QUARTERLY REPORT for the Development Initiative for Advocating Local Governance in Ukraine (DIALOGUE) Project January - March 2013 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESUME 5
Chapter 1. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE REPORTING PERIOD 6
Chapter 2. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION 10
2.1. Component 1: Legal Framework 10 Activity 2.1.1. Legislation drafting based on local governments legislative needs 10 Local government legislation need assessment 10 Technical Area Profiles 12 Legislation monitoring 14
Activity 2.1.2. Expert evaluation of conformity of draft legislation 21 to the European Charter of Local Self-Governance
Activity 2.1.3. Introduction of institutional tools for local governments 22 to participate in legislation drafting Round table discussions in AUC Regional Offices and meetings of AUC Professional 22 Groups Setting up a network of lawyers to participate in legislation drafting 32
2.2. Component 2: Policy dialogue 33 Activity 2.2.1. Increasing the participation of the AUC member cities 33 in the policy dialogue established be the Association at the national level Dialogue Day at the Local Government Forum 33 Consultations on budget preparation 33 Cooperation with central government authorities 35 Parliamentary local government inter-faction group (local government caucus) 39 Participation in the work of parliamentary committees 39
Activity 2.2.2. Setting up advisory boards at the regional level with participation 41 of AUC Regional Offices and local State Executive agencies at the oblast level Setting up and working sessions of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards 41 Selection of issues to be discussed at working meetings of Local Government 47 Regional Advisory Boards in 2012-2013
Activity 2.2.3. Establishing formal and regular coordination 47 mechanisms with other USAID supported activities and other donor organizations Forum of Donor Organisations 47 Cooperation with other USAID projects and projects supported by other donor 47 organisations
2.3. Component 3: Fostering Public Support for Reform 49 Activity 2.3.1. Implementation of the integrated Communication and Branding 49 Strategy of the AUC Activity 2.3.2. Integration of communications into day-to-day operations of the AUC 49 Activity 2.3.3. Production and dissemination of tools for message delivery 49 DIALOGUE Project AUC web-site 49 Electronic and printed media 49 Radio coverage 51 2 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
TV coverage 52 ©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª79SURJUDPVHULHV 53
Activity 2.3.4. Fostering media relations 55 Setting up a team of AUC speakers 55 Implementation of mechanisms for regular communication 56 between local governments and media
2.4. Component 4: Legal Assistance and Protection 63 Activity 2.4.1. Expanding legal consultation services 63 for navigating various laws and regulations
Expert workshops in AUC ROs 63
Activity 2.4.2. Legal protection services 72
Monitoring of cases of harassment of local government officials 72
Monitoring of participation of local government officials in elections of 73 National Deputies
Local Government Lawyer School 73
2.5. Component: Special Emphasis on Crimea 73
Chapter 3. IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS AND WAYS TO RESOLVE THEM 75
Chapter 4. SUCCESS STORIES 76
Chapter 5. ESTIMATED SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT QUARTER 81
3 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AMSS – Automated Municipal Statistics System ARC – Autonomous Republic of Crimea AUC – Association of Ukrainian Cities AUC RO – Regional Office of the Association of Ukrainian Cities CMU – Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine IBSER – Institute for Budget and Socio-Economic Research KSCA – Kyiv State City Administration LGRAB – Local Government Regional Advisory Board Ltd. – limited MLED – Municipal Local economic Development Project MOH – Ministry of Health Care NA – News Agency NJSC – National Joint-Stock Company OSA – Oblast State Administration PPP – Public-Private Partnership STVRC – State TV and Radio Company TVRC – TV and Radio Company USAID – U.S. Agency for International Development UWLGA – Ukraine-Wide Local Government Association VRU – Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ZhEK – housing neighbourhood maintenance unit
CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency GIZ – Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit
4 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
RESUME
The purpose of the DIALOGUE Project is to promote the environment conducive for local government reforms and to ensure a broad-based support for decentralisation from public servants, civil society organisations and the public at large.
Project implementation in January – March of 2013 yielded the following outcomes:
x DIALOGUE Project experts prepared 1 draft law, performed the monitoring of 44 draft legislation and ordinances; x The Project conducted working sessions of 8 AUC Professional Groups and updated 9 local government technical area profiles; x DIALOGUE Project experts took part in 9 working sessions of 3 parliamentary committees. This enabled the AUC to defend its position with regard to draft laws initiated by National Deputies; x The Project conducted 10 working meetings of Regional Advisory Boards in 10 oblasts and 8 working sessions of regional press clubs and 1 National Press Club; x 7KH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city-minded Ukraine] TV Project continues to cover local government issues and best practices from cities. The Project aired 6 TV programs; x The Project conducted 25 expert workshops in AUC ROs; x The Project provided 163 consultations to local governments and officials; and, x The Project published 3 issues of the AUC Herald and professional legal publications, such as the Legislation News, 1 issue of the Legal Consultations and the Sectoral Monitoring.
The winter parliament recess and paralysed Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine postponed the establishment of the inter-faction local government group (local government caucus) and the submission for the parliament consideration of a number of draft legislation prepared within the framework of the Project.
At the same time, however, the Project succeeded in spurring up the work with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities and concluded the corresponding Memorandum for Cooperation.
5 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Chapter 1. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE REPORTING PERIOD
January 23, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Union of Local Council secretaries, city of Kyiv
January 24, the Project conducted a working session Zhytomyr Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
January 24-25, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Land Relations Professional Group, city of Kharkiv
January 26, the Radio Era Company broadcast a program about local government issues
January 30, the Radio Era Company broadcast a program about local government issues
January 31, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Sumy AUC RO
Late January, the Project published the “AUC Herald” (Issue #93)
Late January, the Project published and disseminated the twenty-seventh issue of the “Legislation News”
Late January, the Project published and disseminated the twenty-ninth issue of the “DIALOGUE Newsletter”
Late January, the Project published the Status of Local Self-Governance in 2012
February 06, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Lviv AUC RO
February 07, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Kherson AUC RO
February 08, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Kirovohrad AUC RO
February 08, the Project conducted a working session Volyn Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 08, the Project conducted a working session Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 11, the Radio Era Company broadcast a program about local government issues
February 12, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Ivano-Frankivsk AUC RO
February 12, the Project conducted a working session Chernihiv Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 12-13, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group, city of Kryvyi Rih
February 14, the Project conducted a working session Odesa Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board
February 14, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Rivne AUC RO 6 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
February 15, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Dnipropetrovsk
February 19, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Vinnytsya AUC RO
February 20, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Cherkasy AUC RO
February 20, WKH)LUVW1DWLRQDO79&KDQQHOɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group, city of Kryvyi Rih)
February 21, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Kyiv AUC RO
February 21, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Zaporizzhya AUC RO
February 21, the Project conducted a working session Poltava Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 21, the Project conducted a working session Kharkiv Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 21-22, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Social Protection Professional Group, city of Lutsk
February 22, the Project conducted a working session Khmelnytskyi Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
February 22, the Radio Era Company broadcast a program about local government issues
February 26, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Luhansk AUC RO
February 27, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Zakarpattya AUC RO
February 27, the First NatLRQDO79&KDQQHOɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the working session of the Chernihiv Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board)
February 28, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Volyn AUC RO
February 28 – March 01, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group, city of Sumy
Late February, the Project published the “AUC Herald” (Issue #94)
Late February, the Project published and disseminated the twenty-eighth issue of the “Legislation News”
Late February, the Project published and disseminated the thirtieth issue of the “DIALOGUE Newsletter”
March 04, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Kyiv AUC RO
March 06, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Ternopil AUC RO 7 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
March 06, WKH)LUVW1DWLRQDO79&KDQQHOɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the working session of the AUC Social Protection Professional Group, city of Lutsk)
March 07, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Zhytomyr AUC RO
March 13, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Khmelnytskyi AUC RO
March 13, WKH)LUVW1DWLRQDO79&KDQQHOɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the working session of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group city of Sumy)
March 14-15, the Project conducted a working session of the Association of Ukrainian City Finance Officers, city of Dnipropetrovsk
March 18, the Radio Era Company broadcast a program about local government issues
March 19, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Chernihiv AUC RO March 20, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Mykolaiv AUC RO
March 20, the First National TV Channel ɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the (city of Kakhovka, Kherson oblast)
March 20, the Project conducted a working session Kirovohrad Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
March 21-22, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Local Government Lawyers Professional Group, city of Zaporizzhya
March 22, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Crimean AUC RO
March 22, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Chernivtsi AUC RO
March 26, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Poltava AUC RO
March 27, the First National TV Channel ɍɌ-IHDWXUHGWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>city- minded Ukraine] program (about the city of Teplodar, Odesa oblast)
March 27, the Project conducted a working session Donetsk Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board and the Press Club
March 28, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Odesa AUC RO
March 28, the Project conducted an expert workshop in the Sumy AUC RO
March 28-29, the Project conducted a working session of the AUC Culture and Arts Professional Group, city of Kirovohrad
March 28-29, the Project conducted a study tour for local government officials from the Crimean Autonomous Republic to the city of Luhansk
Late March, the Project published the “AUC Herald” (Issue #95) 8 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
Late March, the Project published and disseminated the twenty-ninth issue of the “Legislation News” electronic publication
Late March, the Project published and disseminated the thirty-first issue of the “DIALOGUE Newsletter”
Late March, the Project prepared and published the eleventh issue of the “Legal Consultations” Electronic publication
Late March, the Project prepared the tenth issue of the “Sectoral Monitoring” for publication
9 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Chapter 2. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
2.1. Component 1: Legal Framework
Activity 2.1.1. Legislation drafting based on local governments legislative needs
The Project worked on 44 draft laws and other legal and regulatory documents, 12 laws and regulations were sent for AUC concurrence including 7 concurred without reservations, 4 with reservations, with 1 not concurred with. One piece of legislation was prepared. No pieces of local government-enhancing legislation came into effect.
Since its inception, the Project worked on 468 draft laws and other legal and regulatory documents, and enabled the AUC to participate in the concurrence of 146 draft legislation and regulations (including 89 documents concurred without reservations, 42 concurred with reservations, 17 not concurred, and 12 draft laws were prepared). 34 pieces of local government-enhancing legislation came into effect.
Local government legislation need assessment
Over the reporting period, the Ukraine’s legislature was almost unoperational. There was a lengthy period of parliamentary vacations followed by blocking of the parliament by National Deputies from the opposition factions. Therefore, the new legislation drafting needs of local governments were being identified mostly through discussions during working sessions of AUC Professional Groups and other public and communication events. Over the reporting period, the Project conducted 8 working sessions of AUC Professional groups. The information about the Professional Groups and findings of their discussions are presented in a separate section of this report.
As far as the preparation and approval of the new legislation is concerned, there were the following events during the reporting period:
The working session of the Housing and Utilities Working Group did not identify such needs. The Group members talked about the necessity of withstanding the approval of the legislative amendments, which were disadvantageous for local governments and for the housing and utilities sector.
The working sessions of the AUC Health Care Professional Group, Local Government Lawyers Professional Group, and Culture and Art Professional Group.
The participants of the working session of the Social Protection Working Group pointed the attention to the necessity of regulation of the mechanism for providing family composition certificates in the legislation associated with the enactment of the Law of Ukraine “On the Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Residence in Ukraine” and the Instruction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs # 1077 of November 22, 2012 ‘On Approving the Mechanism for the Registration of Residence and Movement of Physical Persons in Ukraine and Samples of the Necessary Documents”. As of January 01, 2013, the authority of ZhEKs to issue family composition certificates was transferred to the National Migration Service. The new National Migration Service is vested with the authority to register places of residence of physical persons, however, no legislative document authorises this Service to issue family composition certificates. The Association of Ukrainian Cities has already addressed (Letter # 5-52 of February 08, 2013) the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to regulate this issue in the legislation, while for the period before this issue has been regulated to provide explanations for temporary 10 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
mechanisms for issuing family composition certificates for citizens who live in private houses in cities.
The participants of the working session of the Land Resources Professional Group identified the need to initiate amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the State Registration of Property Rights to Real Estate and Their Limitations” in the part dealing with exempting local governments from paying a fee for excerpts from the State Registry of Rights, because such requirement represents a burden for local budgets.
The following issues were also raised: - financial incapacity to prepare the necessary urban development documents, while as of January 01, 2013, the absence of such documents precludes allocation of land plots or changing their designation; - discrepancies between amendments to Article 186-1 of the Land Code, which were made almost simultaneously with the approval of Laws # 5395-9ȱ of October 02, 2012 and 5462-9ȱ of October 16, 2012 and made considerable complications to the mechanism of approving land management documents through increasing the number of executive agencies issuing approvals and providing for internal contradictions between the approving mechanisms both by committees and separate entities of the executive.
The participants of the Local Finance and Budget Group presented their proposals to the Ministry of Finance concerning amendments to the Law of Ukraine “on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2013” based on the outcomes of the 1st Quarter of 2013 to envision additional transfers from the State Budget to local budgets to support the implementation of the authority delegated by the state.
The Union of Local Council Secretaries supported the following: - amendments to the budget legislation to give local governments the right to use services of state-owned banks on transactions of their revenues and expenditures, which are not taken into account while determining the amount of inter-budget transfers. - amendments to the Budget Code and Tax Code of Ukraine to budget a part of the profits tax (except for state-owned ad communally-owned companies) to local budget revenues. - revisiting formula-based calculations of local budget expenditures for the Public Education line item to exclude the reduction ratio for bringing the number of schoolchildren attending day-time comprehensive schools located in cities of republican significance (ARC) and oblast significance in conformity with the number of schoolchildren in all comprehensive schools. - amendments to the Tax Code and Land Code in the part dealing with the introduction of a land fee at the level of land rent for land users (owners of real property located on the land plots) who do not have properly prepared land ownership documents, as well as for land users who have land plots for permanent use and use them for economic purposes.
As of the end of the reporting period, the priorities for legislation drafting are the following:
- draft Housing Code of Ukraine; - new law on local elections with due consideration of the drawbacks of the current law; - amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Access to Public Information” with due regard to experience in its implementation; - amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Preventing and Fighting Corruption” concerning special inspections to be conducted after the person has been hired to the local government rather than before, and clarifications of the reasons for pre-term termination of authority of city mayors and local council members; 11 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
- amendments to budget legislation concerning improvements of the mechanism of co-financing from the State Budget and local budgets for investment programs (projects); - amendments to the Tax Code, Civil Code and Economic Code concerning improvements in the administration of the income tax to ensure deductions from collections from this tax by separated entities of legal persons to go to corresponding local budgets; - social standards and norms for services in the areas of social protection, health care, public education and culture; - draft Law “On Monetisation of Social Preferences and Targeted Cash Allowances”; - amendments to the Formula for Distribution of the Amount of Inter-Budget Transfers for each area of the public sector wit due regard to end users, such as one pupil of the comprehensive school, arts school, sport school, children of pre-school establishments, number of cultural heritage items, etc., and introduction of the corresponding adjustment ratios; - amendments to the Tax Code and Land Code in the part dealing with the introduction of the land fee at the level of rent payment for land users (owners of real property located on the land plots) who do not have properly prepared land ownership documents, as well as for land users who have land plots for permanent use and use them for economic purposes; - amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Foundations of Urban Development Activities” concerning giving back to village, town and city councils the right to exercise state architectural and construction inspection (issuing permits to begin construction works, commissioning finished construction and preventing unsanctioned construction).
Technical Area Profiles
In the course of legislation monitoring, the Project made corresponding amendments to the list of regulatory and legislative documents. Those documents, which were enacted, were included and those, which were nullified, were excluded. Laws introducing amendments to the current laws of Ukraine were not included separately to the lists of legislation.
All in all, over the reporting period, 22 regulatory and legal documents were included to chapters called “Current Legal Framework” for all technical area profiles (mostly those dealing with the provision of administrative services by local governments) and 7 documents, which were nullified, were excluded.
Based on the findings of monitoring local government issues the chapters called ‘Main Problem Issues of the Sector” were supplemented by 6 problems (based on working sessions of AUC Professional Groups) to be resolved, with 4 being excluded.
For example, in the Local Budget and Finance Profile with regard to the explanation of economic classification codes by the Ministry of Finance, the following issues were excluded from profiles: - failure of the legislation to define the mechanism for providing the financial support form local budgets to utility companies, non-governmental organisations according Economic Classification Code 1310 without including such companies and organisations to the network of local budget spending units; – failure of the legislation to define the mechanism to transfer the contributions to statutory funds of business entities directly to accounts of business entities, as envisioned by Economic Classification Code 2410 “Capital Transfers to Companies (institutions, 12 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
organisations)”, as well as according the Economic Classification Code 1310 “Current Transfers to Companies (institutions, organisations).
In the Land Relations Sector: - in the context of changes in the system for the state registration of property rights, they managed to resolve the issue related to the absence of the form for the state registration of communal land ownership, which represented a barrier for the delineation of boundaries between state-owned and communally-owned lands; - the enactment of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation Concerning the Delineation of Boundaries between State-Owned and Communally- Owned Lands” and the actual delineation of lands according to the “by the law” principle provided the opportunity to resolve the problem issue related to the insufficient funding from the National Budget for the works associated with the delineation of boundaries between state- owned and communally-owned lands.
Such issues have been marked as ‘resolved’ in the corresponding Technical Area Profiles. At the same time, some issues were resolved only partially. In particular, these include: In the Housing and Utilities Sector: - the enactment of the Instruction of the Ministry of Regional Development # 630 of December 14, 2012 “On Approving the Mechanisms for the Preparation, Approval and Endorsement of Investment Programs of Business Entities in the Areas of Heat Supply and Centralised Water Supply and Sewerage” provided the opportunity to partially resolve the problem issues with the implementation of the investment tariff component and monitoring the intended use of these funds.
In the Public Health Sector: The enactment of the Instruction of the Ministry of Health Care # 41 of January 21, 2013 “On the Mechanisms for the Organisation of the Palliative Assistance in Ukraine”, which regulates some aspects related to the establishment of palliative facilities and organisation of palliative assistance, provided the opportunity to partially resolve the problem issue related to the absence of regulatory and legal documents to define the status of hospice and palliative assistance.
The information about the partial resolution of the problem issues mentioned above has been properly marked in the corresponding technical area profiles.
All in all, by the end of the reporting period, the number of unresolved problem issues in technical area profiles by each area constitutes the following:
At the beginning By the end of the Technical Area of the reporting Added Resolved reporting period Profile period Local Budgets and 33 0 2 31 Financial Foundations of Local Self- Governance Housing and 57 0 0 57 Utilities Land Relations 28 3 2 29 Organisational and 33 0 0 33 Legal Foundations of Local Self- Governance 13 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Local Elections 23 0 0 23 Social Assistance 35 1 0 36 Health Care 29 0 0 29 Public Education 25 1 0 26 Culture 25 1 0 26
The “Local Budgets and Financial Foundations of Local Self-Governance”, “Housing and Utilities”, and “Land Relations” Technical Area Profiles were supplemented with the chapters called “Statistics Indicators for Each Sector” with graphic materials illustrating the status of corresponding local government technical areas. The work of similar chapters in other Technical Area Profiles is currently underway.
Legislation monitoring
Working within the local government related legislation monitoring Project Component, the Project experts took part in legislation drafting and preparation of proposals and suggestions to 44 draft legislation.
DIALOGUE experts were involved in the AUC concurrence procedure with regard to 12 draft legislation and other legal and regulatory documents sent for concurrence / proposals or comments to the AUC by the: x Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine – 11; x Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine – 1; Seven of these documents were concurred without reservations, 4 – with reservations, and 1 – was not concurred. The Project also provided its proposals on how to take into account local government interests.
The cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine in the area of concurring regulatory and legal documents has been traditionally active. Notably fruitful was also the cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ad-hoc Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance. The Committee has constantly been soliciting the official position of the AUC concerning the draft laws considered at the Committee working sessions. The Committee has also been publishing the AUC opinion in its minutes of meetings disseminated to the National Deputies who are members of the Committee and to other participants.
On a weekly basis DIALOGUE experts monitored draft regulatory and legal documents, which were included in the agenda of the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers. The proposals and comments were submitted to S. Tatusyak, Chairman of the Vinnytsya Oblast Council and Representative of the Ukraine-Wide Local Government Associations in the Cabinet of Ministers, to be presented as the opinion of the associations at the working sessions of the Cabinet of Ministers. During the reporting period, the Project submitted comments and proposals to the draft laws of Ukraine “On the State Assistance to Economic Entities” and “On Amendments to Article 35 of the Budget Code of Ukraine”, draft Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of 8NUDLQHª 2Q Increasing Salaries for Employees of Institutions, Facilities and Organisations in Certain Public Sectors”, draft Decree of the President of Ukraine “On the National Action Plan for 2013 Concerning the Implementation of the Economic Reform Program for 2010-2014 called “Prosperous Society, Competitive Economy and Effective State”, etc.
