Mykolaiv Integrity Plan was written by 10 city hall officials, although donors advised to involve NGOs and media

The development of «Mykolaiv Integrity Plan» was entrusted to 10 city hall officials and a former employee of Mariupol city council, who currently works in «Integrity Office» at Mykolaiv city council.

The relevant decree on the composition of the working group No. 141r, signed by Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, does not take into account the methodology developed by EUACI and UNDP, according to NikVesti.

Working group of the Plan developers:

• Vitalii Yaroshenko, acting director of the department of internal financial control, supervision and anti-corruption of Mykolaiv city council;
• Iryna Mardar, deputy director of the department — head of the organisational, legal and personnel support division of the department for administrative services;
• Svitlana Kyrylenko, Head of the Corruption Prevention and Detection Division of the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Counteraction to Corruption;
• Iryna Bondar, Head of the Department for Work with Utilities, Institutions and Organisations of the Department of Communal Property;
• Oksana Holub, Deputy Director of the Department — Head of the Analytical and Control and Audit Division of the Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption Department;
• Kateryna Dovbenko, Head of the Department of the Mykolaiv City Council;
• Inna Yerentiuk, Deputy Director of the Department, Head of the Division for Preparation of Initial Data for City Development of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning;
• Yurii Platonov, Deputy Director of the Department — Head of the Land Relations Division of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development;
• Yuliia Mincheva, freelance advisor to the mayor;
• Vira Sviatelyk, Director of the Department of Finance;
• Andrii Yefremov, procurement expert of the Integrity Support Office.

Andrii Yefremov, who joined the working group as an expert from the «Integrity Office of Mykolaiv City Council», previously worked as an advisor to the mayor of Mariupol and is now an EUACI expert. In fact, he is the only member of the working group who does not hold a position in the structure of Mykolaiv City Hall.

At the same time, the recommendations prepared with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) and the United Nations Development Programme stated that representatives of NGOs, media and independent experts should be involved in the development of such documents.

The donors' materials state that the working group, in addition to officials, may include MPs, media representatives, the public, experts and advisers on transparency and accountability. This, according to the authors of the recommendations, makes the process more open and reduces the risk of biased decisions.

«The working group can also include the following persons: other employees of the local self-government body; council members; representatives of the public and the media, independent experts (if necessary); the adviser to the head on transparency, accountability and corruption prevention (if any)», the document says.

In fact, those responsible for the integrity of the Integrity Plan ignored the recommendations of EUACI and UNDP to involve representatives of the public sector, media and even the MPs in the development of this document.

Moreover, during the hearing of the relevant draft decision at the deputy commission on legality of the Mykolaiv City Council, the head of the anti-corruption department of the mayor's office, Vitalii Yaroshenko, stated that the necessary public discussions had already allegedly taken place in May 2025.

However, the deputies did not agree to adopt the «Integrity Plan» of Mykolaiv without a real public discussion and announced the acceptance of comments and suggestions to the document.

When the public expert council of the executive committee of the Mykolaiv city council learned about the document, they announced their own alternative discussion of the document.

NikVesti also wrote that the draft Integrity Plan of the Mykolaiv City Council aims to reduce the risks of favouritism by deputies and officials in the management of municipal property.

As a reminder, in June 2024, a working group was set up in Mykolaiv to develop the Integrity Plan of the Mykolaiv City Council, which will identify and minimise corruption risks in the work of local authorities.

Earlier, in a commentary to NikVesti at the Conference on the Restoration of Ukraine in Rome, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that in the fight against corruption in the city, he believes that the main thing is not personnel, but systemic changes that make it impossible for officials to abuse.