To begin with, the Kyiv guest Mr. Lapin familiarized those present with the indicators of legislative activity of people's deputies of Ukraine during the 3rd session. In the first part of his speech, he highlighted the work of deputies in general and cited the following indicators. Thus, deputies work most actively on creating draft laws in such profile committees as banking and financial activity, economic policy, and legal policy. At the same time, the committees on combating organized crime and on European integration show no activity at all. If we speak about individuals, then the leader in authorship of draft laws registered and considered during the 3rd session is people's deputy Tschuko V.P. In contrast to him, as many as 88 deputies were unable to register even one draft law during the last session. In terms of the number of submitted draft laws, the "Our Ukraine" faction leads; if we take this indicator on average per 1 member of the faction, then the first place here belongs to the NDP faction (6.8). "Our Ukraine" also leads in the number of amendments submitted to draft laws on average per 1 deputy of the faction. Of the 35 submitted amendments, 27 were taken into account. Our Ukraine members also lead in the so-called individual rating by the number of amendments submitted to draft laws. Thus, people's deputy Bespaly B.Ya. submitted 1,258 amendments (of which 865 were taken into account), and his fellow faction member Yekhanurov Yu.I. - 427.
Mr. Yevhen also noted in his report such an aspect of deputies' activity as attendance by deputies of plenary sessions and activity during roll-call voting. Let us cite only the most interesting figures. Thus, among the people's elected representatives, only people's deputy Asadchev V.M. managed not to miss any of the 2,901 roll-call votings, while at the same time 5 deputies managed to miss more than 50% of them. Communists miss sessions the least, five of whom have no absences at all, while V.V. Onopenko was absent from as many as 80% of sessions. Representatives of "Our Ukraine" also distinguished themselves in the rating of the number of speeches at sessions. Here people's deputy Yuriy Karmazin distinguished himself, who during the 3rd session spoke as many as 376 times within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada, which amounts to almost a whole day (22 hours 36 minutes). The same deputy also leads in the number of submitted inquiries, 64 of which were supported by the VRU.
The second point of the Kyiv expert's report was the activity of Volyn majority deputies, which is of course more interesting to us. Analysts of "Laboratory F-4" tried to do this from the perspective of comparing pre-election promises with real activity in the deputy post. If we take it in general, the conclusion suggests itself that deputies forget about their promises. And their pre-election programs are usually very similar. From the legislative activity of Volyn deputies follow not very cheerful figures. People's deputies I. Yeremeyev and V. Bondar prepared 4 projects each, 3 each - M. Martynenko and S. Bondarchuk, and 2 - S. Slabenko. Of these, only S. Bondarchuk's draft law was adopted by the VRU, and V. Bondar's project is being considered in the second reading. In terms of the number of amendments submitted to laws, among Volyn representatives S. Slabenko and V. Bondar lead (79 and 54 respectively). Among other indicators, it is worth noting 44 speeches by Serhiy Slabenko and 82% of missed roll-call votings by Serhiy Bondarchuk.
The report of another guest, Oleksiy Koshel, head of the information-analytical project "Political Ukraine," concerned a somewhat different side of the activity of people's deputies, namely their work in the constituencies. He noted that the data presented above is a useful thing, but like any statistical information it does not reflect the qualitative side of deputies' activity, since it does not reflect the quality and content of deputies' speeches, the essence of draft laws and the reasons for absence from sessions. Therefore, they should be treated with caution.
That is precisely why the activity of the Verkhovna Rada must be transparent, so that in the future no conflicts arise around the falsification of the State Budget or regarding the correctness of the translation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (imagine - even such a thing is possible!). That is precisely why the issue of openness of these processes is very important for the establishment of a democratic regime in our country. The CVU, which, according to Mr. Koshel, is the most powerful organization in Ukraine thanks to its extensive system of regional representations, sets itself the task of monitoring the activity of deputies in the constituencies. According to their analytical information, the level of activity of majority deputies in their constituencies compared with deputies of the previous convocation has significantly increased. The criteria used in the study were: the number of meetings of the deputy with voters, the work of public reception offices of the deputy and their assistants, and the publication of reports on activity. Thus, according to the calculations of the CVU members, about 90% of majority deputies still work in their constituencies. Much more attention today's deputies have paid to the selection of their assistants, who help deputies maintain constant contact with voters. The number of public reception offices of deputies is also growing. A rather interesting form of deputies' work this year was their participation in the discussion of changes to the Constitution.
