«We are under the close supervision of our partners»: Kapatsyna urged deputies to support the new structure of Mykolaiv City Hall

Mykola Kapatsyna, a deputy of Mykolaiv City Council and Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Denmark, called for support for the reform of the structure of executive bodies, which was developed in accordance with the recommendation of the Ernst & Young audit. The new structure provides for a reduction in the number of key spending units, liquidation and consolidation of divisions.

The issue was discussed during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 30 October, according to NikVesti.

Mr Kapatsyna stressed that the adoption of this decision is an important signal to international partners who are closely monitoring the process of local government reform in Mykolaiv.

«You have seen that on Monday our city was visited by a delegation headed by the Speaker of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Denmark, his deputies and the newly appointed Ambassador to Ukraine. As an honorary consul, I was invited to the morning meeting, and among other things, the issue of the effectiveness of local government reform, in particular the programme that we are preparing for voting today, was raised. Colleagues, the level of support of our community directly depends on the unity we demonstrate and our willingness to change on the recommendations of our partners in accordance with the best international practices. Therefore, I ask you to carefully consider this draft decision and discuss it. It is in line with Ukrainian legislation and our partners' requests for open and fair decision-making. We are under the close supervision of our partners, who help us a lot,» said Mykola Kapatsyna.

Prior to that, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reminded that the idea of changing the structure of the executive bodies of Mykolaiv City Council had been discussed for about seven years.

«They prepared their proposals, we discussed them and made changes. As always, everyone was dissatisfied — first of all, the employees of the executive bodies, because the number of management levels was reduced. Previously, there were seven — from department director to chief specialist. Now the structure has been simplified. Representatives of Ernst & Young also noted that the salaries of city council employees are too low, which makes it difficult to retain staff and attract new specialists. Some specialists move to government agencies, where the salaries are almost twice as high. We have worked out the proposals with executive bodies, deputies and the public. The changes have already been preliminarily approved, and we just need to make the last adjustments. During the intersessional period, we will submit this issue to all committees to hear the opinion of each deputy,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

It should be noted that the issue related to the implementation of the new structure of executive bodies of the city council was among the issues that were planned to be submitted for approval by the deputies. the decision concerns the approval of the staffing level of executive bodies in the total amount of 1115 staff units. However, because the issue was not considered by the commissions, it was postponed to the next session.

What Sienkevych proposes in the new structure of Mykolaiv City Hall

Back in April, 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 is not yet able to say how much the number of executive body officials and their maintenance costs will be reduced.

At the same time, the draft of the new structure of 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.

The draft of the new structure of the executive bodies of Mykolaiv City Council provides for a reduction in the powers of district administrations, which will no longer be the main spending units. The heads of the two districts, who are also deputies, publicly reacted to this: Oleksandr Bereza and Hanna Remennikova.

At the same time, it was reported that Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych believes that deputies should not combine representative and executive functions, and therefore should not hold positions in the executive bodies of the city council.

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