Mykolaiv City Council has not published protocols of sessions for six months

Mykolaiv City Council violates its own regulations by not publishing minutes, photo by NikVesti

For almost six months now, since November 2024, Mykolaiv City Council has not been publishing protocols of its plenary sessions on its website, in violation of the regulations.

The last to be published on the official website of the Mykolaiv City Council was the minutes of the session of 28 November 2024, «NikVesti» reports.

It is worth noting that Article 2 of the Regulations of Mykolaiv City Council defines the basic principles of its activities, one of which is transparency. The publicity of the council meetings is ensured by live broadcasting of its meetings on television or the Internet, posting protocols of the council meetings, roll call votes, its draft resolutions and decisions on the official website of the council, as well as in other ways established by the current legislation and/or individual decisions of the council, the regulations state.

Article 30 of the Regulations states that the voting results are an integral part of the protocols of the council session.

The protocols also include information on conflicts of interest, which should be reported by the deputies at the session, if necessary, and should be made available to the community. The absence of published minutes can make it difficult to exercise the right to appeal against a decision.

Mykolaiv City Hall has not published minutes of sessions for six months, screenshot from the city council website

And Article 39 stipulates that at each meeting of the session, the protocols of the council session are kept.

According to the regulations, the protocols of a plenary session of the council are drawn up within 30 days (after the transcript is transcribed) and signed by the chairman. The protocols must be published on the official website of the city council within 5 working days after they are drawn up. This is the responsibility of the Department for Support of Executive Bodies of Mykolaiv City Council.

Earlier it was reported that the police had closed the case of journalists being denied access to the Mykolaiv City Council.

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Senkevych: Mykolaiv wants to become an example of transparency of city authorities

At the end of 2023, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that he considered Mykolaiv «to be an exemplary example of transparency». Then, in an interview with LIGA.net, the mayor of Mykolaiv, answering the question «Do you consider Mykolaiv the most open city?», answered in the affirmative.

- We were checked by the police, we were checked by everyone - and everyone was very pleased and surprised that we had such a level of preparation," said Oleksandr Senkevych at the time.

At the time, he said he believed that other cities in Ukraine should follow Mykolaiv's example.

In September 2023, Deloitte conducted a good governance and integrity audit of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal». At the time, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that other utilities and institutions would undergo such an audit in the future.

- We want our anti-corruption department to work more effectively. We have enterprises that use budgetary funds, and they must also undergo these procedures," said Mr Senkevych.

The mayor of Mykolaiv believes that the main condition for support from international partners is transparent work of all departments in the city's management structure.

- "Mykolaiv wants to become an example for other cities in terms of transparency of processes and use of budget funds," he said.

In June last year, the International Republican Institute (IRI) presented the results of the Ninth Municipal Survey, which examined the socio-political situation in the regions, including public sentiment and satisfaction with the quality of services provided by local authorities. The results of the survey showed that, in particular, 35% of the city's residents approve of the performance of Mykolaiv City Council, and 36% of the city's residents support the mayor. Commenting on the results of the survey, which showed that almost half of the city's residents believe that things in the city are going in the wrong direction, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevych, said that the media are responsible for creating negative «sentiments» among the population.