In particular, the draft National Action Plan for 2013 was submitted for Cabinet of Ministers working sessions several times, but following the proposals of representatives of Ukraine-wide local government associations was returned for further elaboration. Finally, the approved version
14 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
of the National Action Plan for 2013 has the following provisions, which are of paramount importance for local governments: - the Plan assigns the task for the Cabinet of Ministers to submit to the President for his consideration the draft Decree of the President of Ukraine on approving the Concept of Local Government Reform and Reform of the Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions, as well as the action plan to implement it; - the Plan envisions further elaboration of the law on service in local governments, which envisions, among other things, the level of the financial support for local government officials; - the Plan envisions the reform of the system of social services through the introduction of a new mechanism for the financial support to local budget expenditures for local government social services, which are taken into consideration while determining the amount of inter-budget transfers; and envisions the preparation and introduction of national standards for social services; and, - the Plan has the provision about improving the mechanism for providing preferences to certain categories of citizens to increase the targeted nature of such preferences and to ensure the complete satisfaction of personal needs.
In the context of the difficult political situation in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 7th convocation, with constant blocking of the parliament by the opposition or the pro-government majority, the law-making process in the session hall almost stalled. During January – March of 2013, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in fact, considered and approved only resolutions to schedule local elections and legislative documents to ratify international agreements. Therefore, in the reporting period, the effectiveness of improving the legislation framework for local governments can be regarded only in the context of submission to the parliament of draft local government enhancing legislation and its consideration by ad-hoc committees.
Due to the well-coordinated effective cooperation of Project experts with parliamentary committees and state executive agencies, as well as due to high professional level of submitted proposals and arguments, the Project managed to achieve the following intermediate results in legislation drafting: ¾ Resolution of the Council of Regions of March 21, 2013 ranks the implementation of the national policy in the area of local government development support as one of the priorities of the modernisation of social relationships in the country. In addition to state executive agencies, Ukraine-wide local government associations were also recommended to arrange for discussions of the local government reform concept in communities and ensure a broad-based information and education campaign about the advantages of the reform. The proposed concept was prepared with the participation of DIALOGUE experts and was approved by the AUC Board on March 14, 2013. ¾ The National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service, the entity tasked by the Cabinet of Ministers with the preparation of the new law on service in local governments, took the draft law prepared by the DIALOGUE Project and approved by the AUC Board on March 14, 2013 as the foundation. Currently, the draft law was sent to the interested state executive agencies for concurrence. DIALOGUE Project experts take an active part in the working group set up at the National Agency to make sure local government interests are taken into account in the course of the elaboration of the draft law. ¾ I. Sekh, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Environmental Policy and Use of Natural Resources submitted to the parliament a draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine Concerning Budgeting of the Environmental Tax” (Registration # 2126). The document has provisions from the comprehensive draft law amending the Budget Code, which was prepared by DIALOGUE Project experts. The draft document has a suggestion to come back to the original mechanism for distributing the environmental tax collections, which was envisioned by the Budget Code of 15 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Ukraine at the time it was approved. The closing and transitional provisions of the Budget Code envision a step-by-step reduction of the percentage of deductions from the environmental tax proceeds to the special fund of local budgets (from 70 percent in 2011 – 2012 to 35 percent starting with 2014), as well as the increase of deductions from the tax mentioned above to the special fund of the National Budget (from 30 percent in 2011 – 2012 to 65 percent starting with 2014). At the same time, the document envisions that 50 percent of the environmental tax proceeds, starting with 2014, will go exclusively for the financial support for the targeted projects on environmental modernisation of enterprises in the amount within the environmental tax paid by them and in the way specified by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine. Reduction of deductions to local budgets from the environmental tax collations deprives local governments and local offices of the state executive authorities of the possibility for proper implementation of their environmental protection authority and perform environment preservation activities. ¾ The parliament registered a draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Articles 39 and 39-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities” (concerning the contributions of construction companies in the local infrastructure development) (Registration # 2456). The purpose of the draft Law is to resolve problem issues related to compliance of construction companies with the requirements to pay the full amount of their co-financing contributions in the development of the infrastructure in the populated area before the building is put into operation. The approval of the law will promote better revenues to local budgets and support urban improvements in territorial communities. DIALOGUE experts made repeated requests to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine and the parliamentary ad-hoc committee to resolve this issue. This issue was also raised at the meeting of the AUC Board Presidium with the Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities conducted on January 17, 2013. ¾ The parliamentary Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance took into account the proposals of DIALOGUE Project experts on how to resolve problem issues with the budget sufficiency of territorial communities during the consideration of the report from the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine about the findings of reviewing the expenditures, which are taken into account in the calculation of inter-budget transfers from the National Budget to local budgets for local government expenditures. In particular, the Committee made a decision to address the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a proposal to develop in cooperation with Ukraine-wide local government associations draft laws to amend the Laws of Ukraine “On the National Budget of Ukraine for 2013”, “On Local Self-Governance in Ukraine”, and the Budget Code of Ukraine in the parts dealing with: 1) repayment of accounts payables of local governments on expenditures, which had to be financed through the funds of the National Budget in 2012 and providing local budgets with 100% of funds to support the implementation of the authority delegated by the state in 2013; 2) separation of revenue sources for local government administrative expenditures depending on whether they implement their own authority or delegated one, correspondingly with their own revenues or funds, which are taken into account in the calculation of equalisation transfers; 3) clear and exhaustive definition of the list of delegated and own (self-governance) authority of local governments; and, 4) making it impossible to use the funds of the unified treasury account, which keeps local budget revenues and expenditures to cover the shortfall of financial of financial resources of the National Budget of Ukraine and Pension Fund of Ukraine. ¾ The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a draft law to regulate problem issues local governments faced starting with January 01, 2013 related to the state registration of rights to state-owned and communally-owned land plots (Registration # 2303-2). The draft document has a suggestion to exempt local governments from paying fees for excerpts from the State Registry of Real Property Rights in the course of the state registration of property rights of the state or territorial community to land plots. The document also has a suggestion to simplify the procedures for physical persons to register their rights to land plots, as the registration of such rights has started in accordance with the previous legislation.
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¾ The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine supported a number of proposals of DIALOGUE Project experts. The experts made several appeals to the Cabinet of Ministers and submitted the draft laws they developed to expand the tax base for the real property tax, namely through the calculation of the tax based on the total floor space of property (rather than only the living floor space as the current legislation has it) and ensuring the payments of the land fee by all users regardless of the availability of land titles and the way they are to be registered. The corresponding draft laws were posted on the official site of the Ministry.
The State Service of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Business Development suspended the implementation of the Instruction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine # 288 of July 15, 2010 allowing the NaftoHaz Ukrainy National Joint-Stock Company (NJSC) to overprice the natural gas used for household needs and needs of communally-owned heating companies. The prices were increased almost three times and this lead to accumulated debts and undermined uninterrupted heat supply. The Instruction was not in line with Resolution of the National Commission for the State Regulation in the Area of Energy # 813 of July 13, 2010 and Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Unified Approach for Setting Tariffs for Housing and Utility Services” # 860. DIALOGUE Project experts made several appeals to the Cabinet of Ministers about the necessity to nullify the instruction mentioned above as the one, which is contradictory to the current legislation. The last appeal before the Instruction was nullified was approved by the AUC Board meeting on January 17, 2013 and was submitted by S. Odarych, AUC Vice President and Cherkasy Mayor.
Due to the firm position of DIALOGUE Project experts, the cabinet of Ministers withdrew the issue of improvements of legal regulation of local government staffing schedules from its agenda. DIALOGUE Project experts took part in the session of the thematic sub-group of the working group to improve the territorial arrangement of government institutions and local government reform, which worked on the draft law the Cabinet of Ministers sent for further elaboration upon the suggestion from Ukraine-wide local government associations. The draft law vested the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with the authority to determine model staffing schedules of local governments. DIALOGUE Project experts managed to persuade the working group members that such authority belongs exclusively to local governments. Based on the outcomes of the working group discussions the Ministry of Regional Development provided the corresponding expert opinion to the Cabinet of Ministers. By doing so, the DIALOGUE Project managed to ensure the compliance with the provision of the European Charter of Local Self- Governance dealing with the independent decision making of the local government on its structure and staffing.
In the reporting period, the Project worked on drafting legislation to meet local government needs: The Project finalised the preparation of the Law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public information”. The draft law was discussed on March 21-22, 2013 at the working session of AUC Local Government Lawyers Professional Group, which initiated its preparation last year. Following the discussions, the Professional Group recommended to make minor clarifications to the draft law.
The preparation of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Elections of Council Members of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Local Councils and Village, Town and City Mayors” is currently underway. Local governments received a questionnaire about the key conceptual provisions of the draft law. During January – February of 2013, the AUC received responses from 163 cities. The generalised findings of the survey were presented at the working session of the AUC Board on March 14, 2013. The overwhelming majority of city councils supported the following provisions of the new law: majoritarian system of elections of village, town and city (rayon significance cities) councils; elections of village, 17 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
town and city mayors according to the system of relative majority (one round); preserving the current level of membership of local councils; introducing a permanent system of election constituencies and voting stations (without changing them for every elections); right to be self- nominated for the position of the mayor; and, giving up the requirement to collect signatures to support the nomination, money advance paid from the media campaign budget. The AUC Board approved the conceptual foundations for local elections to serve as the main framework of the draft law. The Project started preparing the draft Law of Ukraine “On the Mechanism for Resolving Issues of Administrative and Territorial Arrangement in the Part Dealing with the Abolishment of Complicated Administrative and Territorial Entities at the Basic Level (embedded communities)” through merging those administrative and territorial entities, which are not in a position to be economically independent into the common territorial community they are part of, or complete separation of those, which have their own economic and infrastructure foundations.
Since the inception of the Project, experts prepared 12 pieces of draft legislation as requested by cities.
Taking into consideration the fact that according to the By-Laws of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, all draft laws, which were not considered in the first reading by National Deputies of the pervious convocation, by default are considered to have been removed, the Project worked with the National Deputies who have previous local government experience and requested them to submit local government-enhancing legislation to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The DIALOGUE Project selected the draft laws it prepared (upon request from cities, or by Project experts or with their active participation). These draft law are ready to be submitted to the parliament: 1. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments t the Budget Code of Ukraine and Certain Other Ukrainian Legislation (concerning streamlining the list of local budget revenues and expenditures)”. The document has a suggestion to transfer some part of expenditures (of social nature), which is not included in the course of the calculation of inter- budget transfers to the expenditures, which are taken into consideration in the calculation of inert-budget transfers. In addition to this, its was suggested to consider the National Budget of Ukraine as the source of funds to support expenditures under the Public Administration line item and under various national social programs. Specify in the legislation the clear mechanism for the calculation of expenditures, which are taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers, based on national social standards and norms, which have to be correlated with sectoral standards of social services and financial standards of budget sufficiency. 2. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine (concerning the improvements of the mechanism for the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine to project local budget revenues take in into consideration in the calculation of inter-budget transfers)”. The purpose of the draft law is to ensure the proper financial support to local budget expenditures for the implementation of the delegated authority without increase the debt of local governments for the National Budget of Ukraine through improvements in the system of projecting local budget revenues, which are taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers. 3. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine (concerning improvements of the administration of local budgets by the Treasury)”. The purpose of the draft document is to assign the right to local governments to use services of state- owned banks to administer their local budget revenues and expenditures, which are not taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers (so-called Basket Two, or local government discretionary funds); specify a clear timeframe for processing local
18 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
budget payment authorisations; and, increase the accountability of officials of state executive authorities who implement the national policy in the area of treasury administration of funds. 4. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Court Fee” (concerning exempting local governments from paying the court fee)”. The purpose of the document is to exempt local governments from paying the court fee. 5. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and Economic Code of Ukraine (concerning streamlining the payment of the income tax by separated entities of legal persons”. The purpose of the document is to enhance the principle of economic equity in the context of the administration of the income tax and to strengthen local budgets of small and medium-sized populated areas through the clarification of the meaning of the term of “separated entities”. 6. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (concerning land fee payments)”. The purpose of the draft document is to introduce the land fee payment for land plots, which are used by business entities upon decisions of local offices of the state executive and local governments, however the land titles or the right to rent such land plots has not been registered (re-registered) in the due legal way; increase the rates for the land tax; reduce the list of preferences. 7. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (concerning the payment of the tax on real property as opposed to the land plot)”. The purpose of the draft law is to impose the property tax on residential and non-residential property according to socially acceptable rates for various categories of populated areas and taxpayers; increase the local government authority in the area of administration of property tax and establish additional rates; decrease the list of preferences. 8. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Article 265 of the Tax Code of Ukraine Concerning the Payment of the Tax on Real Property as Opposed to the Land Plot Based on the Total Floor Space of Taxed Entities”. The purpose of the draft law is to take the total floor space of residential property as the tax base rather tan only the living floor space. 9. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (concerning the payment of the tourist fee)”. The daft law has a suggestion to introduce the tourist fee tax as a percentage of the minimum salary. 10. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Governance in Ukraine” in the {art Dealing with the Pre-Term Termination of the Authority of the Local Council, Village, Town, City Mayor”. The purpose of the draft law is to introduce the general framework and principles of accountability in the system of local self- governance, in particular, the accountability of local government institutions, village, town, city mayors and other local government officials, citizens self-organisation entities to the community, state, legal and physical persons. The draft law also balances out the relations between village, town, city mayor and the corresponding council through better mechanisms for terminating their authority. 11. Draft Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Status of Members of Local Councils” in the Part Dealing with the Definition of the Mechanism for Establishing and Authority of Council Member Factions”. The draft document envisions granting the right to local council members who were elected in the number, which does not allow the establishment of the political faction in the council, to establish a council member group with the rights of a faction. It also defines the terms for the establishment and registration of council member factions (groups with the rights of the faction), their authority and the way to establish inter-faction council member groups. The approval of the abovementioned amendments will promote better implementation of the principle of equal rights of local council members. 12. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Public Control over the Use and Protection of Lands”. The draft document defines the legal, organisational, economic and social framework for the public control over the use of lands aimed at ensuring the rational use of lands, their effective protection, recultivation and increased soil fertility, compliance with the land legislation of Ukraine. The approval of the draft law will allow to use the international 19 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
experience in employing the potential of non-governmental organisations to make substantial improvements in the quality of control, reduce the number of violation of the legislation and cases of corruption in the land sphere, prevent criminalisation of the land market. 13. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Governments” in the part dealing with its adaptation to the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “on Civil Survive”. The draft law defines the framework of service in local governments, the mechanism to enter the service in local governments, the service and termination of the service, legal status of local officials. The draft law provides the technical and regulatory foundations for the legal support for service in local governments and will promote the professional and effective service in local government in Ukraine to ensure effective performance of local governments and quality services to citizens. 14. Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Status of the Village, Town, City Mayor”. The main purpose of the draft law is to overcome the existing gaps in the reglamentation of the status of village, town, city mayors, better definition of their tasks, duties and authority of village, town, city mayors as key officials of territorial communities, establishing effective means and ways to exercise the authority, define the way of their activities. 15. Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Property Jointly Owned by Territorial Communities”. The main purpose of the document is to regulate the mechanisms for intended use of communal property for the interests of territorial communities, define the reasons for obtaining, exercising and terminating the joint ownership of territorial communities, defining the provisions for alienation, transfer and privatisation of entities jointly owned by territorial communities. The draft document defines the peculiarities of the implementation of the joint ownership right of territorial communities to funds, land, and natural resources. 16. Draft Law of Ukraine ‘On the Status and Organisation of the Territorial Community”. The development and approval of this draft law is connected with the necessity of improving the legal regulation of relations arising in the organisations and activities of the territorial community as a primary entity of local self-governance in line with the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Governance. In particular, the draft law provides the regulation for establishing and reorganisation of the territorial community, the mechanisms for its reorganisation (merging, splitting, breaking off, etc.), cooperation of territorial communities, internal organisation of the territorial community, scope of its authority. 17. Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Communally-Owned Lands and Exercising Control over the Compliance of the Land and Environmental Legislation”. The draft document has a suggestion to establish the authority of local governments, public associations and organisations in the area of protection and control; key tasks and principles of the organisation of land protection and control; rights, duties and the system of incentives for public inspectors; define the mechanism for public examination of land management and urban development documents. 18. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Environment”. The purpose of the draft document is to give local governments the right for more independent and effective use of local environmental protection funds in their local communities and to spend them also on improving living standards of citizens who live on the contaminated territories. 19. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”. The purpose of the draft law is: clarification of the terms “confidential information” and “corporate information”; improvements of certain mechanisms for the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” in the part dealing with making local government ordinances public and providing answers to information requests. 20. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Suspending Part Three and Four of Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities”. The draft law envisions the postponement till January 01, 2015 of the ban on transferring (giving) land plots from state or communal ownership to the ownership or use by physical or legal persons for urban development activities in case the zoning plan or detailed territorial map of the populated area is 20 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
not available, because as of today, the absence of abovementioned documents in most local councils precludes them from allocating land plots for development purposes, which decrease revenues to development budgets. 21. Draft Law of Ukraine “On Recording Immovable Property and Technical Inventory”. The draft law outlines the legal and organisational framework for recording and technical inventory of immovable property regardless of the type of ownership through communally-owned companies (technical inventory bureaus). This promotes the preservation and integrity of the information on immovable property. The draft law is aimed at ensuring comfortable, quick and inexpensive service for citizens, companies, institutions and organisations in providing recording, inventory and information services in one office. 22. Draft Law of Ukraine “on Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation Concerning the Rules of Parking Transportation Vehicles and Establishing the Accountability for Violating the Transportation Vehicle Parking Rules”. The purpose of the amendments is to get rid of gaps in the legislation concerning the regulation of relations in the area of organisation of parling lots, as well as control over compliance with Transportation Vehicle Parking Rules.
Based on the performed work, National deputies of Ukraine who used to work for local governments and who were offered by the AUC Board on March 14, 2013 to establish a local government support group in the parliament (local government caucus) submitted the following draft laws:
- draft Law of Ukraine “On Suspending Part Three and Four of Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities” (concerning the postponement of the ban for the allocation of land plots) – Registration # 2363, National Deputy M. Fedoruk; - draft Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to the Closing Provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities” (concerning the postponement of the ban for the allocation of land plots) – Registration # 2363-1, National Deputies V. Saldo, S. Braiko, Yu. Herzhov, Ye. Kartashov, Yu. Lyubonenko; - draft laws of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine Concerning Improvements of the Administration of Local Budgets by the Treasury” and “On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine of Administrative Offence Concerning the Introduction of Accountability for Untimely Local Budget Administration by the Treasury” – Registration # 2381, # 2382, National Deputy M. Levchenko. The draft laws were prepared based on the comprehensive draft law to improve the Treasury administration of local budgets, which was prepared by DIALOGUE Project experts; and, - draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Governance of Ukraine Concerning Technical Inventory” – Registration # 2371, National Deputy M. Fedoruk. The draft law envisions the transfer of registering and technical inventory of immovable property items to the exclusive authority of local governments.
Activity 2.1.2. Expert evaluation of conformity of draft legislation to the European Charter of Local Self-Governance The Project prepared the following draft laws and submitted them to the V. Koretskyi Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences for the expert opinion about their compliance with the European Charter of Local Self-Governance:
- draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self- Governance in Ukraine” in the part dealing with the pre-term termination of the authority of the local council and the village, town and city mayor; 21 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
- draft Law of Ukraine “On Citizen Self-Organisation Bodies” (new version); - draft Law of Ukraine “On the Status of the Village, Town and City Mayor”; - draft Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of the Property Jointly Owned by Territorial Communities”; - draft Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Organisation of the Territorial Community”; and, - draft Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Communally-Owned Lands and Exercising Control over the Compliance of the Land and Environmental Legislation”.
Following the expert assessment of the documents by the Institute, its specialists provided the official opinions about the conformity of the draft laws mentioned above to the European Charter of Local Self-Governance, as well as provided their recommendations on how to improve certain provisions of the draft laws.
Activity 2.1.3. Introduction of institutional tools for local governments to participate in legislation drafting’
Round table discussions in AUC Regional Offices and meetings of AUC Professional Groups
Over the reporting period, the Project conducted eight working sessions of AUC Professional Groups.
Working session of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries
January 23, 2013, city of Kyiv
The event was attended by 37 participants from 20 oblasts including local council secretaries from oblast centers and oblast significance cities, as well as Yu. Vilkul, AUC President and Kryvyi Rih Mayor, and M. Pittsyk, Executive Director of the AUC.
