Mykolaiv Mayor Sienkevych wants to add a deputy for digitalisation

The draft new structure of the executive bodies of Mykolaiv City Council envisages an increase in the number of deputy mayors to seven. It is planned to create the position of vice mayor for digitalisation.

This is reported by NikVesti.

It should be noted that the current structure of the Mykolaiv City Hall includes six deputies, including the manager of the executive committee.

«All processes need to be digitalised. And thanks to digitalisation, the number of officials will decrease in the future,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych, explaining the need for a new deputy.

According to the presented structure, the new deputy will be responsible for the Digital Transformation Department.

Answering a question from a journalist of NikVesti about the feasibility of introducing another position of Deputy Mayor during the presentation of the new structure, Konstantin Nevyadomsky, the head of Ernst & Young's advisory practice in Ukraine, expressed the position that digital transformation is a strategic direction.

«In our opinion, digitalisation is a strategic issue. Yes, at the moment a deputy is added, and it looks like an additional unit and vertical. But from our point of view, we simply cannot ignore the role of IT in the efficiency of any organisation, let alone a service organisation. And we see that there is a great opportunity to improve both the level of service and the productivity of all the staff of Mykolaiv City Council, which will potentially reduce the number of people,» said Konstantyn Neviadomskyi.

According to him, no one in the Mykolaiv City Council is currently dealing exclusively with strategic issues related to IT.

«Why a deputy? Because it is a strategic issue. And such a vertical should have access directly to the top management and be in constant contact with the top management, coordinating its work, including potentially taking into account the cost of digital initiatives,» said Konstantyn Neviadomskyi.

Presenting the results of the audit of Mykolaiv City Hall, Konstantyn Nevyadomskyi highlighted the key problems of the city in this area, in particular:

• Mykolaiv has a rather low digital transformation index compared to other regions;
• Outdated software and network infrastructure used by the executive bodies of Mykolaiv City Council;
• A large number of city council processes that are currently performed manually, but have the potential to be automated;
• Lack of basic IT services to ensure the provision of services to city residents;
• Important information security processes have not been implemented, which is critical for the digital transformation of Mykolaiv city council;
• Insufficient number of employees in the current IT department to perform tasks effectively.

It should be noted that the executive bodies of Mykolaiv city council now have a department for standardisation and implementation of e-governance headed by Dmytro Kanarskyi. This department has 5 employees and reports to Andrii Volkov, manager of the executive committee's affairs.

Earlier it was reported that Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych 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.