Civil servants of Volyn and Bukovyna respond best to citizens' appeals

Civil servants of the Volyn and Chernivtsi Regional State Administrations respond to citizens' appeals in the best way. More than 2/3 of those who appealed to government representatives received help or at least saw a desire to help them. This information was made public by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. This was reported to ZIK on June 1 by the press service of the Volyn Regional State Administration.

From February 16 to March 5, 2006, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology surveyed, through personal standardized interviews, residents of five regions of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Chernivtsi regions, living in 90 populated areas.

The research sample is random and representative for the population aged 18 and over. The purpose of the research was: to collect information that would allow a preliminary analysis of the current level of involvement of residents of 50 regions of Ukraine in the process of political reform and participation in decision-making at the local level; the motives that encourage participation in political life; and the key problems of activating civic participation.

According to experts from the Center for Political Education and KIIS, in all five regions the level of public activity of the population is quite low. This is explained by the fact that most are not members of any public organizations (with the exception of widespread trade union membership in the highly industrialized southeastern regions). Also, most citizens during the past year did not take any steps to publicly express their point of view.

Officials of local self-government bodies are approached more often, especially in Chernivtsi (30% – before January 2005, 22% – after) and Dnipropetrovsk regions (24 and 17%, respectively). In general, according to experts' assessments, the experience of appealing to local government officials (with the exception of Mykolaiv and Volyn regions, where the indicators of appeal activity are several times lower) is rather positive than negative.