The Union of Local Council Secretaries discussed the following issues: 1. On the Law of Ukraine “On the National Budget of Ukraine for 2013” in the art dealing with local budgets and inter-budget relations. O. Slobozhan, DIALOGUE Project expert made a presentation where, in particular, he mentioned that the National Budget for 2013 is almost no different from the National Budget for 2012. Similarly with the previous year, the amount of local budget resources for the implementation of the authority delegated by the state was not calculated based on social standards and norms, the budget did not envision sufficient funds for the housing and utilities sector, various national targeted programs, including, first of all, the small city development program. According to the calculations of AUC experts, the National Budget for 2013 provides funds for the local government delegated authority at the level of only 79% of the actual need. In other words, the budget shortfall for the implementation of the delegated authority constitutes almost 30 billion UAH.
Based on the discussions, the participants of the working session of the Union of Local Council Secretaries decided to approve an petition to M. Azarov, Prime Minister of Ukraine about the budget sufficiency of territorial communities for 2013 through introducing amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the National Budget of Ukraine for 2013” reflecting the budget implementation in the 1st Quarter of the current year.
2. Discussion of the key problem issues of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Governments”. V. Kravchenko, Director of the City Legal Assistance Center, informed that the new version of the Law is being currently prepared with the participation of the AUC. He presented the position of the Association and deliverables, including the following: 22 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
x standard definition of the key terms related to the service in local governments; x service principles; x financial support for the service in local governments; x classification of positions in local governments and grades of local officials; x duties and rights of local government officials; x mechanisms for entering the service in local governments and reasons for terminating it; x remuneration and social guarantees of local government officials; x disciplinary and property accountability of local government officials.
Secretaries of local councils decided to study thoroughly the problem issues above and submit their proposals to the AUC. They made a decision to task the AUC with lobbying these proposals in the course of the finalisation of the draft Law.
3. On problem issues with the implementation of the current legislation on local elections and conceptual framework for updating it. Yu. Kluchkovskyi, DIALOGUE Project Local Elections Legislation Drafting Expert (a well-known expert on elections legislation and a National Deputy of several convocations) mentioned that the work on updating elections legislation requires the resolution of quite a number of issues, such as: x format of the elections system with due regard to peculiarities of various communities; x establishing of elections districts and electoral commissions and their activities; x requirements for candidates and conditions for their registration; and, x duration of the electoral process, campaigning on local elections, etc.
Currently, there is enough time for this kind of work and local governments can actively engage in the preparation of the draft law. One should thoroughly examine the existing problem issues and make a decision what kind of electoral system should serve as the foundations for the elections so that local self-governance becomes a true reflection of community needs. Local council secretaries agreed to these proposals and expressed their readiness to take part in the preparation of legislative amendments.
The AUC Analytical Center in cooperation with Yu. Klyuchkovskyi, DIALOGUE Project expert, prepared a questionnaire to survey the opinion of local council secretaries about the key aspects and problem issues related to local elections. The questionnaire was sent out to all AUC member cities. Based on the findings of the survey, the Association will come up with the joint position and reflect it in the draft law.
Working session of the AUC Land Resources Professional Group
January 24-25, 2013, city of Kharkiv
Representatives of the Alchevsk, Vinnytsya, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Asylum, Kirovohrad, Kremenchuk, Lysyschansk, Lozova, Lubny, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Myrhorod, Pavlohrad, Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Uzhgorod, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv (27 cities from 19 oblasts) took part in the working session. The main issues for the discussion included the following: 1. Enactment, as of January 01, 2013, of Parts 3 and 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities”. The implementation of these provisions means that in case of absence of the zoning plan or detailed territorial outline plan, local governments may not transfer (allocate) land plots from the state or communal ownership to the ownership of physical and legal persons for urban development needs. These provisions also prohibit changing the
23 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
designation of the land plot, which does not correspond with the zoning plan of the territory and/or the detailed territorial outline plan. With the absence of such urban development documents, such prohibition, in fact, blocks investments in the development of city territories. The event participants decided to collect in January-February of 2013 the information about the actual availability of urban development documents in cities and prospects for its preparation during the year. Based on this information the Association will determine the expediency of raising in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the issues of suspending the prohibition to allocate land plots for urban development purposes.
2. Implementation of the rights of territorial communities to land plots within the boundaries of populated areas in the context of legislative amendments as of January 01, 2013. Since the system for registration of rights to communally-owned land plots was changed, it became next to impossible to register land plots in cities. This, in its turn, represents a barrier for registering rights to own or rent land plots by individuals. The reasons for such a situation are the following: - financial: shortage of local budget funds for the state registration of rights to communally-owned land plots (namely, for obtaining an excerpt from the State Registry of Rights, whose price constitutes - 120 UAH); - informational: absence of sufficient educational campaign on the part of the State Registration Service concerning the practical steps form the registration of communal ownership right to land plots; and, - technical: software support for the registration system, despite having been applied trial mode, in some cases does not meet the intended requirements.
The event participants decided to initiate with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and National Deputies amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the State Registration of Property Rights to Real Property and their Limitations” to exempt local governments from paying a fee for obtaining an excerpt from the State Registry of Rights. Over the reporting period, local governments exchanged their experience and information about the mechanisms for the state registration of communal ownership to land plots.
A. Akmaev, Head of the Department for the State Registration of Property Rights of the Registration Service of the Kharkiv Oblast Main Department of Justice, took part in the discussion of problem issues and clarification of some provisions of the regulatory and legal documents on the state registration of property rights to real property. The event participants managed to work out an algorithm for the state registration of communal ownership property rights and received answers to the questions they raised. At the same time, the participants mentioned about potential local peculiarities of the hands-on implementation of such an algorithm.
3. Problem issues related to the implementation of Article 186-1 of the Land Code of Ukraine in the course of approval of the land management documents for the allocation of land plots with due regard to the amendments introduced by Laws # 5395-9ȱof October 02, 2012 and # 5462- 9ȱof October 16, 2012. Conflicting amendments to Article 186-1 of the Land Code of Ukraine, which were made almost simultaneously by Laws # 5395-9ȱof October 02, 2012 and # 5462-9ȱ of October 16, 2012, made considerable complications to the mechanisms for approval land management documents through introducing a greater number of executive agencies to the documents and making internal discrepancies between commissions and individual executive agencies. At the moment, the parliament registered two draft Laws # 1208 and # 1208-1 to regulate this situation.
24 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
The event participants decided to monitor both draft laws to prevent the reduction of the local government authority in the course of the approval of land management documents.
In addition to this, the members of the AUC Professional Group discussed the draft law published at the web-site of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on increasing the land tax rates to the level of the minimum land rent for land plots or the same designation. The event participants mentioned about the necessity of applying the increasing ratios for land fees for those users who unconsientious land plot users (for example, those who use land plots without the property land title documents). At the same time, they expressed the concern that increasing the land tax rates will entail an unfavourable situation for land users who may potentially buy out the land plot for their private ownership. Consequently, the cities will loose considerable one-time payments to their development budgets.
Working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group
February 12-13, 2013, city of Kryvyi Rih
The event was attended by 26 representatives of city/town health care departments from 14 regions of Ukraine.
The main issues for the discussion included the following:
Experience in reforming the health care system in the city of Kryvyi Rih within the framework of the implementation of the pilot project. O. Svitlovskyi, Head of the City Health Care Department, provided details on the main steps towards reforming the health care system in the city and presented the problem issues associated with such a reform. In general, the event participants noted the high level of organisation of medical services in the city the reform yielded, however they pointed to the necessity of determining the criteria to assess the efficiency of the health care system reform in the pilot regions to disseminate best experience to the whole territory of the country.
As far as the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation”, which envisions the introduction of the mechanism to approve hiring and dismissing chief doctors of secondary level communally-owned health care establishment with the head of the health care department of the oblast state administration and to approve hiring and dismissing the chief doctor of the tertiary level communally-owned health care establishment with the head of the central executive agency, i.e. with the minister, is concerned, the participants both expressed the need to clarify the mechanism for such approvals and objected against such approvals, as they violate the rights of local governments.
The draft Law of Ukraine “On Peculiarities of Activities of Health Care Establishments of Ukraine” envisions the following: x determining the types of health care establishments by the types of medical assistance; x conditions for setting up health care establishments depending on the number of citizens; x introducing agreements for health services for citizens; x introducing work contracts to be signed by the head of health care establishment; x general characteristics of budget financed, state-owned, communally-owned, and private health care establishments; and, x requirements for the status of the health care establishment. The participants expressed no comments to the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Health Care.
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The reform of the emergency medical assistance system in cities, which is being implemented in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Emergency Medical Assistance System” approved in July of 2012. The event participants mentioned that the cities received in January of 2013 the movable and immovable property, which belonged to communally-owned ambulance units, to the joint ownership of territorial communities in the oblast. The departmental heads who were present at the meeting did not object to such property transfer. In connection with the amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine, as of January 01, 2013, the financial support to the emergency medical assistance system has to be provided from oblast budgets. Such an approach will make it impossible to support those city-owned health care establishments, which were not transferred to the oblast ownership. The participants also expressed an opinion that taking into consideration the fact that the reform of the emergency medical assistance system has just started, it would too early to talk about it effectiveness.
In the course of the discussions, the participants became familiar with the draft questionnaire for the sociological survey in the health care sector and expressed no comments to it.
Following the discussions of the AUC Health Care Professional Group, the participants decided to submit their proposals to the Presidium of the AUC Board and request the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine to resole the following problem issues in the health care sector: x supply of general practitioners and family doctors; x necessity to clarify the current clinical protocols for rendering medical assistance and their financial component; x necessity to calculate the cost of medical assistance provided in primary medical and sanitary assistance centers taking into account the experience of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast and the city of Kryvyi Rih; x ensuring the provision of consultative and diagnosis services by primary-level health care establishments (centers for primary medical and sanitary assistance); and, x necessity to identify the main criteria of effectiveness of actions to reform the health care system in the pilot regions to disseminate the best experience to the whole territory of the country.
The meeting of the AUC Board conducted on March 14, 2013 considered the appeal of the Professional Group and made a decision to submit it to R. Bohatyryova, Minister of Health Care.
Working session of the AUC Social Protection Professional Group
February 21-22, 2013, city of Lutsk.
Thirty representatives of city departments of labour and social protection from 12 regions of Ukraine took part in the working session.
Two sets of issues were discussed at the meeting. 1. On draft legal and regulatory documents prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy: x draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Approving the Regulations on Preparing a Social Order at the Expense of Budget Funds”; x national standards for the provision of social services.
The event participants did not express any comments to the draft documents prepared by the Ministry. In general, they supported the main directions of the reforms in the area of social services, because this would give local governments an opportunity to project their expenditures based on national social service standards with due regards to their financial capacity.
26 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
2. Practical aspects of the implementation of the current regulatory and legal documents: x Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine # 1039 of November 14, 2012 “On Approving the Criteria for Activities of Entities Providing Social Services”; x Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine # 1184 of December 19, 2012 “On Approving the Mechanism for Rendering Social Services with the Establishment of the Differentiated Payment and Amendments to the list of Social Services, Conditions and Mechanisms for Their Rendering by Structural Entities of the Territorial Center of Social Services (rendering social services)”; x Order of the Ministry of Social Services # 648 of October 15, 2012 “On Approving the Methodological Recommendations for Assessing the Need of Residents of the Administrative and Territorial Unit in Social Services”; and, x Draft Order of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy # 1771/22083 of October 22, 2012 “On Approving the Mechanism for Accreditation of Social Workers, Other Specialists Who Provide Social and Rehabilitation Services”.
Following the discussion, the event participants revealed a number of common problems arising in the course of the implementation of abovementioned regulatory and legal documents and decided to initiate their resolution by the central agencies of the state executive. In particular:
1. approve standards for accepting and processing documents, providing consultations, performing the calculation of allowances, etc. By employees of social protection departments and some up with the necessary staff number based on such calculations; 2. ensure the financial compensation from the National Budget to territorial centers for social services for the provided social services based on the differentiated approach; 3. specify in the legislation the state executive agency to provide family membership certificates; 4. make amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine in the part dealing with providing the financial support for homeless persons through the funds, which are included in the inter-budget transfers; 5. include adjustment ratios, which would reflect the existing network of social facilities, such as facilities for children and social rehabilitation, in the formula based calculation of the amount of financial support to be provided to territorial centers of social services; and, 6. ensure a step-by-step transition in providing the financial support to territorial centers for social services based on the number of service recipients to the approach based on the number of social services provided through changes to the statistics report form (ɋɈɐ-12).
During the working session, the participants reviewed the draft questionnaire for the sociological survey in the sphere of social protection and expressed no comments to the document.
Working session of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group
February 28, - March 01, 2013, city of Sumy
Eighteen representatives of AUC member cities from seven regions of Ukraine (Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv oblasts) took part in the event. Ministry of Regional Development representative Oleksandr Ihnatenko, Director of the Department for Urban Improvements of Territorial and Utility Services, also attended the event.
27 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
The main issues for the discussion included the following: 1. Draft Law of Ukraine with the Registration # 2295 of February 14, 2013 ‘On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation in the Area of Solid Waste Management”, which suggests to introduce additional permit and approval mechanisms for activities in solid waste recycling and disposal. The event participants decided to take steps to prevent the introduction of additional permit and approval mechanisms, because the introduction of licensing in the solid waste management sector will limit access of new companies to this market in the future and, consequently, will impede the introduction of new technologies to optimise solid waste recycling and disposal. Besides, all solid waste recycling and disposal activities are regulated by the corresponding rules and standards approved by the line Ministry, sanitary norms and rules, etc. Therefore, the proposed introduction of licensing requirements seems superfluous, especially given the well-established network of specialised utility companies providing services at landfills. Increasing the number of unnecessary licenses usually leads to barriers for business development, promotes corruption and increases the number of inspections. In addition to this, the participants came up with the suggestion: while discussing the draft law in the second reading not to limit the list of companies providing solid waste management services only to specialised utility companies and give the right to local governments to choose on their own the providers of such services including private businesses.
2. Abolishing cross-subsidies in the energy sector for street lighting in populated areas. As of now, the government failed to implement Paragraph 131.1.3 of the National Action Plan for 2012 (for the implementation of the Economic Reform Program for 2010-2014 called “Prosperous Society, Competitive Economy and Effective State” approved by Presidential Decree # 187/2012 of March 12, 2012) about the gradual elimination of cross-subsidies in the energy sector for street lighting in populated areas. Implementation of this Paragraph envisions the increase of the ratio applied to the electricity used for street lighting in populated areas from 0.25 to 1. In other words, local budget expenditures for these purposes may increase four times. Given the financial problems of local budgets, one can easily expect a serious deterioration of street lighting caused by the strict necessity to save funds. The participants of the working session made a decision to take the necessary steps to avoid increase of tariffs for electricity used for street lighting in populated areas. A considerable portion of electricity generated at night time is not used by consumers, and this is related to the uninterrupted generation of electricity by power stations, especially by nuclear power stations. The time sensitive differentiation of the market price provides the incentives to consume electricity during the lowest demand hours and to smooth out the overall consumption.
3. On proposals of the Ministry of Regional Development to amend regulatory and legal documents to deliver bodies of certain categories of citizens to medical inspection office, morgues or pathology anatomy centers at the expense of local budgets. Big and medium cities have agreed with the proposed changes, because this will provide legal grounds to envision funds in local budgets for such purposes. Although rayon significance cities appose this approach being aware of their inability to finance such works and to maintain the corresponding transportation vehicles.
Working session of the Association of Ukrainian City Finance Officers
March 14-15, 2013, city of Dnipropetrovsk.
The working session was attended by 25 heads of local departments of finance from 10 oblasts of Ukraine.
The main issues for the discussion included the following:
28 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
1. Necessity of improving the budget and tax legislation in the part dealing with strengthening the financial foundations of local self-governance. 2. Chances for revisiting the indicators of the Law of the Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2013” in the part dealing with local budgets and inter-budget relations.
The event participants: 1. Welcomed the draft laws prepared by DIALOGUE Project experts: 1) “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine and Certain Other Ukrainian Legislation (concerning streamlining the list of local budget revenues and expenditures)”; 2) “On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine (concerning improvements to the Mechanism for Projections by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine of Local Budget Revenues taken into Consideration While Determining the Amount of Inter-Budget Transfers)”; 3) ‘On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine (concerning the improvements of the Treasury administration of local budgets)”; 4) “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (concerning the calculation of the indexation ratio for the normative pecuniary valuation of lands)”; and 5) “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and “Administrative Code of Ukraine (concerning the regulation of payment of the income tax by separated entities of legal persons)”. 2. Came up with the proposals to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine concerning the amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2013” in the part dealing with local budgets and inter-budget relations based on the indicators for the 1st quarter of 2013: x 100% financial support to local governments for the implementation of the authority delegated by the state. To make this happen, envision the increased projected amount of expenditures, which are taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter- budget transfers from the National Budget by at least 20%; x Increase by 1 billion UAH the amount of subventions from the National Budget to local budgets as compensation for providing privileged urban public transportation services to certain categories of citizens; x 100% financial support from the National Budget for the implementation of current regulatory and legal documents and national targeted programs including the small city development program; x repayment of the debt of the state to local governments on subventions from the National Budget and on expenditures for the implementation national programs approved in previous years; x repayment, by April 01, 2013, of accounts payables of local budgets, which accumulated by the end of 2012 due to the suspension of local government payments by the State Treasury Service of Ukraine; x revisit the amount of withdrawals to the National Budget from local budgets of the cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizzhya, Sumy, Luhansk, and Lviv; x write off the 5 billion UAH local budget debt, which accumulated on mid-term loans; and x envision the increased administrative expenditures of local governments, with the priority given to increasing salaries of local government officials, etc.
Working session of the AUC Local Government Lawyers Professional Group
March 21- 22, 2013, city of Zaporizzhya
25 representatives of legal departments from such cities as Berdyansk, Vasylivka, Vilnyansk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dniprorudne, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizzhya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rih, Luhansk, Melitopol, Mykolaiv, Nikopol, Orikhiv,
29 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Pervomaisk, Snizhne, Sumy, Tokmak, Feodosiya, and Cherkasy representing 11 oblasts of Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea took part in the event.
The event participants discussed the following topics.
1. On the state registration of real property rights in 2013. Local councils are not in a position to administer land plots at their discretion because of the overly complicated mechanisms for the state registration of land property rights. As of January 01, 2013 the boundaries between state- owned and communally-owned lands have been delineated in compliance with Paragraphs 3-9 of the Closing Provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation on Delineation of Boundaries between State-Owned and Communally-Owned Lands” of September 06, 2012 # 5245-VI. Simultaneously with this, the Law of Ukraine “On the State Registration of Property Rights to Immovable Property and Their Limitations” introduced a new system for the state registration of land plots and land plot ownership rights. Local governments were given no preferences on registration fee payments at all. This situation requires local governments to drain a considerable amount of their local budget funds, make a lot of petty payments, and increase the workload of employees who register numerous appeals to state registrars and make follow-up steps. Such provisions also require much more time to make land plot transactions, because now they require two separate transactions: registration of the primary rights (communal ownership right) and registration of derivative ownership rights (right to lease or private property right (privatisation, buying out, or land sales purchase). In addition to this, there is a problem with different interpretations of provisions of the laws mentioned above and concerns of state registrars related to erroneous registration of property rights.
The participants of the working session decided to support the draft Law of Ukraine # 2303-2 of February 27, 2013 submitted by National deputy of Ukraine O. Dolzhenkov to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consideration. The draft Law has a suggestion to exempt local governments from paying fees for the state registration of land plot communal ownership rights and from other mandatory payments, as well as to conduct the registration of primary and derivative rights simultaneously (make them in one day).
2. On the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” prepared by the Association of Ukrainian Cities. The current Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” has a considerable number of technical drawbacks and discrepancies with other legislation. This makes it very difficult for local governments to implement it. The AUC prepared a draft Law to resolve these problem issues. In particular: 1) coordinating the definition of the term “confidential information” with the Law of Ukraine “On Information”; 2) lifting the requirement for making public draft ordinances of local governments regarding specific physical and legal persons; and 3) improving the mechanisms for considering public information inquiries, payments for providing public information, etc.
The participants of the working session decided to support the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” prepared by the Association of Ukrainian Cities.
3. On ensuring the conclusion of agreements with developers on cost sharing contributions in the development of the infrastructure of the populated area and their implementation. The current legislation provides an opportunity for developers to avoid signing the agreements on cost sharing in the development of infrastructure of the populated area. The Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities” does not envision special mechanisms for information exchange between state executive agencies authorised to issue construction permits (State Architectural and Construction Inspection) and local governments. Local governments have also been kept at bay from commissioning finished construction objects. Therefore, local 30 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
governments are deprived of trustworthy information about developers. In fact, the law provides opportunities to avoid this duty and local budgets loss the corresponding revenues.
The participants of the working session decided to support the draft Law # 2456 of March 05, 2013 submitted by National Deputy of Ukraine R. Martsinkiv. The draft law has a suggestion to inspect the cost share contributions made by developers into the development of the infrastructure of the populated area during commissioning the finished construction objects.
