In the ranking of Chernihiv budget transparency took medium positions

On June 16, a press conference “Place of Chernihiv Budget among transparent and virtuous” was held at the premises of the Public Press Center “Initiative”, organized by the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Studies. The event was published in the event, obtained as part of the measurement of the transparency, participation and integrity of the local budgets. In addition, participants presented the results and plans of the advocacy campaign to change the rules of budget allocation within the framework of the NGO support program.

For the first time, budget policy in Chernihiv was the subject of assessment by representatives of the public partnership “For transparent local budgets”, which is coordinated by the Odessa Regional Organization “Committee of Voters of Ukraine” and the Foundation “Open Society”. In Chernihiv, a local partner was a Polissya Foundation. Thus, Chernihiv became one of 17 settlements of Ukraine (including small cities and cities of regional importance), which evaluated the degree of transparency for citizens about local public finances, practice and opportunities for citizens’ participation in the budget process at all its stages.

“The results of the study of local budgets for the city authorities were not the best, but Chernihiv takes an average position compared to other participating cities,” said Olga Risa manager. – In general, urban budget policy was estimated at 50 points out of 173, which is 28.9% of the total rating. This allowed to take 8th place among the 17th possible. ” The speaker summed up that the budget process corresponds to the “minimum level” of ensuring the transparency, participation and integrity of the city budget in accordance with the proposed methodology.

Briefly about the results

The general trend that is characteristic of Chernihiv is the practice of incomplete publication of information about the budget process. This is due to the fact that information about the city budget, posted on the official website of the Chernihiv City Council, is incomplete, and holding the budget hearings did not enter the practice of city authorities.

Speaking of specific estimates, the lowest of them was obtained, including for informing about the meeting of the profile budget commission, during which the 2016 budget draft was considered. Accordingly, information about this event appeared on the day of its holding. Also, information on the received proposals from citizens and deputies of the city council to the decision on the budget, information on the state of their consideration, etc. was not published. This is partly due to the fact that the practice of consulting citizens on the draft budget decision in Chernihiv is not.

Medical grades were obtained by such criteria for transparency and participation as the completeness of the draft decision on the budget. Thus, according to the requirements of Article 76 of the Budget Code of Ukraine, the aforementioned project and the decision itself should contain an explanatory note.

The highest ratings were obtained for the fact that the Chernihiv City Council of the projects and the targeted programs themselves. The unobstructed participation of citizens in the sessions of the city council, where budget issues were considered, also positively influenced the overall assessment. In addition, high points were granted for the fact of the draft decision on the 2016 budget on the eve of the meeting of the profile committee and the session, as well as the publication of the minutes of the meeting of the Budget Committee.

It should be noted that in the framework of evaluation of the transparency-frequently-predictability index, in addition to these, 205 criteria were used.

As a result of the advocacy part of the project, according to other speakers of the event, the adoption of a new program of support of NGOs with a competitive approach, but without its financial part.

“Despite the ambiguous attitude of most deputies to this issue, protest from public organizations, which have been funded from the city budget for more than 5 years without obligations, lack of desire for change, we still have made the competition that the project was allocated from the city budget. – It should be acknowledged that the adoption of the deputies during the last session of the program without funding was eliminated all our work. But we will continue to work in this direction and hope that the new authorities will have enough political will to keep this project just an idea. “

“The practice of allocation of funds and the implementation of projects by public organizations through the competition has long been working and gives its results, – said the project expert Pavel Pushchenko. “In addition, the same practice exists at the level of our area, which gives more successful projects.”