Publicity Index 2016: What changed in the work of Chernihiv City Council?

Chernihiv in the 11th place among other regional centers of Ukraine according to the publicity index. On December 21, the Press Center “Chernihiv Choice” took place a presentation of the results of the research “Publicity Index 2016: what changed in the work of the Chernihiv City Council”.

The event was attended by projects of the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Studies Olga Ryn and a participant in the campaign “Measurement of the Local Self -Government Public Edx” Natalia Sicicanets.

The first study was conducted in 2013. The indicators of 11 cities of Ukraine were then investigated. “This year, analysts monitored the publicity of 22 cities of Ukraine. The purpose of monitoring is to understand how public the authorities are: the mayor, the executive bodies and the deputy corps. The study was only about access to information, and about publicity in its broad sense. The analysis was conducted on 200 indicators, ”Natalia Vicikanets said.

Olga Risa reported: “According to the results of measurement of the publicity index of local self -government bodies this year, the Chernihiv City Council took 11th in the nationwide rating, which testifies to positive dynamics. For example, in 2015, the publicity index of the municipality was 47 %, which allowed to divide the 17th place with Cherkasy and Dnipro. ” Thus, the state of publicity moved to several steps up, and the overall rating increased by 10%due to the improvement of the publicality of the mayor and the deputy corps. At the same time, the assessment of publicity of the executive bodies of the city authorities today is lower by several percent as the result of the previous year.

According to the study, the total publicity of the mayor as opposed to the results of the study of previous years was evaluated as satisfactory this time. Thus, the level of publicity of the city head has grown by 21 % over the last year and is 64 % today (this is 11th in the national publicity ranking of city mayors). “The improvement of the estimates was influenced by the use of ProZorro and electronic petitions by the city council of electronic purchases and the system of electronic petitions, the placement on the official website of the Chernihiv City Council information about the meeting of the mayor and more,” – said Olga Ryn.

The level of publicity of the executive bodies of the Chernihiv City Council is low and is 59 %, which allowed to take 11th place in the appropriate rating. The fact assessment itself is less than the result of the previous study (in 2015, the publicity of the executive bodies of the city council was 61 %). However, in this rating, the position of this object of study improved by moving from 12 to 11th. “The executive bodies seem to become more public in” old indicators “, but they lose their positions due to a untimely response to changes in the legislative framework,” – explained the project of projects of the Polissya Fund.

Deputies still remain the least public in the study. Although the city council’s website can find biographies, declarations, hours and days of reception of citizens, the composition of deputy commissions, it is still not too high for all indicators to be the level of publicity of the deputy corps. “For the first time in the years of the study, the level of publicity of this collegial body was named satisfactory, and in the national rating he moved from 17th to 14,” Olga Ryn said. Among the positive trends, such innovations as regular video broadcasts of the session session were named.

But in the background of positive changes during the study, negative trends were recorded. For example, on the website of the Chernihiv City Council there is still no relevant edition of the budget, not filled in the Patronage Service unit, and at the time of the study there was no topical strategy for city development. In addition, there are no reporting materials of the executive bodies. According to the participants of the event, there are shortcomings in public work of deputies: the deputies do not report to their voters, and their reports are not published on the site. In addition, there is no information on the composition of deputy factions and their changes, the boundaries of majority districts, etc.

We will remind, the publicity index is a joint project of support and a network of partners, which has been implemented for the third year in a row and aims to assess how publicly the decisions are made publicly and the policy of municipalities, and what is the contribution of the main entities of local self -government – the mayor, deputies.