Working session of the AUC Culture and Arts Professional Group
March 28-29, 2013, city of Kirovohrad
Twenty representatives of city/town departments of culture from six regions of Ukraine took part in the event.
The main issues for the discussion included the following: Draft regulatory and legal documents in the area of culture and their potential influence on the authority of local governments: x - draft Laws “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Culture”, “On the National Cultural Product”; and "On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation (concerning the restitution of buildings to religious communities)”; x draft Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Approving the Mechanism for Exempting from Tax Payments on Activities Aimed at Producing, Supplying, Promotion, Restoration and Dissemination of the National Cultural Product”.
The participants of the working session did not express any comments to the draft documents mentioned above. They supported the necessity of determining the term of the “national cultural product” and to regulate the activities related to its preparation; they welcomed the introduction of the exemption from paying the VAT tax on the national cultural product (including certain services to be provided by communally-owned cultural establishments). In addition to this, given the potential introduction of the contractual working relationships for employees of cultural establishments, the participants came up with a proposal to prepare a model version of the work agreement for employees of cultural establishments.
Practical aspects of the implementation of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine # 984 of October 24, 2012 # 984 “On Approving the Mechanism for Setting-Up the Basic Network of Cultural Establishments”. The event participants agreed there were no negative aspects in establishing such a network, as it just started and the Ministry of Culture is preparing the corresponding draft Resolution. The participants agreed to discuss the practical aspects at the next session of the Professional Group.
Following the discussions, the participants came up with a proposal to task the Executive Board of the Association of Ukrainian Cities to send the following proposals to the Ministry of Culture: x change the mechanism for providing the financial support to this sector and apply adjustment ratios for calculations (such as the inflation index and the gross national product growth rate according to the Budget Resolution for the planned budget period (planned year), etc.); x introduce the financial standards of budget sufficiency for cultural and educational services provided by rural leisure centers and libraries; x prepare a model work agreement format for employees of cultural establishments; and,
31 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
x change the mechanisms for setting the parent tuition fee for training in arts schools and provide for the opportunity to use at least 50% of the collections from such fees for the needs of the educational establishments.
The participants of the working session came up with a proposal to place on the AUC web site a list of local festivals, concerts, competitions and other public and cultural events to be conducted in AUC member cities, ensure access to such information and participation of representatives of other cities in them.
The event participants also became familiar with the draft questionnaire for the sociological survey in the area of culture. The document raised no concerns.
Setting up a network of lawyers to participate in legislation drafting
Currently, the network includes 364 local government lawyers from 25 oblasts.
As of now, 271 cities and 70 smaller towns delegated their representatives to work in the network. Currently, the network includes 364 local government representatives from 25 oblasts.
During the reporting period, the Project sent draft laws and other legislative and regulatory documents prepared by the central state executive agencies and draft legislative and regulatory documents sent to the AUC for concurrence to lawyers to solicit their expert opinion.
In particular, the AUC received comments and proposals concerning draft Laws of Ukraine “On the Service in Local Governments”, “On the Foundations of the National Regional Policy”, “On Regulatory and Legal Documents”, “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation in the Area of Solid Waste Management”, and “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Environment”; draft Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine «On Approving the Mechanism for Taking Down Unsanctioned Construction Objects”, “On Approving Model Rules for Placing Advertisements within the Boundaries of Populated Areas”; draft Order of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine “On Approving the Mechanism for the Construction and Use of pump rooms Belonging to the Non-Centralised System of Potable Water Supply”, etc.
Through the interactive commutation tools placed on the official AUC web-site, the Association received two proposals to the amendments to the current legislation: - to the Mechanisms for Commissioning Finished Construction Objects, approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine #461 of April 13, 2011, in the part dealing with enforcing the implementation of developers of their duty to make cost-sharing contributions in the development of the engineering, transportation and social infrastructure of the populated area; - on the Mechanisms of the State Registration of Rights to Real Property and Their Limitations approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine #703 of June 22, 2011, in the part dealing with expanding the list of documents to be provided for the registration of ownership rights for residential and non-residential construction objects through supplementing it with the document, which testifies the cost-sharing contribution in the development of the engineering, transportation and social infrastructure of the populated area. Given the current absence of such enforcement and control of government agencies over the implementation of duties of developers, this situation may undermine further development and proper maintenance of engineering networks, water-, gas-, heat-supply and sewerage systems, roads, etc.
The proposals mentioned above were used for the preparation of the corresponding petitions to the state executive agencies.
32 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
2.2. Component 2: Policy dialogue
Activity 2.2.1. Increasing the participation of the AUC member cities in the policy dialogue established be the AUC at the national level
Dialogue Day at the Local Government Forum
The Project did not conduct activities under this component in the reporting period.
Consultations on budget preparation
The DIALOGUE Project conducted the activities in this area in the two directions: 1) preparation of proposals to the draft Main Directions of the Budget Policy for 2014; 2) participation in the preparation of the National Action Plan for 2013 concerning the implementation of the Economic Reform Program for 2010-2014 called “Prosperous Society, Competitive Economy, Effective State”.
Main Directions of the Budget Policy for 2014
DIALOGUE Project experts:
1. prepared draft proposals to the Declaration of Goals and Tasks of the National Budget for 2014 (Budget Resolution), which serves as the prototype of the draft Main Direction of the Budget Policy (January of 2013). The proposals (totalling in 9 groups with 18 specific requirements) can conventionally be divided into four groups: 1) optimization of the expenditure authority of local budgets (streamlining the list and scope of revenues to support the implementation of the delegated authority and exclusive local government authority), improving the mechanism to calculate the expenditures for the implementation of the delegated authority; 2) enhancing the financial capacity of local self-governance through expanding the revenues sources of local government budgets and increasing collections from local taxes and fees; 3) ensuring compensation of local budget losses associated with the decisions made by the state, in particular with regard to proper financial support for the state guaranteed social and tax preferences and targeted state programs; and, 4) improving the mechanisms for budget sufficiency of territorial communities (adequate mid-term forecasting, access to credit, and simplification of the Treasury administration of local budgets);
2. ensured the coordination of interests of the three Ukraine-wide local government associations concerning the submission of joint proposals to the Budget Declaration. Following this, the National Congress of Local Governments of Ukraine on February 14, 2013 sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine with 9 groups of proposals (all in all, 18 specific requirements) to the Budget Declaration;
3. reviewed and prepared specific comments to media about the draft Main Directions of the Budget Policy for 2014. Previously, the document was considered at the working session of the Cabinet of Ministers on March 27, 2013. One should mention that based on the cabinet of Ministers working session it made a decision to finalise the draft documents and submit it to the parliament. Following the registration of the draft document in the VRU, DIALOGUE Project experts will take part in its elaboration in the Budget Committee. Currently, the drat reflects only seven specific requirements from the four groups of the DIALOGUE Project proposals:
x increasing the financial capacity of local budgets through expanding the tax base for the property tax;
33 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
x compensation of local budget losses, which are not taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers, arising through the tax preferences provided by the state, in particular the land tax payment preferences; x improving the formula-based approach to calculate local budget revenues and expenditures, which are taken into account in the course of the calculation of the amount of inter-budget transfers; x specifying optimised financial standards for the sectors of public education, health care, culture and arts, social protection, and physical culture and sports in the budget legislation; x approving the in-kind and cost standards of social standards and norms for social services to be provided by institutions in the public sector, staffing schedules, and standards in providing citizens with social and cultural establishments; x calculating expenditures, which are taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers, based on the national social standards and norms, which correlate with the sectoral standards of social services and optimised financial norms of budget sufficiency; and, x optimisation of the network of institutions in the public sector supported by the funds of local budgets.
At the same time, the draft document failed, so far, to reflect the following substantial proposals to increase the financial capacity of local budgets, in particular:
x rendering the land fee to the category of local taxes; x including part of the profits tax (except for state-owned and communally-owned companies) in the amount of 25% to the local budget revenues, which are not taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers; x increasing revenues from the tourist fee through the simplification of taxation mechanisms, introducing tax rates depending on the receipts from sojourn services, and reducing preferences; x retaining the deductions from the environmental tax to local government budgets at the level of 70 percent (as was in 2011-2012); x exempting local governments from the payment of the court fee; x improving the Treasury administration of local governments and the mechanisms for registering financial obligations in the offices of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine; x simplification of mechanisms for local borrowings; x writing off the local budget debts on mid-term loans received in the previous years; x gradual increase of salaries of local government officials, etc.
National Action Plan for 2013
Every year in the 1st quarter, starting with 2010, the President of Ukraine issues a decree to approve the so-called National Action Plan to support the implementation of the Economic Reform Program for 2010-2014 called “Prosperous Society, Competitive Economy, Effective State”. DIALOGUE Project experts always take part in the preparation of National Action Plans for the corresponding year. One should mention that the draft National Action Plan for 2013 was submitted several times for the consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, however, upon the suggestions of the DIALOGUE Project experts, was returned for further elaboration, because it did not have any provisions aimed at strengthening local self-governance and ignored the interests of local governments. The National Action Plan for 2013 approved by the President of Ukraine managed to include the provisions supporting the development of local governments, which were lobbied by the DIALOGUE Project experts.
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At the same time, one has to mention the negative tendencies, which cast doubt on the feasibility of implementing the tasks envisioned in the Economic Reform Program of the President of Ukraine in general and their effect to support local self-governance in particular:
1) over 2012, not a single provision from the National Action Plan in the part dealing with reforming the system of inter-budget relations and strengthening the financial foundations of local self-governance was implemented. In addition to this, based on the outcomes of the 1st quarter of 2013, one can assert that the provisions of Part Six of the Decree dealing with the implementation in 2012 of the tasks of the last year National Action Plan were not implemented in most aspects; 2) the established timeframe for the implementation of some provisions and not feasible. For example, the timeframe specified in the chapter called “Reform of Local Self- Governance, Local Authorities of the State Executive and Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions” cast doubt the approval of the necessary legislation in this sphere by the parliament in 2013; 3) none of the previous National Action Plans, starting with 2010 till now, had clear provisions about the implementation of the main tasks of the Chapter called “Reform of Inter-Budget Relations” of the Economic Reform Program of the President of Ukraine, namely ɚ increasing the financial autonomy of local budgets and increasing the level of financial support for the implementation of the authority delegated to local governments by the state; b) increasing the expenditure autonomy of local budgets and improving the efficiency of using budget funds; and, c) streamlining the relationships between local budgets and the National budget (optimisation of the distribution of the expenditure authority and improving the mechanisms to distribute transfers); and, 4) the substantial goals of the inter-budget relations reform were not achieved so far, and there were no visible steps towards this direction over the last 3 years. The cosmetic changes in the budget and tax legislation, which were envisioned in the National Action Plans for the previous years, did not lead to better approaches for the budget sufficiency of territorial communities and local governments. Over the last years, the situation became even worse, because the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance are extensively engaged in the so-called “manual management”, whereas the decision-making in this sphere is extremely non-transparent.
Cooperation with central government authorities
Cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities
On January 17, 2013, the Project conducted a meeting of city mayors who are members of the AUC Board Presidium with the leadership of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine. In the course of the meeting, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine and the Association of Ukrainian Cities signed a Memorandum for Cooperation. According to the Memorandum, the Ministry will engage representatives of the Association to the law-drafting activities related to local government issues, architecture and urban development, housing ad utilities, as well as coordinate local development strategies with the Association at the local regional and national levels.
On March 14, 2013, H. Temnyk, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities took part in the working session of the Board of the Association of Ukrainian Cities. The Minister confirmed his commitment for further cooperation with Ukraine-wide local government associations on issues related to the preparation of draft laws and other regulatory and legal documents related to local self-governance and regional development, in particular: the 35 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Concept for Reform of Local Self-Governance and Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions in Ukraine and draft laws “On the Framework of the National Regional Policy”, “On Consolidation of Territorial Communities”, “On the Main Framework of the Territorial Arrangement of Ukraine”, and “On Citizen Self-Organisation Bodies” (new version).
Working on the draft Local Government Reform Concept
In 2013, the preparation of the Local Government Reform Concept continued with the meeting held on February 06, between Janni Bukikkio, Head of the Venice Commission and the President of Ukraine where V. Yanukovych announced that Ukraine will approve the Local Government Development Concept in the nearest future. According to the President of Ukraine, the Concept will serve as the foundation for the specific action plan to reform this type of government.
On February 22, the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction conducted a closing meeting of the working group under the aegis of the Presidential Administration, which elaborated the draft Concept for Local Government Reform and Reform of the Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions, which was prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development and was removed from consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers in May of 2012. V. Parkhomenko, Director of the AUC Analytical Center, took part in the working group on behalf of the AUC. The working group members considered the work on the document to be completed and made a decision to submit it to the Ministry of Regional Development for further preparation for the submission to one of the top state executive authority in the due way.
On March 14, the draft Concept was discussed by the AUC Board, which approved the documents. On February 18, upon the official request of the Ministry of Regional Development, the AUC approved the draft Concept for Local Government Reform and Reform of the Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions without reservations.
On February 21, the draft Concept was considered by the working session of the Council of Regions, which was presided by the President of Ukraine and was supported in its entirety. It was quite logically to expect that the President would approve the Document by his Decree and this would give a start for the public discussion of the reform itself.
However, the President, while supporting the reform and outlining his vision of its goals and tasks, only gave an instruction to “begin a broad-based discussion of the prepared draft Local Government Reform Concept at all levels taking into consideration all proposals”, despite the fact that the broad-based discussion already took place in the previous years. IN the opinion of the Association, it is high time to discuss the Concept approved at the national level, rather than the ways and approaches to the draft document.
Such a decision, in fact, can be considered as a personal unpreparedness of the leader of the state to conduct the reform, as the lack of trust on his part to his experts, and, unfortunately, as a sign for postponing the local government reform for an unidentified time.
Working on the draft Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Governments”
One of the most important law-drafting activities of the Association in the 1st quarter of 2013 was the participation of the preparation of the version of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Governments” (new version), which would reflect the conceptual framework of such service approved by the AUC Board in November of 2012. With this purpose in mind, the Project conducted the following activities:
36 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
- including AUC representatives to the membership of the working group at the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine, which performed a considerable piece of work to collect the proposals to the draft law from local governments at various levels. The proposals from city councils were also discussed at the working session of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries (January of 2013); - AUC experts generalized all the proposals received by the working group at the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction and used them as the foundation for the working version of the draft law (March of 2013). All in all, they generalized approximately 700 proposals from the Kyiv and Sevastopol City Consuls, Donets, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsya, Odesa, Poltava, and Chernihiv Oblast Councils, Association of Ukrainian City Finance Officers, etc.; and, - in compliance with the National Action Plan for 2013 for the implementation of the Economic Reform Program for 2010-2014 called “Prosperous Society, Competitive Economy, Effective State”, which was approved by Decree of the President of Ukraine # 128/2013 of March 12, 2013, the task to elaborate the draft Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Governments” was given to the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service. To achieve this goal, the National Agency established a new Working Group whose membership includes an AUC representative. The Working Group the draft law prepared by the AUC experts as the working version. In March of 2013, this version of the draft law was sent to local government associations and central authorities of the state executive (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Regional Development and Construction, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, etc.). Two working sessions of the working group were conducted (March 21 and 28, 2012).
Instructions for the optimisation of the network of institutions in the public sector financed from local budgets
To implement Instruction of the S. Arbuzov, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, # 187/1/1-13 of January 11, 2013, a number of working groups for the optimisation of institutions in the public sector financed from local budgets were established in January of 2013. These working groups cove the following sectors: - social protection and social safety net; - health care; - public education and science, youth and sport; and, - culture and arts. The membership of the working groups includes ministers and deputy ministers, heads of oblast state administration, as well as representatives of the Association of Ukrainian Cities (mayors of AUC member cities). The Minister of Education and Science, Youth and Sport, Minister of Culture, Minister of Social Policy, and Minister of Health Care are heads of the corresponding working group covering the main areas of its activities.
On January 30, 2013, the working group to optimize the network of institutions in the public sector financed from local budgets conducted its working session. The meeting was presided by R. Bohatyryova, Minister of Health Care. A. Reva, Deputy Vinnytsya Mayor, and V. Karabutova, expert of the AUC Analytical Center, represented the Association of Ukrainian Cities at the meeting. Prior to the meeting, the Association of Ukrainian Cities submitted its proposals related to the optimization of the network of health care establishments. Following the discussions at the event, the participants made a decision to ask the members of the working group to re-submit their proposals to the Ministry to facilitate decision-making process in the group and monitor the implementation of the decisions.
On February 15, 2013, the working group to optimize the network of public education establishments financed from local budgets conducted its working session. The meeting was 37 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
presided by D. Tabachnyk, Minister of Education and Science, Youth and Sport. V. Deboi, Zhytomyr Mayor, S. Haraschuk, Director of the Department for Budget and Finance of the Zhytomyr City Council, and V. Karabutova, expert of the AUC Analytical Center, represented the Association of Ukrainian Cities at the meeting. Prior to the meeting, the Zhytomyr Mayor acting as a representative of the Association of Ukrainian Cities sent to the Ministry the proposals on how to optimize the network of public education establishments.
Following the discussions in the working groups mentioned above, their members will send to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the approved draft regulatory and legal documents to resolve the problem issues raised.
Assessing the actual need to finance communally-owned institutions
The main purpose of the survey called “Assessing the Actual Need and Developing Approaches to the Calculation of the Financial Support for local social sector institutions in the sectors of public education, health care, and special protection” is to identify the mechanism and components of the cost of social services rendered by local governments as part of the authority delegated to them by the state (public education, health care and social protection).
The expected findings of the survey will be descriptions of model establishments in the health care, public education and social protection sectors with the list of services these establishments are supposed to provide, typical requirements to support such establishments (staffing, financial, technical, etc.), and calculations of the necessary expenditures to ensure their proper performance during the corresponding budget period (1 budget year) made according to the current standards of budget sufficiency. The findings of the survey are expected to be suggested to local governments to use them in their activities, as well as to the Ministry of Finance and other line ministries for their annual preparation of indicators of the National Budget of Ukraine for the financial support for the implementation of the delegated authority.
Aiming at performing the survey and preparing the descriptions of the model establishments (institutions), the Association collected the data about the work of and financial support for the corresponding establishments in the cities with the population of about 100,000. The corresponding letters with requests were sent to mayors of the cities of Berdyansk, Brovary, Yevpatoria, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Konotop, Lysychansk, Pavlohrad, Severodonetsk, and Uzhgorod.
As of the end of the reporting period, the AUC received paper or electronic versions of the information about establishments/institutions in the corresponding sector from the cities of: Pavlohrad (social protection, public education, and health care), Berdyansk (social protection, health care, and public education), Konotop (social protection, public education, and health care), Severodonetsk (public education), Uzhgorod (public education, health care, and social protection), Brovary (social protection), and Lysychansk (public education). The materials were sent to the experts for further review.
Sociological survey of the evaluation of public services by citizens and their support to reforms in local government sectors
To ensure the proper quality of public services, local governments need a reliable system for receiving the feedback from citizens who use these services. Sociological surveys performed by local governments proper can serve as one of the important means for such a feedback. However, most local governments do have the proper methodology to perform the survey, whereas the preparation of such methodologies is costly for local budgets. 38 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
The Project initiated the preparation of the methodology and tools for such surveys, which will be provided to all AUC local council members after they are finalised.
In February-March, this campaign used the questionnaire forms prepared in cooperation with the AUC Analytical Center for the sectors of: - housing and utilities; - information activities and administrative services; - local elections, local self-governance and citizen participation; - health care; - public education; and, - social protection performed pilot surveys in several oblast significance cities. All of them yielded good findings and allowed to make the corresponding adjustments to the questionnaire forms.
Parliamentary local government inter-faction group (local government caucus)
On March 14, 2013, during the meeting of the Board of the Association with the participation of National Deputies Yu. Herzhov and M. Fedoruk who are members of the AUC inter-faction group, the Association made decision to establish a local government support group of National Deputies in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Following the negotiations, the interested parties agreed upon the preliminary membership of the group consisting of 33 National Deputies of Ukraine, made a decision to conduct working sessions of the group at least two times during each session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, namely: at the beginning of the session to identify the priority areas to improve the legislation framework of local self-governance for the current session and at the end of the session to sum up the work of the group performed.
Working within the framework of the parliamentary group, the Project also managed to come to an agreement with Ye. Kartashov, Permanent Representative of the Association in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Chairman of the Sub-Committee for Local Self-Governance of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance to conduct a kick-off meeting of the group in early April of 2013.
Participation in the work of parliamentary committees
During the reporting period, the Project continued its cooperation with the ad-hoc committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This cooperation was not very active due to the winter holidays in the parliament and constant blocking of the parliament. Project experts took part in 9 working sessions of 3 parliamentary committees including:
- Budget Committee – 4; - Committee on Tax and Customs Policy - 1; and, - Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance – 4.
