«To understand what resources we have»: Sienkevych answered why he banned spending from the budget of Mykolaiv

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych suspended budget payments, photo by NikVesti

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, has confirmed that he has suspended all payments from the city budget that do not relate to mandatory payments, explaining that he needs to understand what resources the city has until the end of the budget year.

The mayor of Mykolaiv made this explanation in a comment to the online media outlet «Prestupnosti.NET».

As reported by NikVesti, last Friday, the mayor of Mykolaiv instructed the main spending units to suspend all payments for expenditures that do not relate to protected items, namely public sector salaries and utility bills. The reason for this was the lack of budget funds to cover the protected budget items by the end of the year. The estimated amount is over 200 million hryvnias.

The mayor of Mykolaiv said that at the next session of the city council, scheduled for 27 November, they plan to consider amendments to the city budget. However, according to Oleksandr Sienkevych, it is clear that the draft decision is not yet ready, which is the reason for the suspension of the budget process in the city.

«Due to the martial law and limited budgetary resources, in particular due to additional and unforeseen expenses, including from the reserve fund, we are preparing for the next session, where we will consider budget adjustments. It is important for us to quickly assess the implementation of all programmes and understand the resources we have. This will allow us to determine which key spending units have balances or unused funds that can be temporarily allocated to the basic and protected needs of the city,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

It is worth noting that the city hall had been aware of the budget problem for a long time, as the annual budget had not included funds for mandatory payments by the end of the year. The mayor's office hoped to over-execute the budget and make savings during the year, which would help to find the funds.

In July, during his press conference, Oleksandr Sienkevych expressed expectations that Mykolaiv's budget would be over-executed in August due to auctions and taxes received by the city from the founders of Monobank. However, according to the city hall's finance department, as of 1 September, budget revenues were 100.8% of the target for the period from January to August, meaning that the overperformance was 0.8%.

According to the Finance Department, which is published on the official website of the City Council, as of 1 November, Mykolaiv's budget revenues amounted to 97.6% of the planned amount for this period.

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