Land Commission of Mykolaiv City Council does not approve new structure of Mykolaiv City Hall

Members of the standing committee of the Mykolaiv City Council on land issues did not support the structure of the city council's executive bodies — there were not enough votes to make a decision.

This became known during a meeting of the commission on Friday, 14 November, according to NikVesti.

The issue of the structure was reported by Andrii Volkov, the manager of the executive committee. None of the deputy mayors came to the meeting to report on their respective areas.

Andrii Volkov noted that the total number of staff will not change as it will be determined by the budget decision. The draft decision states that the staff of executive bodies is 1,115 people.

«We have not seen such decisions since 2009, when the last decision on the internal organisational structure was made. And now we are submitting decisions on executive bodies for your consideration separately. Here you can find the executive body, its structure and the total number of employees in the executive body», explained Andrii Volkov.

Members of the commission asked how the number of employees in the organisational structure of rayon administrations changes. Andrii Volkov replied that such issues are not within his competence.

«The decision is a collective one for all sectors. I am ready to be responsible for the structure that is under my leadership and under my organisation. For the rest, I am ready to answer only in general terms. I do not manage them, but I understand the general situation. As for the administrations, the total number of staff is being reduced at the expense of the children's service and the landscaping inspection is being transferred», he said.

The draft decision was put to a vote, but it did not receive the required number of votes. The first time, not all members of the commission took part in the vote. On the second attempt, 4 members of the commission voted «for», none against, and 2 abstained.

It is worth noting that in late August, Mykolaiv City Council approved an updated structure of the executive bodies of the city hall, which, in particular, provides for the liquidation of the anti-corruption department as an independent structural unit and its merger with the executive committee. During the session, city council member Andrii Yermolaiev, who headed the department, opposed the decision.

In September of this year, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption recommended that Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych create a separate, independent and functionally independent anti-corruption unit in the city council. The NAPC's letter emphasises that such units should operate autonomously and be responsible for preventing and detecting corruption.

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.