Participation in the activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance
The cooperation between the AUC and the VRU Committee on State Building and Local Self- Governance was performed in the following areas:
39 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
1. Participation in the organization and holding round table discussions on key issues related to the development of local self-governance, namely: two round table discussions were conducted over the reporting period: - “Key Issues of the Legal Regulation of the Status of the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv Hero City” – February 13, 2013. The AUC position on these issues includes the following substantial comments: - it is expedient to conduct the elections of the Kyiv City Council and Kyiv City Mayor in 2013; - use the one-round election system to elect the Kyiv City Mayor; - the positions of the Kyiv City Mayor and the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration should be combined into one position; - it is worthwhile setting up Kyiv city rayon councils and their executive committees: - it is necessary to assign the legal status to the executive body of the Kyiv City Council with the strict compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine and European Charter of Local Self-Governance without any limitations of the rights of the city community to local self- governance; and, - it is necessary to budget 100 percent of income tax paid (wired) on the territory of the capital city to the Kyiv city budget.
- “Reforming the Institute of the Local Referendum. Citizen Participation in Governance” – March 13, 2013. The AUC used the round table discussion to present its position on the preparation of the legislation on local referendums, which reflects the following important comments: - is it necessary to approve the law on local referendums, because the law on Ukraine-wide and local referendums of 1991 became invalid; - the version of the draft law approved by the VRU in the first reading needs substantial provisioning. The priority should be given to the following issues: classification of local referendums; the object of the mandatory and imperative referendum; identification of entities entitled to initiate or schedule the referendum; material and financial support for organising and conducting local referendums.
2. Support the Committee to come up with its legislative position on how to deal with discrepancies and gaps in the Ukrainian legislation on local self-governance. In particular, the Committee received the expert opinion of the AUC Scientific and Methodological Council on how to calculate the term of office of local governments elected in October of 2010 and how to identify the date for the next regular local elections. The expert opinion outlines the legal justification for the need to conduct the next regular local elections in October of 2015.
3. Submission to the Committee of conclusions and suggestions concerning all draft laws on local self-governance, which are being discussed at the Committee. In this context, one should mention the following draft laws: - draft Law of Ukraine “On the Status of the National deputy of Ukraine” (concerning the rights of National Deputies of Ukraine in their relationships with local governments). In the opinion of AUC experts, this draft law may raise some organisational issues, which may lead to some difficulties in conduction local council sessions. In addition to this, the issues related to the participation of the National Deputy of Ukraine in local government working sessions have already been regulated in general terms in the current legislation and there is no need for their further idealisation; - draft Law of Ukraine on amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Status of Members of Local Councils” concerning personal voting of the council member at plenary sessions of the council, working sessions of standing commissions and other council bodies; - draft Law of Ukraine on amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Elections of the Members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Local Councils and Village, Town
40 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
and City Heads” (concerning training candidates to the position of the village, town and city head); - draft Law of Ukraine an amendments to Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self- Governance in Ukraine” concerning property registry and technical inventory; and, - draft law of Ukraine on amendments to certain Ukrainian legislation on the status of Members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous republic of Crimea, local councils, etc.
Budget Committee
DIALOGUE Project experts took part in 5 working sessions of the VRU Budget Committee and VRU Committee on Tax and Customs Policy (February 05, February 06, February 20, March 06, and March 13).
The main issues for the discussion, which directly or indirectly relate to local government interests, were:
- amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2013” concerning lifting the moratorium on providing the financial support to social preferences, distribution and increasing the amount of subventions to local budgets for the compensation of their losses associated with the differences in tariffs, performing inventory of lands, etc.; - amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine concerning the implementation of infrastructure projects at the expense of funds of state guarantees, returning the city of Kyiv 50% of collections from the income tax, transferring the collection of fees for the registration of entrepreneurs (physical persons) from local budgets to the National Budget following the removal from the composition of local governments of their structural entities engaged in the state registration, etc.; and, - program of activities of the Ministry of Revenues and Collections for 2013 and schedules of working sessions of Committees.
Establishing the cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee for the Freedom of Speech and information
On January 28, representatives of the Association of Ukrainian Cities met with M. Tomenko, Chairman of the Committee for the Freedom of Speech and Information. The agenda of the meeting included the issues of improving the provisions of the Law “on Access to Public Information”. The participants reached a consensus about the necessity to improve the provisions of the law dealing, in particular, with the definition of the terms of the “confidential information” and “corporate information”, making individual draft legal documents public, setting up systems for recording documents of information managers, mechanisms to prepare responses to requests, etc. Following the discussion, the participants reached an agreement to task the special working group to be established at the Committee and whose membership will include AUC representatives with the preparation of the amendments.
Activity 2.2.2. Setting up advisory boards at the regional level with participation of AUC Regional Offices and local State Executive agencies at the oblast level
Working sessions of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards
The Project conducted 10 working sessions of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards in 10 oblasts: Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv. The purpose of such meetings was to discuss the issues, which the
41 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Project were identified as priorities for Local Government Regional Advisory Boards by AUC Regional Offices at their meetings conducted within the framework of the Project in September of 2012.
Working session of the Zhytomyr The event participants discussed issues of the medical reform Local Government Regional Advisory in Ukraine, optimisation of the network of institutions of the Board primary medical and sanitary assistance in the oblast and city of Zhytomyr reforms of the ambulance service. January 24, 2013 In particular, the participants mentioned that there is currently a number of problem issues related to the optimization of the medical se tor in the oblast, namely: outdated fleet of ambulance vehicles, lack of the necessary medical equipment and office supplies, insufficient number of medical staff, problems related to the transfer of property of medical facilities from the city ownership to the oblast ownership, etc. Following the discussions, the participants made a decision to come up with a suggestion for the Chairman of the Oblast Council and Head of the Oblast State Administration to prepare and approve at the session of the Oblast Council an action plan to resolve problem issues related to the integrated medical services to citizens in the oblast, and task the Department of Health Care of the Oblast State Administration with the preparation of the corresponding draft petition to the Cabinet of Ministers to resolve problem issues related to the of the health care sector in the oblast and submit the document for approval by the session of the Oblast Council. Working session of the Volyn Local The event participants discussed the implementation of the Government Regional Advisory Board regional program for the modernisation and abolishment of city of Lutsk dilapidated buildings, implementation of the action plan to February 08, 2013 perform the land reform, and summarised the implementation of the program for economic and social development in the oblast for 2012. Following the discussions of the first issue on the agenda, the participants made a decision to task heads of rayon state administration with identification of new dilapidated buildings and submit requests for repair and dismantling works on the territory of the cities of Kamin-Kashyrskyi and Kivertsi. Following the discussion of the second item of the agenda, the participants made a decision to give a number of instructions to rayon state administrations and the oblast department of the State Agency for Land Resources to accomplish the works to prepare the rights for permanent use of land plots for all users from the public sector, prepare land valuation documents for the corresponding land auctions and spur up the activities to prepare master plans for populated areas in the oblast. In addition to this, the oblast department of the State Agency for Land Resources together with local governments in the oblast was tasked to accomplish the works on establishing changes of the boundaries of populated areas in the oblast and earmark 2 million UAH in the oblast budget for these purposes. Following the discussion of the third item of the agenda, the participants tasked the line departments of the Oblast State Administration and heads of rayon state administrations with the preparation of the draft “investment map of the region” to
42 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
promote investments in the oblast, ensure the adequate activities of one-stop-shops for investors, resume operations of pre-school educational establishments in those populated areas where the demographic situation requires so, and to ensure the stable implementation of the School Bus Program in 2013. A separate task was given to the Department of Finance of the Oblast State Administration to provide the financial support for the preparation of urban development documents in the amount of 2.6 billion UAH. Working session of the The event participants discussed the issues of inter-budget Dnipropetrovsk Local Government relations and local budgeting in 2013. Regional Advisory Board Following the discussions, the participants prepared a number city of Dnipropetrovsk of proposals on how to increase additional revenues to local February 08, 2013 budgets and to amend the current legislation of Ukraine, namely: - channel to local budgets a part of the collections from the court fee and exempt local governments from paying this fee; - introduce a differentiated approach to the application of the equalisation ratio for local budgets whose funds are transferred to the National Budget of Ukraine; - introduce the practice of automated amendments to land lease agreements in the part dealing with setting the rent amount in case the value of the normative valuations of land changes after it has been approved by the local council; - resolve the issues related to the transfer of property of vocational schools to the ownership of territorial communities; - resolve the issues related to the adequate financial support from the National Budget for the implementation of the targeted small city development programs and the repayment of local government debts arising from the necessity to finance the implementation of these programs from local budgets; and, - exclude programs and activities belonging to the state authority from the list of expenditures, which are not taken into consideration in the course of the calculation of inter-budget transfers. These proposals were published in the local media and were sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Working session of the Chernihiv The event participants discussed issues related to the reforms Local Government Regional Advisory in the housing and utilities sector in the oblast and the Board peculiarities of local budgeting in 2013. city of Chernihiv Following the discussions of the agenda items, the February 12, 2013 participants prepared a number of proposals on how to resolve key problem issues in these sectors, namely: - the need to amend the Law of Ukraine “On regulation of Urban Development Activities” in the part dealing with the postponement for 1 year, till January 01, 2014, of the closing date to prepare territorial outline maps, as there is no proper financial support for such works; - the need to allocate finds to maintain general-use roads in the amount of 544 million UAH, for the construction of access roads to populated areas in the amount of 499 million UAH, and for the scheduled repairs of roads and bridges leading to international check points in the amount of 311.7 million UAH;
43 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
- aiming at the implementation of Decree of the President of Ukraine # 925/11 of September 22, 2011, and Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine # 235-ɪ RI $SULO 25, 2012, “On the Activities Related to the 70th Anniversary of the Koryukivka Tragedy”, allocate the necessary funds in the amount of 57.5 million UAH and perform road repair works in the city of Koryukivka; and, - urgent necessity to amend Paragraph 11 of the Model Rules on Bookkeeping Service in public sector institutions to exclude from the document the requirement for the length of service for the specialist who has the corresponding degree in the technical area while hiring such specialist to the village or town council, as recently there was a problem of shortage of bookkeeping specialists in village or town councils. Competition to fill the vacancies and searching specialists through employment agencies does not serve the purpose. All the proposals were presented the form of the appeal and were sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Working session of the Odesa Local The event participants discussed key problem issues in the Government Regional Advisory Board housing and utilities sector in the oblast, namely: peculiarities city of Odesa of setting tariffs for utility services and issues related to February 14, 2013 dealing with stray animals. Following the discussions, the participants prepared a number of tasks of the Head of the Oblast State Administration to the Department for Infrastructure Development and Housing, as well as to rayon state administrations, in particular: - involve international animal protection organisations and managers of companies whose territories have a considerable number of stray animals to their sterilisation; - conduct a corresponding internal audit of the calculation of tariffs for housing and utility services; - organize training events for specialists of utility companies who render services on how to comply with the current legislation while calculating tariffs; and, - draft an oblast-wide Transparent Tariff Program to ensure transparency of setting tariffs for housing and utility services and place the information for public access on official web- pages of government authorities. Working session of the Poltava Local The event participants discussed the issues related to the Government Regional Advisory Board economic and social development of the oblast, city of Poltava implementation of the oblast budget in 2012, and the budget February 21, 2013 sufficiency of territorial communities in 2013. Following the discussions of the agenda items, the participants approved the resolution with the following tasks: - Department of Labour and Social Protection of the Oblast State Administration to perform permanent (every 10 days) monitoring of salary and welfare payments; - Department for Urban Development and Architecture of the Oblast State Administration in cooperation with rayon state administrations and local governments to take inventory of unfinished construction objects belonging to all types of ownership; - aiming at increasing local budget revenues, recommend rayon councils and local governments revisit the necessity of providing preferences on payments of local taxes and fees and rent fees for using land plots, as well as in cooperation with the territorial departments of the State Tax Service to 44 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
revisit the current rates of the unified tax taking into consideration types of activities of entrepreneurs; and, - recommend local governments in cooperation with the technical inventory bureaus to perform over the year the activities to include the information about real property items commissioned before 2003 to the Registry of Rights to Real Property, because this information is available only in the paper form, as well as to submit the information about the ownership rights to real property to the territorial departments of the State Tax Service by May 01, 2013. Working session of the Kharkiv Local The event was attended by O. Klymenko, Minister of Government Regional Advisory Board Revenues and Collections of Ukraine. The event participants city of Kharkiv discussed the investment potential of the Kharkiv oblast, February 21, 2013 current status of the gasification of populated areas in the oblast, as well as discussed the implementation of the Regional Small Business Development Program for 2011- 2015. As far as the first item of the agenda is concerned, the participants made a decision to prepare and submit for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft Law of Ukraine on the proper financial support for the implementation of the Village of the Future Investment Program and to prepare a corresponding resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to outline the mechanisms and conditions for providing the state support to its implementation. Following the discussion of the second agenda item, the participants made a decision to task the Department of Fuel and Energy of the Oblast State Administration to exercise control over the construction gas supply units, prepare a draft agreement on cooperation between the NaftoHaz Ukrainy National Joint-Stock Company (NJSC) and the Oblast State Administration to envision the continuous gasification of populated areas in the oblast, as well as to reform the list of construction items in the social sector to be finalised at the expense of structure departments of the company. Also, given the fact that the region has enough consumers of the liquefied natural gas (in cylinders), the KharkivHaz Private Joint-Stock Company, the KharkivRehionHaz LTd. and local governments were recommended to streamline the rosters of consumers of the liquefied gas and sent timely applications for its supply. After a discussion of the implementation of regional small business development program for 2011-2015, the meeting participants addressed O. Klymenko, Minster of Revenues and Collections of Ukraine, to provide the state support for its implementation. O. Klymenko mentioned that the Kharkiv region is one of the leaders in the creation of new enterprises, and in 2012 alone, their number increased by 17%. He promised his support for all initiatives of the meeting participants in the implementation of this program. Working session of the Khmelnytskyi The event participants discussed the implementation of the Local Government Regional Advisory Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” and the Board budget sufficiency of local governments. 45 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
city of Khmelnytskyi Based on the discussions of the first item on the agenda, they February 22, 2013 made a decision to task rayon state administrations with the organisation of a number of thematic training workshops for city and town mayors and senior officials of local councils to explain problem issues in the implementation the provisions of this Law. Based on the discussions of the second item on the agenda, the participants made a decision in the context of the poor material and financial support for local governments to charge the Department for Joint Ownership of Territorial Communities and Economic Development of the Oblast Council with developing and submitting for approval by the Oblast Council of the draft oblast program to support local governments and to ask local governments to submit their proposals to the above-mentioned program. The rayon councils and rayon state administrations were also tasked to prepare recommendations for local governments in the oblast about how to find additional sources of local budget revenues. Working session of the Kirovohrad The event participants discussed issues related to the urban Local Government Regional Advisory improvements of territories in the Kirovohrad oblast and Board about the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Citizen city of Kirovohrad Self-Organisation Bodies”. March 20, 2013 Following the discussions of the first item on the agenda, the participants made a decision to recommend local governments to do the following by May 01, 2013: - finalise the plans for the implementation of works for urban improvements in populated areas and conduct the corresponding meetings with companies, institutions and organisations (the entities keeping urban improvement items on their books) to discuss urban improvements activities in 2013; - prepare the appropriate cost estimates to determine the location and technical and economic justifications of construction projects, expansion, and reconstruction of waste management facilities; - develop and submit for approval by the corresponding local councils the draft Procedure for attracting, calculating and using cost-share contributions from developers for the development of the infrastructure of the populated area. As far as the second item on the agenda is concerned, the participants made a decision to recommend village, town and city councils to make their territorial communities familiar about the main areas of activities of citizen self-organisation bodies and promote setting up such entities to facilitate community management. The meeting participants also raised the issue of activities of the regional investment agency. Following the presentation of the agency director, the participants made a decision of set up a unified informational web-portal to enable all mayors of territorial communities to place their investment proposals. Working session of the Donetsk Local The event participants discussed the issues related to the Government Regional Advisory Board implementation of the local government authority in the area 46 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
city of Donetsk of land relations. The mayors expressed their greatest concern March 27, 2013 about the consequences of the implementation of the Law of Ukraine # 5462-VI of October 16, 2012 “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation Concerning the Delineation of Boundaries between State-Owned and Communally-Owned Lands”. This Law stipulates that the boundaries between state-owned and communally-owned lands will be considered to have been delineated as of January 01, 2013. IN other words, the right to ownership of land plots will come into force after the state registration of the ownership right to the corresponding land plot. However, due to the lack of funds in local budgets, the transfer of land plots have been completely blocked since the beginning of this year, thus leading to violations of rights of citizens and legal persons, under- collected revenues from land fees and land sales proceeds to local budgets. Taking this into consideration, the working session participants approved the text of the Appeal to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to assist in resolving this problem issue. Also, based on the discussions at the meeting, the Chairman of the Oblast Council gave an instruction to the management of the Oblast Department of the State Committee for Land Resources and to the Department for Urban Development and Architecture of the Oblast State Administration to prepare by May 01, 2013 the proposals on how to resolve problem issues in the land management sector and to initiate their discussion by ad-hoc committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Selection of issues to be discussed at working meetings of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards in 2012-2013
The Project did not conduct activities under this component in the reporting period.
Activity 2.2.3. Establishing formal and regular coordination mechanisms with other USAID supported activities and other donor organizations
Forum of Donor Organisations
The Project did not conduct activities under this component in the reporting period.
Cooperation with other USAID projects and projects supported by other donor organisations
On February 20, 2013, Oleksandr Slobozhan, DIALOGUE Project expert, took part in the work of the focus group of representatives of rayon significance cities to develop indicators for the Automated Municipal Statistics System (AMSS) within the framework of the Municipal Local Economic Development Project, a joint project of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and AUC implemented with the financial support from the Canadian Government provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
On February 26, 2013, the DIALOGUE Project conducted a meeting with representatives of the Increasing the Quality of Municipal Services Project, a German project of the GIZ. The participants discussed the areas of the potential inter-municipal cooperation. Project experts having worked in Ukrainian regions realised that the legal framework in Ukraine provides enough opportunities for the inter-municipal cooperation. At the same time, in their opinion, 47 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
there is a need to develop the corresponding methodological recommendations for local governments.
On March 05-06, DIALOGUE Project coordinators made a presentation of their project at the Information Fair – 2013 held in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The sixth traditional presentation fair of resources of organisations providing technical, expert and consultative assistance to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was organized by the Parliamentary Development Project II and USAID. During the event the AUC disseminated DIALOGUE Project publications, such as: the AUC Herald, Sectoral Monitoring, Status of Local Self-Governance in Ukraine in 2011 and 2012, and Project presentation brochures.
On March 15-16, 2013, Vyacheslav Zubenko, Director General of the Institute fir Budget and Socio Economic Research (IBSER), which implements the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative with the support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), took part in the working session of the Association of Ukrainian City Finance Officers in Dnipropetrovsk. The event was conducted by the AUC within the framework of the implementation of the DIALOGUE Project. The purpose of the event was to identify way to strengthen the financial foundations of local self-governance; discuss the draft laws to amend the budget and tax legislation; and, to prepare proposals to amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the National Budget of Ukraine for 2013” based on the outcomes of the 1st quarter of 2013.
On March 27, 2013, Oleksandr Slobozhan, DIALOGUE Project expert took part in the final conference of the Council of Europe Strengthening Local Democracy and Support for Local Government Reforms in Ukraine Project. The purpose of the event was to sum up and discuss the project deliverables and review the current issues and prospects for the development of local self-governance, as well as to identify the areas for the future cooperation between Ukraine and the Council of Europe in the sector of local democracy.
48 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
2.3. Component 3: Fostering Public Support for Reform
Activity 2.3.1. Implementation of the integrated Communication and Branding Strategy of the AUC
The DIALOGUE Project has been working on the implementation of its Branding Strategy, which is a component of the AUC information policy. A standard legend and logo are placed on all Project media materials, such as the AUC Newsletter, press releases, presentations, and AUC web-site.
Activity 2.3.2. Integration of communications into day-to-day operations of the AUC
Members of the AUC Professional Groups and the AUC Analytical Center keep submitting the information about their activities and Project events to the Information Center. Such updates serve as the key information for PR managers to prepare their information products for AUC web-site and Project publications. Thus, the AUC uses its web-site to disseminate information about the participation of Project experts in the work of parliamentary committees, outcomes of this work, and AUC position. The information articles published on the Project web-site, in their turn, serve as the basic information for the Press news the Information Groups sends on a weekly basis to the interested journalists. Similarly, the Project prepares information for the AUC Newsletter (DIALOGUE Section) and the DIALOGUE English version electronic publication.