The CVU representative also noted the active activity in the constituencies of party-list deputies. Real examples were given when factions attached certain deputies to regions who maintain constant contact with voters.
As for reporting, about 70% of deputies reported to voters on their activities. As analysts note, this is a fairly effective way of controlling a deputy. After all, the very fact of publishing information about the activity of a deputy, or for example a political party or public association, creates a positive image of these institutions in society.
Speaking about control over the activities of executive bodies, local councils and their executive committees, Mr. Koshel noted that today the decision-making process is closed to society, and therefore citizens have no influence on it. Also important today is the issue of legalization and legislative consolidation of lobbying activity. Attention should also be paid to control over the activities of other state institutions - the Tax Service, public associations, and others.
The moderator of the round table, Yuriy Kresak, noted in his speech that among Volyn elected representatives, the most active work in covering their activities in the media is conducted by people's deputies V. Bondar (the CVU counted about 23 publications about him) and S. Slabenko (19). The active work of deputies' assistants was also noted. Thus, thanks to the assistants of deputy Martynenko, 8 programs about the deputy were shown on one of the local TV channels. Speaking about the reporting of Volyn deputies, Mr. Kresak noted that almost all of them reported on time.
Quite active at the round table was people's deputy from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc Yevhen Kyryllchuk; it is worth adding that he was the only one of the deputies who attended this event. True, his activity was not always justified, since in many respects because of this the participants of the round table were unable to fully reveal the topic of the event, and therefore a certain incompleteness of this action was felt. However, the deputy also had several pertinent and, more importantly, "on topic" remarks and comments. He noted that the authors of this monitoring did not take into account the activity of party-list deputies, and given that the majority of the Verkhovna Rada is favorably disposed toward the proportional electoral system, such deputies will constitute an absolute majority. Also, the experts omitted in their reports the work of deputies in committees, the participation of factions in the work of the VR and in representing the interests of regions. Also, according to the deputy, it should be taken into account which parties are in power and which are in opposition. After all, then the requirements for them should also be different. Those in power, for the most part, should also be responsible for the activity of the government.
Briefly expressed their thoughts on the topic under discussion were also deputy of the Volyn Regional Council Volodymyr Banada, head of the Rivne branch of the CVU Mykola Hryshchenko, head of the Council of the Institute for Analysis of State and Regional Policy Yuriy Hubeni, assistant to people's deputy Slabenko Natalka Burko, and journalist of the newspaper "Volyn" Volodymyr Lys.
Answering questions from those present, the Kyiv guests noted that the study uses only easily accessible information that is easy to verify, while they try to process information very thoroughly. Although, as confirmed by the case with Volyn deputy Bondar, embarrassments did occur when, for technical reasons, annoying errors crept into the reports, which later had to be corrected. In addition to its website, whose address by the way is www.f4.org.ua, the Laboratory publishes its reports through an electronic bulletin distributed by subscription. The "lab workers" also consider such round tables an effective means of disseminating this information. Speaking about the expediency of such studies and their practical application, CVU representatives noted that many deputies after such reports began to treat their duties as deputies more carefully, and some even managed to use such information as black PR against their opponents.
Having thanked each other for their presence and the pleasant conversation, the participants of the round table dispersed. I only hope that the information received will be used by them only for good purposes. And secondly, that it will indeed encourage the people's elected representatives to fruitful work that materializes in quality laws.
In conclusion, I would like to express my own observations from the event. Unfortunately, despite the good idea of the study itself and the interesting materials presented by the Kyiv experts, the Volyn political community did not show much activity or attention to this round table. Let us also note the insignificant presence of local journalists. Also, the author of this material still did not hear at this event any new and real proposals for improving the mechanism of control over the activities of officials. This topic was not sufficiently disclosed. However, this does not at all diminish the role of this event. After all, it only says that there is still quite a lot of work in this area and therefore the involvement of young specialists in these processes is very relevant.
So, young specialists, political scientists, lawyers and other active young people - go ahead, there is enough work for everyone!