The fairy tale of new pro-Western officials with MBAs has collided with harsh reality in Ukraine. Instead of a kamikaze government and reforms, we now have a kamikaze country with the dollar at 14 hryvnias, hot water, and electricity outages. Early indications are that this is not the end of the line.
Throughout this time, Yatsenyuk's Cabinet had only one person capable of implementing reforms: former Economy Minister Pavlo Sheremeta. He was "removed," and now the Cabinet is filled exclusively with insiders. They are working hard. True, not on developing the country, but, at best, on improving their own image. At worst, on ripping up the state budget. The radical goals this government set for itself at the outset have been forgotten by all its members.
A striking example of this inglorious scenario is Ihor Bilous, head of the State Fiscal Service. Like Sheremet, he was a man "outside the system." Yatsenyuk brought this previously little-known investment banker into the Cabinet of Ministers, presenting him as something of a tax messiah, destined to lead Ukrainian business to the promised land.
Revolutionary change was expected from Bilous, but what he ended up with was an ordinary Ukrainian bureaucrat at his worst – feigning vigorous activity, words instead of deeds, and expensive accessories like watches costing tens of thousands of euros and cars worth millions of hryvnias.
Having headed the tax service for over six months, Bilous has failed to propose a single noteworthy innovation. All the "reforms" the chief fiscal officer promulgates with such fanfare were, in fact, launched in Ukraine long before his arrival.
For example, the convergence of tax and accounting, which emerged in the tax reform proposed by the head of the State Fiscal Service, had already been presented to businesses as a ready-made concept in February 2014 by his predecessor, former Minister of Revenue and Duties Klymenko. The same story applies to the introduction of post-audit at customs – Bilous recalled it as something new and far-fetched after its implementation had already been discussed with businesses in February 2014. Recent examples include the announcement of the introduction of "lie detectors" for tax officials (instructions for their use have been in effect since October 2013) and the introduction of cash registers with online reporting (launched in 2013).
Bilous presents all these second-hand ideas as the result of his team's hard work and incredible brainstorming. But the only innovations of his own in the past six months have been a dubious tax compromise for businesses, which failed to find support in parliament, and a military tax for ordinary citizens.
At the same time, Ukraine's top tax official has adopted a merciless critique of his predecessors. The head of the State Fiscal Service gives interviews criticizing his predecessors left and right, but he implements all their initiatives according to plan.
The plagiarism in the work could have been forgiven if Bilous had at least begun to implement all the positive promises he made. But, alas, the results of such work are clearly demonstrated by the ratings – exactly zero of the promised innovations have been implemented.
Data from the portal "Word and Deed" https://ru.slovoidilo.ua/person/4731-bilous-igor-olegovich.html
Ukrainian officials have a tradition of creating virtual success stories when their work fails to produce real results. Today, the chief fiscal officer is desperately trying to build his image. Bilous's PR efforts deserve particular attention. It's ironic, but without doing anything, he's throwing away a ton of money to publicize his work. The head of the State Fiscal Service has launched such a massive effort in this direction that it seems he's working "for the future." He's undermining the prime minister, or at least aiming to become his acceptable backup.
Recently, the chief fiscal officer has been appearing on television more and more frequently, even appearing on "Freedom of Speech" on ICTV. Furthermore, Bilous's PR team signed a long-term contract with the Liga news agency, resulting in the website regularly publishing detailed articles about the State Fiscal Service chief's successes – he fights shady schemes, communicates with businesses, and proposes a capital amnesty. Bilous also considers it a point of honor to appear in Ukrainian Forbes, where his PR team regularly contributes $7-$10 for the right angle on their boss's activities. I wonder, Igor Olegovich, how much money could be spent on publishing your interviews and jeans to buy tanks and armored personnel carriers for the ATO zone?
Bilous's name was used on Facebook and Twitter. This was done so actively and with such large advertising budgets that ordinary users couldn't help but comment on this hyperactivity. In particular, the frequent appearance of Bilous's Facebook ads and the rapid growth of his page's followers raised questions about the sources of funding for the official's personal PR and the impermissibility of such waste during the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and the crisis.
Where the money for Bilous's commissioned articles and broadcasts, as well as for his expensive watches and cars, comes from is also a mystery. While the press service remains silent, the public has a fairly clear answer.
Bilous's PR activity over the past few months has created the impression that the head of the State Fiscal Service has no other business than hanging out online and visiting television channels and news agencies.
And that's not far from the truth. Firstly, the chief fiscal officer's schedule is now filled with constant photo shoots, hinting at pounds of makeup and hours of Photoshop.
Secondly, camera training has become a regular occurrence for Bilous. As a result of this shift, he often postpones work meetings simply to attend live broadcasts, interviews, and on-camera recordings.
In his quest to be known and recognizable, the head of the State Fiscal Service reached absurd extremes. Early in his official career, Bilous decided to immediately and vividly impress himself on UA-net readers by commissioning a "competition" to find the most attractive and sexy official, "Mr. Ukraine International." He, of course, won the competition.
Meanwhile, there's no talk of building a healthy team spirit at the State Fiscal Service. Mistrust and pessimism are rampant within the agency. The desire to undermine or set up has become the norm, and wearing an embroidered shirt adds +10 to karma in the struggle for survival.
The lack of innovation and problems within the team wouldn't be such a problem if not for the complete failure of state budget execution. According to the State Treasury, budget shortfalls for the first eight months of 2014 amounted to UAH 16,8 billion. The State Fiscal Service's share of this "achievement" was UAH 8,6 billion. Even more staggering statistics were reported by Bilous's predecessor, Klymenko: he claims the SFS is short of UAH 12 billion.
Despite such obvious failure, Bilous manages to put a good face on things. He simply intimidated the staff at the Gosfisk's central office to prevent information about his failures and shortcomings from leaking to the Cabinet of Ministers.
As head of the State Fiscal Service, Bilous mastered a vital skill for a Ukrainian official: he learned to shamelessly lie to his superiors about his achievements. Today, he constantly misleads Finance Minister Shlapak and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, feeding them blatantly false budget data and blatantly blaming the problems on the fighting in Donbas and the overall economic downturn. But the truth is that state budget revenues from the State Fiscal Service are falling at a rate that outpaces the decline in GDP. This isn't a problem of recent months, complicated by the ATO. These are problems that have been evident within the fiscal service from the very beginning.
So far, Bilous's tactics have been successful. He's been failing to meet budget targets and, apparently, has no problem with the existence of tax pits and "envelopes." But the "pit" promised to Bilous, previously mentioned by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, has never materialized. It was supposed to happen on September 1st. Finance Minister Shlapak's righteous anger hasn't caused Bilous any particular problems either.
But time is passing, and the head of the State Fiscal Service is finding it increasingly difficult to operate under the old PR scheme. Allegations of corruption in the appointment of heads of territorial bodies and the State Fiscal Service's staff are surfacing, and businesses are even resorting to pro-government media outlets to complain about increased pressure from the tax service.
Meanwhile, it's becoming increasingly difficult to blame predecessors for failures and violations, and the list of planned innovations they've adopted is already running out. Bilous's image as a pro-Western top manager is fading, revealing a weak and mediocre manager, albeit a flamboyant populist. He knows how to lie, and does so quite successfully. Therefore, he remains in office and expects career advancement.
Whether he'll succeed as head of the State Financial Service remains to be seen. For now, he can be congratulated on having defied Ukrainians' expectations of Western-style top managers entering the civil service. If this is a kamikaze government, what exactly should he do? That's right, give another interview. We eagerly await it.
Sergey Streltsov, TRACK
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