Activity 2.3.3. Production and dissemination of tools for message delivery
DIALOGUE Project AUC web-site
The Internet resources of the DIALOGUE Project are accessible for users at www.dialogueauc.org.ua. The purpose of the Project web-site in the Internet is to serve as a platform for dialogue to promote local government development, improve its legislative framework, exchange managerial experience, as well as to provide timely and high-quality expert information about important local government events and Project achievements in this area. The web site and the information it places targets a wide audience of citizens who are interested in local government issues, representatives of international technical assistance projects and organisations, expert community, and media.
The Project web site has been operational since March 01, 2011. The number of its visitors is constantly growing. In March of 2011, there were 680 visitors, whereas the indicators for the reporting period are the following:
January - 1424 February - 1370 March - 1420
Also, with the purpose of popularising the Project activities, its outcomes and deliverables, the Association has set up its account of the Association in the Facebook.
Electronic and printed media
Information about Project publications is presented below:
Publication Targeted audience Description The “Sectoral State executive agencies, Features the publications on: Monitoring” printed expert community - the draft Concept for Local Government 49 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
quarterly publication Reform of the Presidential Administration in the context of the implementation of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self- Governance; - areas of activities on the draft new law on local elections to reflect the survey of city councils; - problem issues related to the preparation and availability of urban developments; - preparation of main directions of the budget policy for 2013 and local government issues; - the National Action Plan for 2013 and local government issues; - problem issues related to the state registration of property rights; and, - news about the legislation framework for the social sector activities at the local level. The “AUC Herald” AUC member # 93, January. The DIALOGUE Chapter features printed monthly communities, AUC a story about the meeting in the Ministry of publication partner organisations Regional Development and signing of the Memorandum between the AUC and the Ministry of Regional Development. # 94, February. The DIALOGUE Chapter features the materials about the proposals of the National Congress of Local Self-Governance to the Main Directions of the Budget Policy for 2014. # 95, March. The DIALOGUE Chapter features the material about the draft laws prepared by the DIALOGUE Project and the establishment of the parliamentary group to support local self- governance. The “DIALOGUE International The English-language publication presents Newsletter” electronic organisations and Project activities over a month and provides monthly publication international technical monthly highlights in detail: assistance projects # 29, monthly highlight – Dialogue with the Ministry of Regional Development institutionalised. # 30, monthly highlight – proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers about the main directions of the budget policy provided. # 31, monthly highlight – AUC addressed the National Deputies to establish a group to support local self-governance. The “Legal Local government In March, the AUC City Legal Assistance Center Counselling” electronic lawyers prepared and disseminated Issue # 11 of the quarterly publication “Legal Counselling”. The publication featured: 1) recommendations of the State Registration Service of Ukraine on key issues of the state registration of property rights and the related activities; 2) generalised responses (clarifications) of certain questions the Project received through the mobile telephone line (8). The publication was sent to regional offices and local government lawyers. The “Legislation Local government #27, January News” electronic lawyers features the information about 25 legal and
50 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
publication regulatory documents related to local government interests either approved or taken effect and four draft laws under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or its committees, or by central agencies of the state executive. #28, February features the information about 19 legal and regulatory documents related to local government interests either approved or taken effect and five draft laws under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or its committees, or by central agencies of the state executive. #29, March features the information about 21 legal and regulatory documents related to local government interests either approved or taken effect and three draft laws under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or its committees, or by central agencies of the state executive. The “Press News” Media A selection of weekly news, publications, and electronic weekly announcements of major activities of the publication Association of Ukrainian Cities, news and events in cities, and key local government topics. Thirteen issues were prepared and published. The Press News is distributed to 230 media representatives, journalists and press offices of city councils. The mailing list is being constantly updated. Short local government USAID The Project prepares and sends the publication to updates USAID on a weekly basis. The information is presented in two sections: DIALOGUE Project News and Local Government News. Thirteen issues were prepared and sent.
Radio coverage
The Project prepared ten radio programs with comments and interviews of AUC experts, references to the AUC activities mentioned in the news by radio stations, and live interviews of the AUC leadership. In particular, the radio programs were aired by the following radio stations:
- Ukrainian Radio – a news report about the appeal of the Union of Local council Secretaries to the Prime Minister about the budget sufficiency of territorial communities in 2013 (January 23, 2013 at 19:00 and 22:00); - Radio Era FM – an interview of O. Slobozhan in the live Rodeo Program about the problem issues related to the budget sufficiency of territorial communities and wage arrears for employees in the public sector (January 26, 2013); - Zhytomyr Oblast Radio – mentioning of the working session of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board in the news section (January 24, 2013); - Radio ©ɀɢɬɨɦɢɪɫɶɤɚɯɜɢɥɹª >Zhytomyr wave] – mentioning of the working session of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board in the news section (January 24, 2013); - Radio Era FM – an interview of M. Pittsyk, Executive Director of the AUC in the live ©Ɉɛɿɞɧɹ ɩɟɪɟɪɜɚª >lunch break] program about local budgets, housing and utility services and tariffs for such services, and about the draft Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Governance in Ukraine” (concerning openness and transparency) (January 30, 2013);
51 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
- Radio Era FM – live telephone interview with O. Slobozhan, Project expert, in the ©ȼɥɚɫɧɢɣ ɩɨɝɥɹɞª >own view] program about the financial support to the communally-owned road network (February 11, 2013); - Radio ©Ʉɪɢɜɨɪɿɠɠɹª >Kryvyi Rih region] – news about the working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group (February 12, 2013); - Ukrainian National Radio – an interview of Ya. Raboshuk, Project expert, in the live ©ȼɿɞɤɪɢɬɚɫɬɭɞɿɹª >open studio] program about the centralised and autonomous heating and the choice of cities (February 18, 2013); - Radio Era FM – an interview of Ya. Raboshuk, Project expert, in the live ©Ɉɛɿɞɧɹɩɟɪɟɪɜɚª program about tariffs for housing and utility services (February 22, 2013); and, - Radio Era FM – an interview of Ya. Raboshuk, 3URMHFWH[SHUWLQWKHOLYH©Ɉɛɿɞɧɹɩɟɪɟɪɜɚª program about the current status and prospect for reforming the housing and utilities sector (March 18, 2013).
TV coverage
Project activities were covered by thirty-four TV programs aired on the following channels:
- ©ɇɨɜɢɧɢ ª >news 24] TV Channel – an interview of O. Slobozhan, Project expert in the story about the National Budget for 2013 in the context of local budgets and inter-budget relations (January 09, 2013); - ©Ʉɢʀɜª TV Channel – a story in the news section about the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the AUC and the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction. (January 17, 2013); - ©ɄɢʀɜªTV Channel – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries and their appeal to the Prime Minister about the budget sufficiency of territorial communities in 2013 (January 23, 2013); - bank TV network ©ȻɌȻª TV Channel) – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries (January 23, 2013); - Kyiv State Regional TV and Radio Company – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries (January 23, 2013); - ©ɇɨɜɢɧɢªTV Channel – a story in the news section about the appeal of the AUC Union of Local Council Secretaries to the Prime Minister about the budget sufficiency of territorial communities in 2013 (January 23, 2013); - Channel 5 TV Channel – mentioning of the AUC in the ©ɑɚɫ ɉɿɞɫɭɦɤɢɞɧɹª >time, summary of the week] program (January 23, 2013); - Zhytomyr Oblast TV Channel – a story in the news section about the working session of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board (January 24, 2013); - ©ɊɭɞɚɧɚªTV Channel (Kryvyi Rih) – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group (February 12, 2013); - ©Ʉɪɢɜɨɪɿɠɠɹª >Kryvyi Rih region] TV Channel – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group (February 12, 2013); - ©Ɋɚɞɚª >council] TV Channel – participation of M. Pittsyk, AUC Executive Director, in the ©ȼɥɚɫɧɢɣ ɩɨɝɥɹɞª >own viewpoint] program about the legal regulation of issues of local importance (February 14, 2013, with the repeated airing on February 15, 2013); - ©Ɋɚɞɚª TV Channel – participation of V. Parkhomenko, Director of the AUC Analytical Center in the ©ȼɥɚɫɧɢɣɩɨɝɥɹɞª program about the necessity to provide approving the legislation to regulate the legal status of the city of Kyiv (February 15, 2013); - Volyn Oblast TV Channel – a story in the news section about the working session of the AUC Social Protection Professional Group (February 21, 2013); - ©ɊɌɋª TV Channel (Sumy Oblast TVRC) – DVWRU\LQWKH©ɇɚɱɚɫɿª>high time] news section about the working sessions of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group (March 01, 2013); 52 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
- ©Ʉɢʀɜª TV Channel – a story in the news section about the expanded meeting of the AUC Board about the establishment of the parliamentary local government support group to lobby draft laws developed within the framework of the Project (March 14, 2013); - ©ɍɌɊª TV Channel – a story in the news section about the expanded meeting of the AUC Board about the approval of the draft Concept for Local Government Reform (March 14, 2013); - ©ɉɟɪɲɢɣɞɿɥɨɜɢɣª >first business channel] TV Channel – a story in the news section about the expanded meeting of the AUC Board about the establishment of the parliamentary local government support group to lobby draft laws developed within the framework of the Project (March 14, 2013); - ©ɉɟɪɲɢɣ ɞɿɥɨɜɢɣª TV Channel – an interview with O. Slobozhan, Project expert in the ©Ȼɿɡɧɟɫ-ɧɨɜɢɧɢª >business news] section about the main framework of the Concept for Local Government Reform (March 21, 2013); – ©ªTV Channel – an interview with Ya. Raboshuk, Project expert in the ©Ƚɪɨɲɿª >money] program about the current status of the housing and utilities sector in Ukraine (March 25, 2013).
©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª79SURJUDPVHULHV
Working within the framework of the DIALOGUE Project, the AUC has been cooperating with the ESG Communication Group to prepare a series of TV programs about local self-governance FDOOHG©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɚɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª>CITY-minded Ukraine@7KHSURJUDPVDUHDLUHGE\WKHɍɌ-1 TV Channel on Wednesdays within the framework of the ©Ⱦɿɥɨɜɢɣɫɜɿɬª>business world] program.
Aiming at better coverage of local government problem issues in all technical areas of their DFWLYLWLHVLQWKH3URMHFWXSGDWHGWKHFRQFHSWRIWKH©ɡɆȱɋɌɈɜɧɨʀɍɤɪɚʀɧɢª793URJUDP series to include two sections:
Format #1: “A Program about the City”. The Program consists of two parts: - a 3-4-munite story (presentation of experience and innovative approaches of the city government towards resolving problem issues the community faces and presentation of AUC activities within the framework of the Project). - a 7-9-minute discussion with the guest of the program: discussion of key local government issues with the mayor of the city.
Format #2: “A Program about Project Activities”. The Program consists of three parts: - 2.5-3-minute story about activities within the framework of the Project (working session of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards, AUC Professional Groups, Dialogue Day, etc.) The main topic of the Program covers the dialogue between local governments and representatives of the oblast council/oblast state administration/state executive agency about how to resolve specific problem issues. - 4-minute interview with Guest #1 (representative of the oblast council, National deputy, etc.) on a given key issue. - 4-minute interview with Guest #2 (mayor of the city who is the head of the local AUC RO, AUC expert, etc.) on a given key topic.
On February 20, the Project started the sixth series of the Program including six stories broadcast on TV.
Working session of the AUC Health Care Professional Group (city of Kryvyi Rih), February 20 The information in the TV story covered the implementation of the reform in the health care system in Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk oblast), which is one of the oblasts to pilot this experience. The participants of the Professional Group who were represented by heads of city departments of health care discussed the outcomes of the experiment. They also became familiar with the city experience in establishing general practice family medicine out-patient centers, 53 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
ways to resolve employment issues for medical staff, etc. N. Sevalnyeva, Head of the Zaporizzhya City Department of Health Care, and O. Svitlovskyi, Head of the Kryvyi Rih City Department of Health Care took part in the program. In their interview, O. Svitlovskyi provided details and aspects of the reform in the system, whereas N. Sevalnyeva pointed her attention to best practices in resolving key problem issues and how to avoid them in the course of the implementation of the reform in other cities.
Working session of the Chernihiv Oblast Local Government Advisory Board (city of Chernihiv), February 27 The program described how the Chernihiv Oblast Local Government Advisory Board helped to resolve problem issues related to the financial support to territorial communities in the region in 2013. The city and town mayors who attended the meting noted the overly centralisation of the budget system and stressed the necessity of the bottom-up local budgeting. P. Shymko, Mayor of Bakmach, O. Buzun, Chairman of the Nizhyn Rayon Council, and V. Ponomarenko, Chairman of the Kozelets Rayon Council took part in the program. The main guests of the program, such as A. Melnyk, Chairman of the Oblast Council and O. Sokolov, Head of the Chernihiv AUC RO and Mayor of Chernihiv, spoke in detail about budget issues of budget support for territorial communities and ways to resolve them, use of budget funds, and alternative sources of local budget revenues.
Working session of the AUC Social Protection Professional Group (city of Lutsk), March 06 The TV story covered key problem issues in the social sector and ways to resolve them. In particular, it described the necessity of switching over to the monetised social preferences system, as the introduction of the targeted personalised assistance will allow to cut local budget expenditures and to improve the financial conditions of the companies, which provide services to privileged users. The program also provided comments of heads of departments of social protection from the Cherkasy, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsya City Councils. In their interview, L. Boyaryn, Head of the Lutsk City Department for Social Policy, and L. Danylenko, Head of the Boryspil City Department for Social Protection, spoke in detail about ways to improve the quality of social protection and mentioned about the role of the AUC in establishing an effective communication between cities for experience exchange.
Working session of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group (city of Sumy), March 13 The program was dedicated to the working session of the AUC Housing and Utilities Professional Group where head of the corresponding city technical departments together with P. Ihnatenko, Director of the Department for Urban Improvements and Utility Services of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities, discussed a number of key issues, in particular: road conditions, urban improvements management, abolishing of preferences for street lighting at night-time, and implementation of energy efficiency activities. The event participant also expressed their opinion about the draft laws currently in preparation by the Ministry of Regional Development. Ya. Kuts, Head of the Sumy Department of Housing and Utilities, and Ya. Raboshuk, DIALOGUE Project expert, were invited to take part in the interview. Ya. Kuts familiarised the TV audience with the approaches of the Sumy city government to resolve key problem issues in the housing and utilities sector, whereas Ya. Raboshuk spoke about the cooperation between the AUC with the line Ministry, in particular about the AUC concurrence of draft regulatory and legal documents.
Kakhovka (Kherson oblast), March 20 The main purpose for the program was to cover the efforts of the city of Kakhovka to improve the quality and accessibility of social services rendered to pensioners and vulnerable citizens. THE city government provided support to the establishment of the territorial center for social services where elderly citizens may use inexpensive barber’s services, get curative and preventive massage, etc. The city also supports the Center for Social Rehabilitation for Disabled 54 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
Children to promote the social adaptation and training support for children with special needs. The interview with O. Karasevych, Mayor of the city, touched upon the implementation of activities to improve public order enforcement, enabling investment promotion environment, employment opportunities for city residents, participation in local government development and support competitions, interacting with the oblast level authorities, and the AUC support in lobbying local government interests in central government authorities.
Teplodar, March 27 The main focus of the program was dedicated on the cooperation of the city government and the city community with the ȺȼɋChemical Industry Company. Such cooperation enabled the city to implement its priority programs. Over a short period of time, the company and the city made their contributions in the construction of a stadium and a children playground. L. Pecherskyi, Mayor of Teplodar, spoke about the fruitful cooperation with the business community, effective dialogue with central government authorities at the regional level, tangible outcomes of the implementation of energy efficiency programs, priorities of the city development and the key role of the AUC in establishing a dialogue with the top country leadership.
Activity 2.3.4. Fostering media relations
Setting up a team of AUC speakers
The composition of the team of AUC speakers was updated. N. Dzhuhan, who resigned from the position of the Head of the Department for Budget Policy of the Cherkasy City Councils, was removed from the team membership. The AUC web site provides the updated list of experts (see the table below), as well as contacts for the PR Coordinator to contact with AUC speakers.
The team of AUC speakers who are authorised to present the position of the Association and provide explanations on decisions and documents approved by the AUC in the following areas:
Name Position Current status and issues of local self-governance in Ukraine. AUC dialogue with central government agencies Yu. H. Vilkul AUC President, Kryvyi Rih City Mayor Myroslav V. Pittsyk AUC Executive Vice President, DIALOGUE Project Senior Expert on Inter-Governmental Relations Legal support to local government activities, AUC initiatives Myroslav V. Pittsyk AUC Executive Vice President, DIALOGUE Senior Expert on Inter-Governmental Relations Victor V. Kravchenko Legal Assistance Center Director, AUC Victoria V. Sydorenko DIALOGUE Project Senior Legal Expert Volodymyr H. Parkhomenko DIALOGUE Project Analytical Center Director Local elections Victor V. Kravchenko AUC Legal Assistance Center Director Local budget and finance Serhiy O. Odarych AUC Vice President On Budget Policy, Cherkasy City Mayor Tetyana D. Taukesheva President of City Finance Officer Association (CFOA), Deputy Kharkiv City Mayor, Director of the City Department for Budget and Finance Oleksandr V. Slobodzhan DIALOGUE Project Legislation Monitoring Expert Housing and Utilities, city economy and infrastructure Victor O. Antonenko Deputy DIALOGUE City Legal Assistance Center
55 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Director, AUC Volodymyr B. Groisman AUC Vice President on Housing and Utilities, Vinnytsya City Mayor Serhiy O. Odarych AUC Vice President On Budget Policy, Cherkasy City Mayor Hennadiy A. Kernes AUC Vice President on Energy Efficiency, Kharkiv City Mayor Big and medium-sized city issues Oleksandr O. Lukianchenko AUC Vice President on Big Cities, Donetsk City Mayor Ivan I. Kulichenko AUC Vice President, Dnipropetrovsk City Mayor Anatoliy S. Fedorchuk AUC Vice President on Medium-Sized Cities, Boryspil City Mayor, Kyiv oblast Pavlo H. Kozyryev AUC Vice President on Small Cities, Ukrainka City Mayor Volodymyr P. Udovychenko AUC Board Member, Slavutych City Mayor Innovation development, introduction of effective management technologies Volodymyr B. Groisman AUC Vice President on Housing and utilities, Vinnytsya City Mayor Anatoliy S. Fedorchuk AUC Vice President on Medium-Sized Cities, Boryspil City Mayor, Kyiv oblast Land relations Yaroslav O. Raboshuk DIALOGUE Project Analyst
Implementation of mechanisms for regular communication between local governments and media
Working session of the National Press Club
The working sessions of the National Press Clubs are held four times a year following the meetings of the Presidium of the AUC Board, AUC Board, All-Member Meetings of the AUC, or other events.
Topic: “Problem issues related The meeting of the National Press Club was held following to the financial support of the working session of the AUC Union of Local council territorial communities in 2013” Secretaries, which was dedicated to problem issues local budgets face in 2013. In her address to the journalists, H. Date: January 23, 2013 Hereha mentioned that local budgets in 2013 can be called the Location: city of Kyiv “survival budgets”. Almost all local councils face the problem Participants from the AUC: with local budget shortfalls. In her comments of the situation in Kyiv, H. Hereha mentioned that the city may not have H. Hereha, Chairman of the enough funds to support their expenditures on earmarked AUC Union of Local Council budget line items. Each individual city can engage in a Secretaries, Secretary of the dialogue with the Cabinet of Ministers to get subventions or Kyiv City Council, M. Pittsyk, subsidies, however only the consolidated voice of local AUC Executive Director, O. governments may help them to resolve this situation, - Slobozhan, DIALOGUE Project stressed the Chairman of the Union of Local Council Legislation Monitoring Expert Secretaries. Participants from the media In his response to the questions from the journalists on local and expert community: budget indicators for 2013, O. Slobozhan emphasized that the National Budget for 2013 is no different from the National
56 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
The ©Ʉɢʀɜª©ɇɨɜɢɧɢª >news Budget for 2012. In other words, similarly to the previous 24]©Ⱦɧɿ-ɩɪɨª©ȻɌȻªand year, the amount of local budget resources to support the ©ɄȾɊɌɊɄª TV Channels; implementation of the delegated authority was not calculated ©ɍɇȱȺɇª©ɍɇɇªand ©ɊȻɄ- based on social standards and norms. In addition to this, there ɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª News Agencies; was no proper financial support for the housing and utilities ©ɍɪɹɞɨɜɢɣɤɭɪ¶ɽɪª >government sector and national targeted programs including, first of all, courier]©ɏɪɟɳɚɬɢɤª the small city development program. According to the AUC view], ©ȽɚɡɟɬɚXDª©ɉɨɝɥɹɞª > calculations, the National Budget for the current year and ©Ⱦɧɿɩɪɨɜɫɶɤɢɣɩɪɨɫɩɟɤɬª >Dnipro avenue] newspapers; and envisions only 79 % of the needed funds to support the WKH©ɍɤɪɚʀɧɫɶɤɟɪɚɞɿɨª and implementation of the authority delegated to local ©ȼɟɱɟɪɧɢɟɜɟɫɬɢª>evening news] governments by the central government. In other words, the radio stations shortfall of financial resources constitutes almost 30 billion ______UAH. O. Slobozhan emphasised that there is a threat to have the situation similar to the previous year when local councils Mentioning in media after the had no money to pay salaries to employees in the public sector event: and to pay their utility and energy bills. The Project expert also pointed the attention of media representatives on a TV stories aired by the ©Ʉɢʀɜª considerable reduction, as compared with the previous year, ©ɇɨɜɢɧɢª©Ⱦɧɿ-ɩɪɨª, and of funds for the social and economic development of ©ɄȾɊɌɊɄª DQG©ȻɌȻª79 territories allocated by 2.8 billion UAH. 60% of the funds, Channels; news reports by the which were already allocated, will go to the Donetsk and ©ɍɇȱȺɇª ©ɍɇɇª©ɊȻɄ- Luhansk oblasts, whereas the city of Kyiv will receive only ɍɤɪɚʀɧɚª©Ƚɥɚɜɤɨɦªand 0.8% and the Vinnytsya oblast will get only 2%, - he stressed.
