ukraine. If Ukraine had 1 million 240 thousand cool drones, then there would be at least 2 FPV drones per occupant. The probability of Russians surviving the war in Ukraine would decrease by 2 times. But with drones for UAH 45,000, the occupiers wouldn’t even have a chance to find out if the second drone would hit them – they simply wouldn’t live to see it. But instead of having such a deadly swarm of drones, we have a deadly number of officials for our country.
Argument N3
Officials do not create anything but only consume. There is no added value in the market from the activities of the officials. In addition to the fact that a large part of the money from the state budget goes to support officials, officials also steal and engage in corruption.
Georgian economist Kakha Bendukidze, Minister of Economy of Georgia in 2004-2008, once said: “If you have 10 times fewer officials, at least it will be easier for you to monitor who has sneaked in. Reduce the number of points to monitor.”
This statement of Bendukidze is justified because only by reducing the number of officials we will be able to get rid of unnecessary regulations, unnecessary laws, and “improvements” and reduce corruption. At present, we only have the fact that corruption has seeped from the highest to the lowest levels in all branches of government. And it can be eradicated only in one way – to reduce the number of officials.
Several dozen more arguments can be given for reducing the state apparatus and the number of officials. However, even the above three should be sufficient to carry out reform and rapid reduction. The only possibility is to reduce by “quick&dirty”. Without long meetings, thoughts, and calculations – we have been doing this since 2014. Now you need to take and cut once, instead of measuring seven times.
