Kim supports raising salaries in Mykolaiv City Council, but if there are results

The head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, said he supports raising salaries for employees of the Mykolaiv City Council, but only if there are specific performance results.

He said this in response to a question from NikVesti during a press conference dedicated to the final results of the year 2025.

As you know, the budget requests of the Mykolaiv City Council for 2026 include an increase in the average estimated salary for local government employees to 25,000 hryvnias, which is 66.7% more than in 2025, when this figure was 15,000 hryvnias.

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«We are now being tasked with reducing the number of units of the regional military administration and district military administration by 15%. At the same time, it is proposed to raise salaries so that fewer people receive higher salaries and work more efficiently. Last time, it was a one-time action for a year, and the subvention was not renewed, so I am in favour of paying people more. City hall workers do not have «wow» salaries, despite the fact that I will not comment on the effectiveness of our colleagues,» said Vitalii Kim.

He added that he supports salary increases, but only if there are specific performance results.

«I am in favour of raising salaries, but only when you come with a report: «I brought taxes plus how much, the budget plus how much, we brought so much money to the region, we are so good». I pay my own bonuses. I have not analysed the budget of Mykolaiv or the efficiency of work, because bonuses and salary increases are based on the results of some work, apparently. Therefore, I cannot answer this question,» said Vitalii Kim.

Vitalii Kim, Head of Mykolaiv Regional Administrative Body, at the final conference for 2025. Photo: NikVesti.

The average salary in Mykolaiv City Hall is to be increased to 25 thousand per person

As you know, the budget requests of the Mykolaiv City Council's fund managers for 2026 include an increase in the average estimated salary for local government employees to 25,000 hryvnias, which is 66.7% more than in 2025, when this figure was 15,000 hryvnias.

Vira Sviatelyk, director of the city council's finance department, said that the salaries in the requests were calculated according to a single principle for all executive bodies of local self-government.

According to her, the salary for 2026 was calculated on the basis of 25 thousand hryvnias for each employee. This is a single position for all local governments. Then this amount was multiplied by the number of staff units of each key spending unit, and the payroll was formed.

It should be noted that the updated structure of executive bodies, which the deputies failed to approve, did not reduce the number of executive bodies and still has 1115 employees.

For example, on 11 December, the deputies of Mykolaiv City Council did not have enough votes to include the issue of approving the updated structure of executive bodies on the agenda.

In addition, on 14 November, during a meeting of the land commission, the deputies failed to pass a resolution due to a lack of votes, and a similar situation repeated itself on 18 November at a meeting of the specialised commission. The document also failed to move forward on 25 November, when the draft was considered for the second time by the Health and Social Protection Commission, as the deputies again failed to support the proposed changes.

Earlier it was reported that the Mykolaiv Department of Education proposed to establish municipal allowances for preschool teachers: 5,200 hryvnias for those who work full-time or in a mixed format, and 2,600 hryvnias for those who work remotely.

We would also like to remind you that the Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, promised that departments, offices and utilities would report to the city council before adopting the budget for 2026.

As a reminder, in November, all budget payments were suspended in Mykolaiv, as reported by sources in the Mykolaiv City Council. The main spending units were 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 utility bills (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.