©ɍɤɪɚʀɧɚɤɨɦɭɧɚɥɶɧɚª Media representatives were informed about appeal to the >communal Ukraine] News Prime Minister of Ukraine to revisit local budget indicators Agencies; in the ©ɍɪɹɞɨɜɢɣ st ɤɭɪ¶ɽɪª©ɏɪɟɳɚɬɢɤª for 2013 based on the outcomes of the 1 quarter the ©ȽɚɡɟɬɚXDª©ɉɨɝɥɹɞªand participants of the meeting approved. ©Ⱦɧɿɩɪɨɜɫɶɤɢɣɩɪɨɫɩɟɤɬª In his comments about the prospects of amendments to the newspapers, by the ©ɍɤɪɚʀɧɫɶɤɟ National Budget of Ukraine for 2013, M. Pittsyk mentioned ɪɚɞɿɨª Radio Station, etc. that there are currently signals that local government problem issues can be heard. In particular, he mentioned that a local government support group will soon be established in the parliament to lobby for the local government interests. The group membership will include 30 National Deputies who used to work for local governments. Ye. Kartashov, former mayor of Zaporizzhya, will serve as the head of the group. He also pointed the attention of the journalists to the fact that representatives of the Association of Ukrainian Cities resumed their participation in working sessions of the cabinet of Ministers. According to m. Pittsyk, all such steps will promote the resolution of budget issues local governments face.
Working sessions of the Straight from the Source regional press-clubs
Working sessions of the regional press clubs are held in AUC Regional Offices twice a year based upon the outcomes meetings of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards.
Working session of the Zhytomyr Regional Press Club
Topic: “Reform of medical The meeting of the press club following the working session of services in Ukraine. the Zhytomyr Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Implementation of the Board was dedicated to the discussion of the ways to optimise 57 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
ambulance system reform” the network of establishments for primary medical and sanitary assistance and the reform of the ambulance system. Date: January 24, 2013 Yo. Zapalovskyi briefly told the media representatives about Participants: Yo. Zapalovskyi, the events preceding the changes in the system of health care Chairman of the Local in the oblast and emphasised that the reform of the health care Government Regional Advisory system has a direct impact on the each territorial community Board and Chairman of the and increases the responsibility of local government Oblast Council, O. Torbas, Head institutions, as well as of village, town and city mayors, of the Department of Health Care council members for its effective implementation. of the Zhytomyr Oblast State Administration, Yu. Merzlov, O. Torbas mentioned that the reform of the health care system Policy Dialogue Coordinator of envisions, in particular the following: establishing centers for the Zhytomyr AUC RO preliminary medical and sanitary assistance, opening general practice family medicine out-patient centers, inventory of Media representatives: equipment in hospitals in cities and rayons, and establishing The ©ɋɨɸɡ-Ɍȼª=K\WRP\U inter-rayon maternity hospitals belonging to the secondary Oblast State TV and Radio level of medical assistance establishments. Company and ©ɐ-Ɍȼª TV As of January 01, the oblast opened the Center for Emergency Company; Oblast Radio and Medical Assistance and Medicine of Accidents, - he said to the ©ɄɊɈɄ-ɪɚɞɿɨªradio stations; journalists. The establishment of centers for medical and the ©ɉɭɥɶɫ-ɧɨɪɦɚª and sanitary assistance in cities and rayons is currently underway. ©ɀɢɬɨɦɢɪɳɢɧɚª >Zhytomyr The only dispatcher system in the city of Zhytomyr to support region] newspapers, the ©ȼɿɫɧɢɤ the ambulance services is under construction at the moment. ɨɛɥɚɫɧɨʀɪɚɞɢª >oblast council He also mentioned such problems as outdated fleet of herald] web-site ambulance vehicles and poor road conditions. Yu. Merzlov informed the journalists that according to the
decision of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board, they will prepare a regional plan for the construction and repair
of roads, which are of critical importance to ensuring the proper performance of the emergency medical assistance
system.
Working session of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Press Club
Topic: “Budget for 2013”. The meeting of the press club was conducted following the Inter-budget relations and working session of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Local local budgeting Government Regional Advisory Board. In his response to the questions from the journalists, Yu. Date: February 08, 2013 Vilkul emphasized that the financial support for territorial Participants: communities this year represents a very important topic, Yu. Vilkul, deputy Chairman of because the National Budget for 2013 was approved without the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Local the due regard to the proposals of cities and this is a violation Government Regional Advisory, of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “ON Local Mayor of Kryvyi Rih and Government Associations” and of the Budget Code of President of AUC, Ukraine. The expenditure indicators of local budgets were not S. Kvitka, Executive Director of the Dnipropetrovsk AUC RO discussed with local governments and with the Association of Ukrainian Cities. Media representatives: He also stressed that the national level government authorities « ɤɚɧɚɥ ª2EODVW79DQG need to expedite the resolution of problem issues related to the Radio Company; the ©ɤɚɧɚɥª overestimated local budget revenues. Such revenues were ©ɤɚɧɚɥª©ɤɚɧɚɥªand calculated based of the previous year indicators without taking ©ɆɌɆªTV Channels; ©Ƚɪɨɲɿª into consideration the real situation with the shortage of >money]©Ⱦɧɟɩɪɿɧɮɨª >Dnipro resources to implement the authority delegated by the state and news], and ©Ⱦɧɟɩɪɨɩɟɬɪɨɜɫɤ were approved in the context of the absence of standards for 58 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
ɫɨɛɵɬɢɹɮɚɤɬɵ services to be provided by public sector institutions. ɤɨɦɦɟɧɬɚɪɦɦª Yu. Vilkul pointed the attention of the media representatives to >Dnipropetrovsk: events, facts, the considerable reduction of revenues to local budget of the comments] news agencies; ©ȼ cities of Pavlohrad, Novomoskovsk, Pershotravensk, ɝɨɪɨɞɟª >in the city]©ɇɚɲɟ Marhanets, Ternivka. This happed due to the great reduction of our city], ɦɿɫɬɨª > structural units and employees at big industrial companies in ©Ʉɨɦɫɨɦɨɥɶɫɤɚɹɩɪɚɜɞɚɜ ɍɤɪɚɢɧɟª ©Ⱦɧɟɩɪɜɟɱɟɪɧɢɣª these cities. >evening Dnipro]©Ɂɨɪɹª >star], The AUC President also spoke about problems with the ©,16,'(ªand ©Ƚɨɪɨɠɚɧɢɧª Treasury Administration of local budgets the government >citizen] newspapers; and the failed to resolve. The funds of most of city budget, which had ©Ƚɪɚɧɿª >aspects] and to be used for payments for works and services in the area of ©Ɂɚɩɨɪɿɡɶɤɚɩɪɚɜɞɚª urban improvements and the housing and utilities sector, >Zaporizzhya truth] newspapers remained blocked.
Working session of the Chernihiv Regional Press Club
Topic: “Local Budgeting in The meeting of the press club was conducted following the 2013” working session of the Chernihiv Oblast Local Government Regional Advisory Board. Date: February 12, 2013 A. Melnyk pointed the attention of the media representatives to Participants: the fact that local governments currently are mostly concerned A. Melnnyk, Chairman of the about the insufficient financial resources for the Chernihiv Oblast Local implementation of the authority delegated by the state. Under Government regional Advisory such conditions it will be very difficult for them to ensure the Board and Chairman of the proper performance of public sector institutions. This is why it Oblast Council: O. Sokolov, is so important to revisit the provisions of the Budget Code Head of the Chernihiv AUC RO and Mayor of Chernihiv; A. establishing the formula for calculating the funds to support Bondarenko, Mayor of Baturyn; the sectors of public education and health care. The Chernihiv P. Zhymko, Mayor of region is known for its numerous small populated areas and, Bakhmach; V. Kosykh, Policy correspondingly, the network of educational and health care Dialogue Coordinator of the institutions is very dense with schools attended by fewer Chernihiv AUC RO schoolchildren. Speaking about the level of budget sufficiency of territorial communities in the oblast in 2013, A. Melnyk mentioned that Media representatives: 96% of the budget is composed of the earmarked expenditures, the ©ɋɥɨɛɿɞɫɶɤɢɣɤɪɚɣª thus giving very little room for the development budget. >Sloboda land] newspaper; oblast Therefore, local governments increasing support the necessity radio station; the ɋɬɚɬɭɫɤɜɨ of changes approaches to budgeting. ȺɌȼɄ ɏɚɪɤɿɜɫɶɤɿɧɨɜɢɧɢ >Kharkiv news] and ©ɏɚɪɤɿɜɫɶɤɿ O. Sokolov told the journalists that the budget of Chernihiv for ɜɿɫɬɿª News Agencies; and the 2013 in comparison with the budget for 2012 is somewhat ©Ɏɨɪɚª and ©ȼɟɱɿɪɧɿɣɏɚɪɤɿɜª better in the sense of paying salaries to the employees in the >evening Kharkiv] newspapers public sector. Nevertheless, the sector is underfinanced and the debt constitutes two months (about 65.6 million UAH). The structure of the city budget includes 70% of salaries and compensations, 23% – payments for energy bills, with only 7% left for the proper functioning of the city. V. Kosykh informed the media about the decision of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board to approve and submit to the country leadership a number of appeals.
Working session of the Volyn Regional Press Club 59 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Topic: “Updating urban I. Samoilenko told the journalists that the working session of development documents in the the Local Government Regional Advisory Board on February Volyn oblast” 08 discussed issues related to updating urban development documents. In particular, they talked about the ban, as of Date: February 12, 2013 January 01, 2013, to transfer land plots from state and Participants: communal ownership to the ownership or use of physical or A. Pivnyuk, Deputy Mayor of legal persons for urban development purposes in case the cities Lyuboml, Yu. Kazmiruk, Head do not have a zoning plan or detailed territorial outline map. of the Department for Urban Such a provision has been envisioned by the Law of Ukraine Development and Architecture of “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities”. The the Lutsk City Council, I. legislation also prohibits changing the designation of the land Smoilenko, Executive Director of the Volyn AUC RO plot, which does not correspond to the zoning plan of the territory and/or detailed territorial outline amp. Absence of Media representatives: such urban development documents and the ban represents a barrier for investments for developing city territories. Volyn Oblast State TV and Yu. Kasmiruk mentioned that the Master Plan for the Radio Company; Development of the City of Lutsk was approved in 2009. The Volyn-1RYD>new Volyn] Besides, the Lutsk City Council has already requested the newspaper; the ©ȼȱɉª preparation of the zoning plans for territories in the city. ©ȼɨɥɢɧɫɶɤɿɧɨɜɢɧɢª >Volyn A. Pivnyuk stressed that Lyuboml, as well as other cities, faces news]©ȼɨɥɢɧɫɶɤɚɩɪɚɜɞɚª problem with the preparation of urban development documents >Volyn truth], and ©ȼɨɥɢɧɫɶɤɢɣ due to the lack of funds in the city budget. ɿɧɮɨɪɦɚɰɿɣɧɢɣɩɨɪɬɚɥª >Volyn information portal] web sites, the I. Samoilenko informed that the Association of Ukrainian ©ɋɿȾɎɆª Radio Station Cities was collecting information from its member-cities about the availability of urban development documents and about the prospects for its preparation during 2013. After the survey, the Association will consider whether it is worthwhile initiating at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the suspension of the ban on allocating land plots for urban development purposes.
Working session of the Poltava Regional Press Club
Topic: “Summarising the The working session of the press club was held based on the economic and social discussions of the Poltava Oblast Local Government regional development and budget Advisory Board. support for territorial I. Momot told the journalists about the outcomes of the communities in 2013” economic and social development of the oblast in 2012 and provided comments for the indicators over the last three years. Date: February 21, 2013 Almost all indicators of social ad economic development of the Poltava oblast have an upward trend. This was testified by Participants: the recent rating of the Ministry of Economic Development mayors of oblast and rayon and Trade, whereby the Poltava region ranks the fourth as significance cities, I. Momot, compared with other Ukrainian regions. The effective Head of the Poltava Oblast Local performance of the Poltava region economy was the key to the Government Regional Advisory stability in the budget sector. For three years already, the Board and Chairman of the Oblast Council, O. oblast demonstrates the highest growth rate for local budget Udovychenko, Head of the revenues. Such stable revenues were supported by the income Oblast State Administration tax proceeds. The cities of Komsomolsk and Kremenchuk are the local leaders in social and economic development. Media representatives: Mayors of cities in the Poltava oblast gave answers to all the the ©Ʌɬɚɜɚª TVRC; questions from the journalists about local budget indicators in the ©Ɇɿɫɬɨª >city] Studio; the 2013, the scope of the budget shortfall for the implementation 60 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
©Ɂɨɪɹɉɨɥɬɚɜɳɢɧɢª >Poltava of the authority delegated to local governments by the state, region star]©ɋɟɥɨɩɨɥɬɚɜɫɶɤɟª and about the projected collections from local taxes and fees. >Poltava region village], All the successes achieved for the benefit of territorial ©ȼɟɱɿɪɧɹɉɨɥɬɚɜɚª>evening communities in the oblast, as O. Udovychenko mentioned, Poltava], ©ɉɨɥɬɚɜɫɶɤɢɣ were secured by joining the activities of the state executive Poltava herald], and ɜɿɫɧɢɤª > authorities, local governments, business entities and all ©Ʉɨɥɨª >circle] newspapers; the ©ɉɨɥɬɚɜɳɢɧɚª >Poltava region] citizens. He expressed his belief that such unity and natural and ©ɇɨɜɢɧɢɉɨɥɬɚɜɳɢɧɢª support will be the key to the future fruitful activities. >Poltava region news] internet publications
Working session of the Kharkiv Regional Press Club
Topic: “Tax collections in The meeting of the press club was conducted based on the 2012 and strategic areas for discussions of the Kharkiv Oblast Local Government regional improving budget revenues in Advisory Board. 2013. The investment The event participants answered the questions form the potential of the oblast journalists about the collections of tax payments in 2012 on the economy” territory of the Kharkiv oblast, strategic activities to improve budget collections in 2013, as well as about the level of Date: February 21, 2013 investment attractiveness and competitiveness of the region. M. Dobkin mentioned that the activities of state executive Participants: agencies and local governments in the oblast in 2012 were H. Kernes, Kharkiv City Mayor, focused on securing the environment to increase the share of M. Dobkin, Chairman of the the foreign capital in the real sector of economy, in particular, Kharkiv Oblast Local in industry and agriculture. Based on the outcomes of 2012, Government Regional Advisory the oblast ranks the fourth by the amount of direct investments Board and Head of the Oblast State Administration, O. in the rating of Ukrainian regions. Klymenko, Minister of Revenues H. Kernes mentioned that the city of Kharkiv leads other and Collections of Ukraine oblast centers by the amount of foreign investments. Highly qualified engineering staff, high technology industry, and Media representatives: innovative approaches represent a solid foundation for the the ©ɋɥɨɛɿɞɫɶɤɢɣɤɪɚɣª future development of the city. >Sloboda region] newspaper; O. Klymenko gave his high appraisal of the potential of the Oblast Radio Station; the Kharkiv region in the area of innovative and investment ɋɬɚɬɭɫɤɜɨȺɌȼɄ development of economy and promised the great support from ɏɚɪɤɿɜɫɶɤɿɧɨɜɢɧɢ >Kharkiv the Cabinet of Ministers to all Kharkiv initiatives. In his news], and ©ɏɚɪɤɿɜɫɶɤɿɜɿɫɬɿª opinion, Ukraine should secure the environment to enable >Kharkiv news] News Agencies; none of investment attractive projects to be lost through the ©Ɏɨɪɚª TV Channel; and the ©ȼɟɱɿɪɧɿɣɏɚɪɤɿɜª >evening bureaucratic mechanisms or tax burden. He expressed his Kharkiv] newspaper belief in the dialogue as a tool for the effective future work.
Working session of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Press Club
Topic: “On the The meeting of the press club was conducted based on the implementation of the Law of discussions of the working session of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast Ukraine “On Access to Public local Government Regional Advisory Board. Information” by local N. Luzhnyak told the journalists about the problem issues local governments in the oblast” government face in the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”. She explained that the Date: February 22, 2013 difficulties local governments have are caused by technically
61 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Participants: outdated web-sites, absence of convenient mechanisms to find city and village mayors, V. and use local ordinances. Many villages, towns and even cities Osadchyi, Deputy Chairman of do not have their official web-pages, therefore they have to use the Khmelnytskyi Oblast the resources of rayon state administrations. All this causes Council, N. Luzhnyak, difficulties for citizens and leads to violations of the Consultant of the Department for legislation. Internal Policy, Administrative City mayors mentioned that improvements should be made to and Territorial Arrangement and Information Support of the those provisions of the law dealing with the definitions of the Executive Office of the Oblast terms of “confidential” and “corporate” information, Council identification of the mechanism for setting up systems to record the documents, preparation of answers to information Media representatives: requests, etc. A separate attention was given to inexpediency 7KHɉɨɞɿɥɥɹ-ɰɟɧɬɪ>Podillya of making draft local ordinances public 20 days before the region – center] Khmelnytskyi beginning of the local council session, because this makes the Oblast TVRC; mechanism more difficult and presents barriers for decision The Khmelnytskyi Oblast Radio making on issues that need to be resolved as the first priority. Station; the ɉɨɞɿɥɶɫɶɤɿɜɿɫɬɿ V. Osadchyi informed that based on the discussions at working >Podillya region news]©Ƚɨɥɨɫ session of the Local Government Advisory Board the voice of Ukraine], ɍɤɪɚʀɧɢª > participants made a decision to recommend rayon councils and ©ȼɫɿɦª >to all], and ©ɉɭɥɶɫª >pulse] newspapers rayon state administrations to organise training seminars for town and village mayors about the practical implementation of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public information”.
Working session of the Donetsk Regional Press Club
Topic: “Problem issues with The press club was conducted based on the discussions at the the implementation of the working session of the Donetsk Oblast Local Government authority of local Regional Advisory Board. governments in the area of A. Fedoruk informed the journalists that a number of land relations” substantial amendments to the land and urban development legislation caused a number of difficulties with the transition Date: March 27, 2013 to new forms and methods of managing land relations for local Participants: agencies of the state executive and logical governments. He A. Fedoruk, Chairman of the explained that changes in the system of registration property Donetsk Oblast Local rights to communally-owned land plots represents a substantial Government Regional Advisory barrier for registering property right and rights to rent land Board and Chairman of the plots by individuals. This is particularly true for smaller cities, Oblast Council, I. Koval, towns and villages, because local budgets do not enough funds Deputy Chairman of the Oblast Council, V. Kochuyev, Policy to pay for excerpts from the State Registry of Rights, whose Dialogue Coordinator of the price is 120 UAH. Obtaining the excerpt, however, is a Donetsk AUC RO prerequisite for performing the state registration of rights to communally-owned land plots. Media representatives: V. Kochuev mentioned that based on the discussions at the The ©ɀɢɡɧɶª >life], Local Government Regional Advisory Board, the participants ©Ⱦɨɧɟɱɱɢɧɚª >Donetsk region], made a decision to send their proposals and comments to the ©ȼɟɫɬɢȾɨɧɛɚɫɫɚª >Donetsk parliamentary Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land region news], and ©Ʌɭɱ- Relations and Committee on State-Building and Local Self- ȱɧɮɨɪɦª (city of Amvrosiyivka) Governance. newspapers; the «27-ɣɤɚɧɚɥª >27th channel] and ©ɊɟɝɢɨɧȾɨɧɛɚɫɫª TV Channels.
62 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
2.4. Component 4: Legal Assistance and Protection
Activity 2.4.1. Expanding legal consultation services for navigating various laws and regulations
In the reporting quarter, the DIALOGUE City Legal Assistance Center consultants provided 163 consultations to local government officials. Since the inception of the Project, 185 consultations to local government were provided. Since its inception, the Project provided 1811 consultations to local governments.
