Mykolaiv Mayor presents new structure of City Hall, but does not know how many officials will be reduced

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych has presented a draft of a new structure of executive bodies, which was developed in accordance with the recommendation of the Ernst & Young audit. The new structure envisages a reduction in the number of key spending units, liquidation and consolidation of departments. At the same time, the mayor's office cannot yet say how much the number of executive body officials and their maintenance costs will be reduced.

This was discussed during a public presentation of the new structure project on 22 April, according to NikVesti.

«The system should not depend on the personality of the mayor, deputy mayor, head of department or director of the department. It should be logical, comply with the laws of logic and best practices, because, unfortunately, ideal conditions are not always realisable in real life. Therefore, it is very good that Ernst & Young did not consider Mykolaiv City Council in a vacuum of ideal conditions, but constantly compared it with other city councils, including best practices. There is a lot of work to be done, and we have already started this work,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

In particular, as part of the reorganisation, it is planned to reduce the number of management levels from 9 to 5 (mayor, deputies, heads of departments, offices, divisions), enlarge units and set a minimum number of 7 employees per department.

Responding to Ernst & Young's comments on the share of managers in the total number of officials, the mayor of Mykolaiv said that this number would be reduced to 20% of the number of employees. It should be noted that currently 34% of the staff of the executive bodies of Mykolaiv city council are managers.

«The positions of deputy department heads will be eliminated, and the number of administrative staff will be reduced, primarily due to the reduction in the number of key spending units. We will introduce a service-oriented model, centralise support functions such as procurement, accounting and so on, and introduce more electronic services, including those funded by our foreign partners. And to introduce a system of performance indicators that will help people to increase their salaries, not just because they have been working there for years,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

The new structure envisages centralisation of service functions at the level of the executive committee, including procurement, accounting, IT, HR, and legal support. In general, it is proposed to reduce the number of spending units from 21 to 9.

«A large number of subdivisions and departments will come under the executive committee as a spending unit. What does this give us? More flexible budget management, reduced administrative burden on the budget and lower costs for supporting functions such as accounting, administrative staff and procurement. The main issue is to optimise the procurement process. Not dispersion, but centralisation. Reducing the number of procurers reduces corruption risks. If there is one centralised procurement body, we will be able to monitor it, without having to look for who is negotiating with whom at the lower level, changing some technical characteristics of certain procurement items,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

How much money will the new structure of Mykolaiv City Hall save

The mayor's office is not yet able to say any specific amount, while Oleksandr Sienkevych called the issue of budget savings due to changes in the structure of the executive bodies of the mayor's office a debatable one.

He believes that the salary fund will not change significantly with the change in the number of employees.

«As the professional workload of employees increases, it will be necessary to increase financial resources. If we want to get more competitive employees. And of course, some amount of money, 10% or whatever, will be «eaten» up by our inflation next year. Forecasting the next year's budget, I cannot say that the costs of maintaining city council employees will be drastically reduced. It is as it is,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

At the same time, he believes that the city will save budget funds by reducing corruption and increasing the efficiency of budget spending.

«If we are talking about comparing today's budget with next year's budget, we understand that we will reduce corruption and increase the efficiency of using budget funds, we will increase the additional funds that we will have for distribution in the budget. Our task is to save money on the efficient use of budget funds: on procurement, on optimising services and on eliminating corruption risks in these procurements,» said the mayor of Mykolaiv.

How much will the number of officials in Mykolaiv City Hall be reduced?

As of today, the number of employees of the executive bodies of Mykolaiv City Council is 1115, taking into account the changes to the structure made at the last session of the City Council on 24 April.

Answering a clarifying question from a journalist of NikVesti about how the number of employees of the city hall will change after the structure change, Oleksandr Sienkevych said that this number will decrease.

«We will reduce the number of people because we will have fewer support staff: accountants, administrators, the number of sectors. But today we need to understand, and I always say this, that the state is delegating more and more powers to the local level. For example, recent legislative changes mean that in the near future, it will not be the responsibility of the MCC to register people liable for military service and work with people liable for military service, but that of the local government. This will be our responsibility. This issue is already on the agenda. For example, in the near future we will open the ASC in Zavodskyi district, and it needs to be filled with people. At the moment, I can't say the exact number of people. I have not prepared for this,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

In the near future, the Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, plans to present his developments to the deputies of the city council, and in May to submit this issue to the «session hall» for approval.

In January 2024, the Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, announced that the city council would be cutting staff due to the city's budget being cut by almost half.

This is due to the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers planned to direct all revenues from the «military» tax, 64% of which remain in local budgets, to the state budget.

At the same time, the city, together with experts from «Ernst & Young», worked on reorganising and optimising the work of executive authorities. One such example is the merger of the Department of Architecture and the Department of Land Resources.

In November 2024, it was reported that city council members were once again offered to consider a draft decision that would reduce the number of members of the executive committee. It was not supported by the city council's specialised committee on legality.