Sienkevych returns the online broadcasts of executive committees

From now on, the meetings of the executive committee of the Mykolaiv City Council will be held online, and the live broadcast of the meeting will be shown on the YouTube channel of the city hall.

This was announced by the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych on Wednesday, December 13, during a meeting of the executive committee, NikVesti reports.

As you know, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the meetings of the executive committee of the Mykolaiv City Council were held online in one of the messengers, but in this way they were closed to citizens and the media.

«The issue of holding an executive committee in one of the messengers was resolved in such a way as to save your time and make the work more efficient. Right now we are talking to you, and one of the members of the executive committee is in military service and is going through it, one might say, on the front line,» Oleksandr Sienkevych commented.

As you know, in August 2023, Mykolaiv began to cooperate with the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative. The organization, together with the local authorities, is working on a common mission — the creation of the «City of Virtue». Representatives of the anti-corruption initiative are engaged in active city restoration projects, in particular, they control the openness of procurement and the availability of information.

Among other things, the experts recommended to the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych to renew the meetings of the executive committee online and broadcast them on the official YouTube channel of the Mykolaiv City Council so that citizens could see the decision-making process and thereby increase the transparency and openness of the local government.

«Today, you and I have gathered to meet online for the first time in a long time. This is the first time that this format of the executive committee is held in our country, this is due to the fact that since the beginning of the war, we have started meeting with the members of the executive committee in an online format in the form of a group in one of the messengers. Currently, we want to become one of the most transparent cities, we are changing our policies, procurement procedures, announcements, and so on. Including experts who deal with the issue of transparency, they said that we need to switch to holding meetings of the executive committee in an online format. When you can see who is present at the meeting, when people see the broadcast and see the decision-making process. We are not against it, we are not hiding anything,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

We remind you that in Mykolaiv the integrity of the municipal enterprise Mykolaivvodokanal is being assessed. The level of transparency and accountability, integrity risks and the level of corporate governance at the enterprise are assessed.

Also, the anti-corruption initiative is preparing a public document called the «Integrity Plan», which will be based on data from inspections of a number of spheres of activity in the Mykolaiv region, with recommendations for further minimizing corruption risks.

In addition, the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych obliged managers of funds to conduct auctions more transparently and to inform the city council about their implementation. Since the city has a public interest in spending funds for the purchase of capital and ongoing repairs, as well as materials necessary for their implementation.

As you know, in September 2023, the deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council must approve changes in the composition of the executive committee.