Mykolaiv's specialised commission agreed on budget redistribution and complained about late subventions

The Budget Commission has agreed on the redistribution of Mykolaiv's funds for 2025. Photo: NikVesti

The Planning and Budget Commission of the Mykolaiv City Council has approved the redistribution of the city budget for 2025. The main part concerns the approval of state subventions and grants received by the city during the intersessional period, as well as the closure of protected items such as salaries and utility bills.

This was reported by NikVesti.

Vira Sviatelyk, Director of the Department of Finance, explained that the city budget revenues for 2025 are set at 6.6 billion hryvnias, and expenditures at 7.4 billion hryvnias.

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During the intersessional period, the city received the following transfers:

• 135 million hryvnias — a subsidy for the exercise of the powers of local self-government bodies in the de-occupied and affected territories;
  
  

• 61.2 million hryvnias — subvention for schoolchildren's meals;
  
  

• 40 million hryvnias — subvention for additional payments to teachers;
  
  

• 8 million hryvnias — a subvention for the construction and reconstruction of housing for temporary residence.

According to Vira Sviatelyk, the subventions that the city does not manage to spend on the penultimate working day of December will be returned to the state budget. Subsidies, on the other hand, remain in the community budget and are transferred to the next year.

Ihor Nabatov, First Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services, said that the city will not have time to use 8 million hryvnias of the regional subvention allocated for the construction and repair of temporary housing. This subvention was received by the budget in mid-November.

«To be honest, there is virtually no hope that it can be spent by 31 December. But the subvention has been received, so it must be brought to the budget,» said Iрor Nabatov.

Dmytro Sichko asked if there was a chance to receive the funds again next year.

Vera Sviatelyk replied that the subvention came through the regional budget, and it would be necessary to communicate further with the regional financial department.

«Let me remind you that this happened in mid-November. And mid-November is actually the end of the budget year. I just don't quite understand the logic: we physically cannot fully utilise these funds in a month and a half, it's unrealistic. It is good that they were not transferred on 31 December,» said Dmytro Sichko.

According to Ihor Nabatov, during the negotiations with the Ministry of Social Policy, all the country's administrators stressed that such subventions should be sent earlier, as it is virtually impossible to use them in December. He clarified that the receipt of the funds became known only a week before they actually appeared in the budget, although at first it was said that these would be transitional allocations.

«Of course, we will report and thank you at the end of the year, and we hope that next year we will also be allocated funding, because this functional purpose is really important,» added Ihor Nabatov.

Fedir Panchenko, Chairman of the Budget Committee, reminded that the main purpose of this reallocation was to cover the shortfall in funds for salaries and utilities by the end of the year. He also asked whether the information that only 7 million hryvnias was allocated for salaries was true. The director of the financial department replied that this was not true, as funds for salaries were also provided for municipal institutions, not just for officials of the city council departments, but it was impossible to see them.

«No answer. 48 million 425 thousand hryvnias is allocated exclusively for salaries, without accruals, for all budgetary institutions where salaries are prescribed. It is impossible to see the salaries of public utilities here, because we chose them», Vira Sviatelyk replied.

Fedir Panchenko clarified that he personally «chose» the costs of salaries and utilities from the budget and received about 140 million hryvnias in total.

«But in general, utilities and the salary fund are about 140 million hryvnias. This is what this budget provides for and lists. It looks different for different utilities and institutions: for some, these funds cover almost a month of work, while some utilities have already had to transfer money from other items to cover these needs. As for salaries and utility bills, we are closing all mandatory payments this year. No one will come on 25 December or 1 January after the New Year and say: «I have 20 million in unpaid salaries,» added Panchenko.

According to NikVesti, 140 million hryvnias are state subventions that are not «the city's money found» and that already have their intended purpose. In reality, the city allocates only funds for utilities (about 40 million hryvnias) and about 7 million hryvnias for salaries of officials, not teachers, doctors or other public sector employees. According to NikVesti, a significant portion of the funds «for salaries» will be received by the municipal enterprise «Mykolaiv Parks», which has not planned its salary fund by the end of the year and the costs of purchasing machinery and various equipment, effectively forcing the city council to seek additional funding. The city council has previously allocated tens of millions of hryvnias to replenish «the statutory fund of» the company, which is supposed to be engaged in greening the city.

In a commentary to NikVesti, Vira Sviatelyk explained that she could not give an exact amount for each utility company, as this data needs to be separately verified:

«For labour remuneration, the redistribution is 48 million. «This is the budget part,» the official said. — But you need to understand that there are also communal enterprises inside. Their amounts should be selected separately. I need to prepare and review all their letters to say for sure,» she said.

At the end of the discussion, the chairman of the commission put to the vote a recommendation to submit the draft decision to the session to be held on 11 December. The decision was supported by 9 councillors. From the faction «Proposal» — Fedir Panchenko, Maksym Kovalenko, Oleksandr Bereza, Dmytro Sichko and Volodymyr Topchyi; from «Servants of the People» — Ramil Ahabekov, Nataliia Horbenko and Mykola Kapatsyna; from «European Solidarity» — Victoria Pereverzieva.

We would like to remind you that three weeks ago, all budget payments were suspended in Mykolaiv, as reported by sources in the Mykolaiv City Council. The main spending units were then instructed to suspend all payments for expenditures that did not relate to protected items, namely public sector salaries and utility bills. At the time, it was reported that the reason for this was the lack of budget funds to cover the protected budget items until the end of the year. The problem had been known 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 that budget overruns and savings during the year would help find the funds. However, this did not happen.

Later, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the city budget was looking for 60 million hryvnias for salaries and utilities.

NikVesti analysed the proposed changes to the distribution of expenditures in Mykolaiv's budget and calculated that 7.2 million hryvnias would be allocated for salaries and utilities (in the budget, this is an expenditure item «Management and administration in the relevant area») for the city's budget managers, rather than the 60 million hryvnias previously mentioned by the mayor.