Ministry of Social Policy offers transition to a declarative principle in the permitting system
June 11, 2018 Ukrainian Oil and Gas Association (UO&GA) took part in the initiated workshop of the Ministry of Social Policy on the implementation of the Government’s task of moving from the permitting system of economic activities to the declarative principle.
Representatives of the State Service of Ukraine for Labor, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ukrainian Business Association and other specialized associations took part in the meeting, chaired by the Director General of the Directorate of Norms and Standards of Decent Work, Yuri Kuzovoy.
The basis for discussing the issue was the draft of amendments to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of October 26, 2011 No. 1107 “On Approving the Procedure for Issuing Permits for Carrying Out Works of Increased Danger and for Operation (Application) of Machines, Mechanisms, Equipment of Increased Danger” prepared by the State Service of Ukraine on Labor and the issue of amending the Law of Ukraine “On Labor Protection”.
Agreeing with the urgent need for changes to Decree No. 1107, the majority of those present spoke against the provision stipulated in the draft, according to which the business entity, together with the declaration, must provide an expert opinion on the state of security at the production facility. The authors of the project argued their proposal by the fact that the state or local authorities should be guided by the objectivity of the submitted declaration for the subsequent monitoring of the state of the production facility, conducting inspections.
However, such a proposal preserves the unjustified financial and time costs of business entities and leaves the conditions for corruption. At last — it contradicts the current normative provisions of the declarative principle, whose main ideology is to simplify the conditions for the start of a new business by transferring to the entrepreneur all responsibility for compliance with the established security requirements.
The participants of the meeting unanimously supported the need to continue discussion of the draft resolution and taking into account the position of a wide range of business environment to take coordinated decisions.
The head of the UO&GA relevant committee, Sergei Kotov, noted “To date, we can acknowledge that the State is quite active in demonstrating its readiness to reduce the administrative burden on business. Many bureaucratic barriers were abolished, individual procedures are transferred to the electronic format and declaration. However, questions on the improvement of existing regulatory and legal acts on labor protection remain relevant. ”
The latest innovations in the regulation of industrial safety and labor protection directly concern the objects of retail trade in petroleum products. Therefore, UO&GA is interested in simplifying the current procedures for obtaining permits to start work and operate equipment, where today there are opportunities for abuse by officials of different levels in obtaining positive expert opinions and licensing documents.
The Ukrainian Oil and Gas Association intends to comment and propose changes in the legislation related to the oil and gas sector, including mechanisms in the field of industrial and labor safety.
