Public Council at Mykolaiv City Hall criticises the Integrity Plan of the City Council: «The document came out from under the covers»

The Expert and Public Council of the Executive Committee of the Mykolaiv City Council considers it a violation not to involve the public and independent experts in the development of the draft Integrity Plan.

This opinion was voiced by the chairman of the council, Artem Vashchylenko, during a public discussion of the document, according to NikVesti.

He noted that the emergence of the «project from under the» blanket contradicts the very principles of integrity that should have been its basis. Artem Vashchylenko recalled that the city had previously demonstrated a high level of public involvement when preparing strategic documents.

«The document appeared under the radar and in violation of the principles of integrity. Is it always the practice of the city council that strategic documents appear in this way? In fact, Mykolaiv demonstrates the level of public involvement in the adoption of strategic documents. The Mykolaiv Development Strategy of 2027 was adopted with the involvement of the public, business, and experts. And it is a high-quality document adopted by the city council. The city's master plan is adopted with the involvement of the community, expert council, sectoral councils, and business associations. The comprehensive recovery programme includes 400 proposals from citizens. This is normal, it works. That's why I was surprised when I discovered the composition of the working group that was supposed to develop the document with the involvement of stakeholders, given its importance for the community, and most importantly for consumers of administrative services provided by the city council,» he said.

Instead, the working group for the development of the Integrity Plan included only 10 officials, without a single representative of the public, which, in his opinion, makes the document of poor quality.

«The term integrity is not only about anti-corruption, which is the focus of the document's draft. In general, the concept of integrity implies a broader, more comprehensive understanding, and includes important components that affect competitiveness and the comfort of life in the community. And this is what the city council is working for. The explanatory note to this document spells it out and declared it during the development,» added Artem Vashchylenko.

Voting for the Integrity Plan

During the hearing of the relevant draft decision at the deputy commission on legality of the Mykolaiv City Council, Vitalii Yaroshenko, head of the anti-corruption department of the mayor's office, said 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.