Administration of Personnel Security in the Context of Legal Security

Since the beginning of the state independence, the issue of creating its own state personnel policy has been identified as one of the priorities of Ukraine’s national security. Key regulatory legal acts of Ukraine state that the state personnel policy should be aimed at creating organizational, legal, managerial, social, psychological, material and technical, financial, economic and other prerequisites for the formation of highly professional civil service personnel. In particular, it was assumed that the specified civil service personnel should effectively, at a high state level, solve official tasks and protect the defining constitutional values - the person themselves, their health, life, honour and dignity. It is stated that today in Ukraine there is no effective state personnel policy that should ensure the rational use of the human capital of the state. Today, personnel issues in Ukraine are not resolved transparently, not according to democratic principles, but according to the principles of political affiliation and proximity to the leading political structure. That is, the process of personnel appointments in Ukraine is carried out as one of the powerful tools for realizing own ambitions of individual political forces, individuals or other private interests. The above indicates the manifestation of various challenges and threats to personnel security and the associated legal security. The above became particularly acute during the period of the transition of the Ukrainian economy to market rails, since the main attention was focused on personnel security in the private sector, not the state. It was during this period that the main attention of the public authorities was paid to ensuring personnel security in enterprises and institutions of the private law sector, leaving the issue of personnel security in state institutions without due attention. And it was during this period, thanks to scientific research in this area, that the definition of “human resource security” of an enterprise was developed, which was considered in the context of the concept of “economic security of an enterprise”: “Human resource security is a component of the economic security of an enterprise, the priority task of which is protection from risks and threats in order to create conditions for the most effective management of personnel, as a determining resource for ensuring a high level of competitiveness of an enterprise.” It is noted that the issue of the functioning of the personnel reserve institution in Ukraine was enshrined in legislation in 1993, which was addressed by Article 28 of the Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service” and the relevant Government Resolution “On Approval of the Regulation on the Formation of a Personnel Reserve for the Civil Service”, as well as the provisions of the Concept on the Rotation of Personnel in Certain Civil Service Positions. However, after the adoption of the new Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service” in 2015 and the relevant Government Resolution “On Approval of the Procedure for Conducting a Competition for Civil Service Positions”, the importance of this institution was minimized, since these acts abolished the institution of a personnel reserve, which led to negative consequences in the public sphere, primarily for the civil service, for the mechanism of effective placement of personnel in it, and for the personnel security of the state as a whole. Attention is drawn to the fact that public authorities, realizing the importance of the functioning of the institution of “personnel reserve” and considering this through the prism of “personnel security” in the context of “legal security”, have made attempts to return the personnel reserve to public administration, which was planned through the introduction of the concept of “candidate reserve”, that is, the introduction of a new article to the current Law “On Civil Service” - Article 251 “Candidate Reserve”, which was supposed to create conditions for more effective attraction of qualified candidates. However, the relevant draft Law of Ukraine has not been finally adopted by either the Parliament or the President of Ukraine to date. It is emphasized that in recent years, the issue of “personnel security” in the sphere of public power has begun to be given due attention by individual researchers, which confirmed that the regulation of personnel security processes should be implemented in the state personnel policy, including in the public administration system. The above-mentioned allowed us to develop an appropriate definition of the term “personnel security in the public sphere” - this is the general direction of the state personnel policy, a set of principles, methods, forms and goals of the organizational mechanism for processing tasks aimed at preserving, strengthening and developing the state personnel potential, at creating a responsible and highly productive united state team, capable of properly analyzing the modern world military-political situation, responding in a timely manner to constantly changing challenges in this area, capable of predicting the further development of the aforementioned situation and developing appropriate proposals to the state leadership regarding the directions, forms and mechanisms of responding to them in the interests of further state development and ensuring national security. It is argued that the formation of an effective personnel reserve remains an important problem for Ukraine, and its solution requires a comprehensive approach that would take into account the specifics of the modern public service and the requirements for it, as well as the demands of society and innovative practices in human resource management. Martial law led to the creation of an operational procedure for appointment to positions, which allows avoiding a complex and lengthy competitive selection process, leaving only basic requirements for applicants, such as citizenship, education and relevant work experience. It is noted that modern challenges require the search for new mechanisms that would provide a reliable basis for the formation of the future personnel potential of the civil service. In particular, it is worth paying attention to international experience, where the personnel reserve system is the basis for ensuring continuity and professionalism of state bodies.