City Legal Assistance Center consultants provided 163 legal consultations through the mobile telephone line, mail, and AUC and DIALOGUE web-sites in the following areas: - local budget and inter-budget relations – 17; - land relations – 24; - housing, utilities, and communal property – 32; - organisational and legal foundations of local self-governance – 78; - social protection – 4; - public education – 5; - health care – 3; - local elections – 0.
Expert workshops in AUC ROs
An Expert Workshop is a training event for local government officials who work in a given technical area held with the purpose of explaining provisions of legislation and exchanging city management experience. In addition to this, participants of expert workshops can initiate amendments to legislation and changes in municipal management activities. The topics for expert workshops have been identified by AUC ROs upon suggestions from local government officials.
In January – March of 2013, the Project conducted 25 expert workshops with the participation of 560 local government officials.
Date and venue Number of Topic Information about the event participants Sumy AUC RO 20 participants – Reforms of the civil The expert workshop moderator provided city of Sumy local council service and service in a brief review of the key amendments in January 31, 2013 members, local governments the legislation governing local lawyers, government activities and explained their secretaries, essence and peculiarities. The training specialists of topic was presented through the local council combination of the theory and practice. In departments particular, the participants discussed the problem issues related to the withdrawal of the architectural and construction authority and authority to register real property rights from local governments, and the budget legislation in the part dealing with local budgeting. The event participants discussed some aspects of the activities of personnel offices associated with the enactment of the Laws of Ukraine “On the Main Framework for Fighting and Prevention Corruption” and “On the Protection of Personal Data” and
63 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
with the enactment, as of January 01, 2013, of the Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service”. Lviv AUC RO 20 participants – Key issues of service The expert workshop moderator explained city of Lviv city/town in local governments to the participants the terms of the Law of February 06, 2013 mayors, their Ukraine “On Service in Local deputies, leading Governments”. In the course of the event, specialists of the participants discussed the following local councils issues: main aspects of human resource management; disciplinary accountability of local government officials; improvements in the system of service in local governments; and competitive selection of staff. To make the participants learn the main aspects of improvements of service in local governments, the moderator utilised various training techniques. The hands-on class on the classification of positions in local governments was particularly interesting. Kherson AUC RO 20 participants – Implementation of the The expert workshop moderator presented city of Kherson deputy city and Law of Ukraine “On a mini-lecture with practical February 07, 2013 town mayors, the Framework of the recommendations of the State Committee lawyers, National Regulatory on Regulatory Policy and the manual secretaries and Policy in the Area of under the title: “Regulatory Activities in specialists of Economic Activities” Ukraine: Planning, Justification, local councils Discussion, Monitoring”. One part of the expert workshop consisted on the Q&A session. The participants entered into the discussion of regulatory documents, they exchanged their opinions about the necessary regulatory documents, and exchanged their experience. The expert workshop participants became familiar with regulatory documents the Kherson City Council approved in 2012 to resolve problem issues through the mechanisms they have to be implemented with and the corresponding actions. Kirovohrad AUC RO 20 participants – Innovative ways to The expert workshop moderator city of Kirovohrad city and town resolve issues of familiarised the participants with the main February 08, 2013 mayors youth employment areas of the national policy to take into consideration of interests of youth on the labour market, in particular: their first employment, preparation of local employment programs, establishing the social dialogue in the area of employment, and mechanisms to pay youth and schoolchildren for their work at communally-owned companies. The participants paid a special interest to the discussion of the Law of Ukraine “On Employment”. Following the discussions, the expert workshop participants identified problem issues of youth employment and prepared their
64 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
amendments to the draft law mentioned above. Ivano-Frankivsk AUC 20 participants – Role of non- The expert workshop moderator RO heads of governmental familiarised the participants with the city of Ivano-Frankivsk departments for organizations in the «ɑɨɪɧɢɣɥɿɫªprogram about campaigns February 12, 2013 youth policy of implementation of and operations of the Ukrainian Insurgent local councils, local youth policy Army and with the activities of the Ivano- council members, programs Frankivsk Club of Those Witted and representatives of Ready-Minded. The event participants non- were also presented the Rise Your Heart governmental Program to support young people organisations deprived of parent care through providing boarding school graduates the opportunity to get trained in a given area and find jobs. A particular attention was given to the presentations of the activities of such organizations as ©ɉɥɚɫɬªand Leader School. The expert workshop participants discussed the programs mentioned above and prepared the corresponding recommendations to assist youth organisations in preparing their project and programs. Rivne AUC RO 40 participants – Amendments to the The expert workshop moderator city of Rivne city, town and current legislation. familiarized the participants with February 14, 2012 village mayors, Delineation of amendments to the current land their deputies, boundaries between legislation, focusing the attention on the secretaries of state-owned and Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban local councils communally-owned Development Activities”. He explained lands Part Three and Four of Article 24 of this Law concerning the absence of urban development documents as a barrier for resolving land issues at local council sessions and, correspondingly, for attracting investments for the development of territories of cities. In the course of the discussions, the participants discussed the peculiarities of delineating boundaries between lands in small populated areas adjacent to Rivne without the established boundaries and absence of funds to pro vide cities with urban development documents. The expert workshop participants exchanged their experience in resolving these issues. Dnipropetrovsk AUC 20 participants – Reforms of the The expert workshop moderator in his RO heads of housing and utilities presentation of the topic paid a particular February 15, 2013 departments and sector in territorial attention to amendments to the city of Dnipropetrovsk specialists of communities: legislation and stressed the need to local council problem issues and resolve issues in the housing and utilities departments of prospect in sector and to establish condominium housing and establishing associations in cities. utilities condominium They discussed activities of condominium associations associations both in smaller and big cities, participation in international housing and utilities projects; and attraction of donor funds to resolve issues in the sector. The
65 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
participants prepared 25 proposals to the legislation framework to ensure proper activities aimed at establishing condominium associations (the proposals were submitted to the AUC Analytical Center). Vinnytsya AUC RO 20 participants - Exercising control The expert workshop moderator city of Vinnytsya local council activities in local employed paper forms to provide an February 19, 2013 secretaries, heads governments overview of local government executive of general committee activities. Later on, he departments, compared the performance of the same main specialists tasks with the help of the computer of local councils program introduced in the Vinnytsya City Council. He told about the advantages of the program, such as: organization of meetings, electronic calendar, and reminders about the planned events. A particular interest was given to processing appeals from citizens called Round-the- Clock Monitoring and control over the implementation of ordinances of the executive committee and the city council. The moderator conducted master classes on running a transparent office round-the- clock monitoring. The experience of the Vinnytsya City Council in introducing the electronic document turnover and monitoring will help the participants to introduce the same system in other local governments of the Vinnytsya AUC RO. Cherkasy AUC RO 20 participants - Modern municipal The expert workshop moderator city of Cherkasy local council technologies. Their familiarised the participants with the February 20, 2013 secretaries, main role in public and kinds, types and categories of media specialists on political activities of events and responsibilities of press information cities secretaries. The participants discussed support and issues of condominium association public relations activities, peculiarities of interacting with of local councils, media, and learned how to conduct editors-in-chief successful information campaigns, of newspapers properly organise the activities of public relations departments and to provide the informational support. The expert workshop participants received the expert information about the preparation of press conferences, their topics, main requirements and duration. In the course of the expert workshop, the participants engaged in the round table discussion about how to work with media. They also prepared their proposals to amendments to the current legislation on the privatisation of communally-owned media. Kyiv AUC RO 28 participants – Introduction of new The expert workshop moderator city of Kyiv deputy city technologies to familiarised the participants with new February 21, 2013 mayors, protect underground approaches to protecting underground heads/deputy engineering networks engineering networks from electro- heads of city and from electro- chemical corrosion, main reasons for
66 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
town department chemical corrosion corrosion of water supply networks, new of housing and technologies of identifying and utilities, eliminating earth currents, and activities specialists to protect metallic pipes using the cathodic protection method. The event participants discussed new approaches to the cathodic protection in gas supply networks and comparative features of the cathodic prevention method with similar approaches abroad. The participants came to the conclusion about the role of the introduction of new technologies in identification of broken part of the network and to schedule the necessary repairs. The participants approved the text of the final resolution about the preparation of the pilot project to protect the water and heat supply networks in the Kyiv oblast. Zaporizzhya AUC RO 20 participants – Ensuring the climate The expert workshop moderator told the city of Zaporizzhya city mayors, their to support investment participants about the climate to promote February 21, 2013 deputies, heads of attraction. Industrial investments: development of industrial departments for parks parks in the Zaporizzhya oblast and about economic the legal aspects of establishing industrial development and parks. The event participants became departments for familiar with the electronic presentation industry and of the international experience in environmental establishing industrial parks and discussed protection the Ukrainian experience in this area, namely: registry, concepts, and state incentives for establishing industrial parks. The expert workshop participants from Melitopol and Zaporizzhya shared the experience of their cities in this area. Luhansk AUC RO 20 participants – Reforms of the The expert workshop moderator city of Luhansk heads of housing and utilities familiarized the participants with the February 26, 2013 city/town sector promising activities in the areas on departments of servicing the housing stock by managerial housing and companies, advantages of setting up utilities of local managerial companies and their activities, councils cost-share mechanisms, concluding agreements with service users, and with the customer service. The event participants discussed the details of the legal framework for condominium associations, electronic office, and call center. They got engaged in an interesting discussion of the tariff policy, in particular of the economic components of the new tariff: calculation of tariffs for individual buildings and conducting public hearings to discuss tariffs. The moderator came up with a proposal to take into consideration this information as best practice and introduce it in the cities of the Luhansk oblast. Zakarpattya AUC RO 20 participants – Marketing, promotion The expert workshop moderator told
67 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
town of Polyana, deputy city and branding of cities about successful city branding: setting up Svalyava Rayon of the mayors, land (villages) as factors of modern web-sites and connections to the Zakarpattya oblast surveyors, local economic cable TV network. She emphasised the February 27, 2013 specialists of development of use of very simple city branding tool, departments for communities such as using posters with the city economy emblems, calendars, trinkets, and CDs with the information about the city, tourist guides, etc. The expert workshop participants exchanged their experience in this area. The came to the conclusion about how an effective marketing strategy and city branding may serve as effective tools for supporting city leaders, uniting citizens to resolve local problems, attract investment, and promote tourism. Volyn AUC RO 20 participants - Introduction of The expert workshop moderator discussed city of Lutsk city mayors, their effective information with the participants the following issues: February 28, 2013 deputies, local and communication ways and methods to inform council campaigns in local communities, involve them in the secretaries, heads governments managerial activities of government of city ad town institutions; meaning, goals and tasks of departments of the informational campaign; role of local councils informational campaigns in establishing relations with the community to resolve issues of local importance; information campaign implementation technologies; communication channels; and effective cooperation with media. In the course of the expert workshop, the trainer used various training techniques and prepared a special package with information materials. The event participants came to the conclusion that their local councils do not pay enough attention to establishing an effective communication between the local government, citizens and business community. They decided to spur up the information activities on the territories of their local councils. Kyiv AUC RO 22 participants – Practical aspects of The expert workshop moderator city of Kyiv town mayors, writing project familiarised the participants with the March 04, 2013 deputy city proposals to the peculiarities of the Ukraine-wide mayors, National local competition of project and programs to heads/deputy Government Support support local self-governance: providing heads of city and Foundation of incentives for investment attraction for town departments Ukraine city development, modernisation of for economy infrastructure, new jobs, etc. The presentor explained how to write and project and how to present it. The whole presentation was supported by a series of slides and explanations how to turn a concept into a good project. The event participants from Slavutych, Boyarka, Ukrainka and Boryspil shared their experience in writing and implementing projects. Ternopil AUC RO 20 participants – New provisions in the The expert workshop moderator provided
68 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
city of Ternopil city and town land legislation the details and explanations of the March 06, 2013 mayors, lawyers, following Laws of Ukraine: “On land surveyors, Amendments to Certain Ukrainian specialists of Legislation Concerning the Delineation of local councils Boundaries between State-Owned and Communally-Owned Lands”; “On the State Land Cadastre”; and “On the State Registration of Property Rights to Immovable Property and Their Limitations”. He pointed the attention to the reasons why there were amendments to the laws mentioned above. In the course of the discussion, the expert workshop participants expressed their interests in issues related to issuing or cancelling state acts; mechanisms for allocating commercial land plots for lease and prolonging the timeframe of the existing agreements; and registration of land purchase agreements. The participants received the exhausting answers to their questions. Zhytomyr AUC RO 20 participants – Main framework of The expert workshop moderator provided city of Zhytomyr city mayors, their the public-private the details of the legal and institutional March 07, 2013 deputies, local partnership in structure of the public-private partnership council Ukraine (PPP) projects; reviewed the new secretaries, heads regulatory and legal documents of of departments Ukraine; and pointed the attention on the for economy, main goals of foreign countries local council supporting the implementation of such specialists projects. The moderator paid a particular attention to the distribution of risks for every party of the PPP: government, local governments, and the private sector. The event participants discussed the development of the mechanisms for the public-private partnership to attract investments for the modernisation of the industrial and social aspects of the community, such as: promoting the development of the private sector of economy and increasing the level of employment. Khmelnytskyi AUC 20 participants – Environmental policy. The expert workshop moderator provided RO town mayors, Solid waste an overview of the Law of Ukraine “On city of Khmelnytskyi their deputies, management Local Self-Governance in Ukraine”, “On March 13, 2013 main specialists Waste”, “On Environmental Protection”, of environmental etc. She pointed the attention on the main protection environmental problem issues and ways departments to resolve them. In the course of the discussion, the expert workshop participants stressed the necessity for cooperation of local governments with the state executive agencies in the area of environmental protection. The participants became familiar with the experience of the city of Khmelnytskyi: implementation of the Solid Waste 69 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
Management Program for 2007-2015. The program promotes the conditions to ensure the complete collection, transportation, utilisation and disposal of solid waste minimising their hazardous effect on the environment. Chernihiv AUC RO 20 participants – Management of land The expert workshop moderator city of Chernihiv local council resources of territorial familiarized the participants with the key March 19, 2013 secretaries, land communities framework of the legal regulation of land management and relations in the territorial community. The land use participants discussed the details of the specialists role of local governments in resolving land issues, in particular: ways for citizens to implement their land ownership right; privatisation of state- owned, communally-owned and collective farm lands; pecuniary valuation of agricultural and non-agricultural land plots located beyond the boundaries of populated areas; mechanisms to purchase land plots based on civil agreements; managements of lands of the populated areas, etc. The participants exchanged their experience in resolving land disputes. Mykolaiv AUC RO 20 participants – Mechanisms for the The expert workshop moderator provided city of Mykolaiv deputy city implementation of the details on the provisions of Ukrainian March 20, 2013 mayors, consumer rights legislation to protect consumer rights: in departmental protection and particular, the Law “On the Protection of heads explanations to the Consumer Rights”, “On Advertisement”, legislation “On the “On the State Market Oversight and State Market Control of Non-Food Products”. A Oversight” particular attention was given to the Program to Inspect the Protection of Consumer Rights in the Mykolaiv Oblast implemented in the region for ten years. While discussion the legislation, the participants raised questions about the expiration dates for goods, replacement of low-quality goods; the right of a customer to give up a service he requested and reasons to do so; fines for advertising tobacco and alcoholic goods; and the authority of local government representatives to protect the consumer rights. Crimean AUC RO 26 participants – Peculiarities of the The expert workshop participants were city of Simferopol heads/deputy implementation of the given handouts about the personnel March 22, 2013 heads of labour legislation and policy, National Strategy for 2011-2015, personnel offices maintaining personnel list of regulatory and legal documents on of local councils files in local service in local governments, and main governments pieces of anti-corruption legislation. The expert workshop moderator provided the details on the peculiarities of the implementation of the labour legislation of Ukraine in local governments; some aspects of activities of personnel service
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in local governments in the context of the new Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Personal Data” and “On Service in Local Governments”; and with on-the-job training in local governments. The event participants received consultations on the personnel service, and discussed important issues, such as: breaking off the labour agreement upon the initiative of the owner or the body authorised by him and exchanged their experience. Chernivtsi AUC RO 20 participants – Municipal The expert workshop moderator provided city of Chernivtsi city mayors/town investments and a review of the Laws of Ukraine “On the March 22, 2013 mayors, heads of loans, alternative Conditions of Foreign Investments”, and departments of ways to finance local “On Foreign Trade” and discussed finance targeted programs together with the participants issues of community oriented local economic development in the Chernivtsi oblast: mini-projects of community organisations; market of municipal securities as a tool to regulate inter-budget relations in Ukraine. In the course of the discussion, the participants engaged in a discussion about foreign investments and international projects. The event participants identified the strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities and potential ways to deal with them. Poltava AUC RO 24 persons – Additional sources of In the course of the discussions, the expert city of Khorol specialists of funds for local workshop moderator pointed the main March 26, 2013 local councils economic attention on the necessity of involving development and additional funds for local economic writing a successful development and identifies the sources of project proposal additional funds. The participants expressed a particular attention to writing project proposals and attraction of donor funds in local economic development. The Participants became familiar with the details of writing project proposals: problem statement, identification of the target audience, identification of ways to resolve the problem, goals and tasks of the project, implementation methodology, assessment of resources and budget, and evaluation of the project implementation. The participants worked in groups and shared their experience in writing and implementing projects. Odesa AUC RO 20 participants – New Ukrainian The expert workshop participants city of Odesa city mayors, local legislation on discussed the main provisions of the Law March 28, 2013 council registration of of Ukraine “On the State Registration of secretaries, property rights. Place Real Property Rights …”; provisions of lawyers and role of local the Decree of the President of Ukraine governments in this “On the Optimisation of the System of area Central Agencies of the State Executive” about the establishments of the State Registration Service of Ukraine at the
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Ministry of Justice, etc. The participants discussed the mechanism of the new state registration, namely: activities of the registration service and notaries, role and authority of local government in this area, necessary documents and timeframe for the registration, reasons to deny the registration, etc. The participants received practical advice from the expert workshop moderator. Sumy AUC RO 20 participants – Public participation The expert workshop moderator together city of Sumy local government in local self- with the participants discussed the March 28, 2013 officials governance Concept of Local Self-Governance in Ukraine: its development, principles, system, activities, and role of citizens in local self-governance.
Activity 2.4.2. Legal protection services
In the reporting period, the attorney services were provided to 5 local government institutions and officials. The attorney services were provided in the following key areas: - protection of rights of local governments in courts with on-site visits of attorneys (Oleksandrivsk City Mayor, Luhansk oblast, Kalynivka Town Council, Luhansk oblast, former Zhmerynka City Mayor, Velyka Dymerka Town Mayor, Artsyz City Mayor, Odesa oblast, council member of the Bershad City Council, Boyarka City Mayor, Kyiv oblast, and Hrebinka Town Mayor, Vasylkiv Rayon, Kyiv oblast) (8); - legal assistance to local governments (Berdyansk City Council) (1).
Monitoring of cases of harassment of local government officials
In the reporting period, the Project identified 22 such cases with regard to:
- city mayors – 8; - village mayors – 3; - local council members and local government officials – 11.
The hottest conflicts are:
- making a search and suppressing documents form the Melitopol City Council, Zaporizzhya oblast. The Mayor of the city of Melitopol was charged with the crime according five articles of the Criminal Code: Part 4 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – use of forfeited documents, Part 1 of Article 384 – intentional false testimony during the pre-trial investigation, Part 4 of Article 368 – bribery, Part 2 of Article 209 – intentional violation of the requirements of the legislation on preventing and fighting the legalization (laundering) funds received in an illegal way, and Part 1 of Article 366 – official falsification” – February 11, 2013; - detention of Maria Zilhalova, member of the Uzhgorod City Council who is a member of the standing local council commission on land resources and a member of the For the Development of Uzhgorod Council Group of Mayor Andriy Pohorelov; - detention of the deputy city mayor (city of Donlynske, Kirovohrad oblast) who is charged with a 50 thousand UAH bribe received from a director of a private company for the right to place temporary trading facilities; - detention of the Deputy Mayor of Krasnyi Luch (Luhansk oblast) who is charged with a 10 thousand UAH bribe; and, - detention of Yuliy Eremenko who is charged with the 50 thousand UAH bribe. 72 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR ADVOCATING LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN UKRAINE (DIALOGUE)
Monitoring pre-term elections of members of local councils, village, town and city mayors
In the 1st quarter of 2013, the Project identified 117 cases of pre-term local elections including the elections of 102 village mayors, 9 town mayors and 6 city mayors due to the pre-term termination of their authority in accordance with Article 79 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Governance in Ukraine”.
The overview of these cases showed that the reasons to terminate the authority of these mayors were the following:
ɚ personal resignation letter to the corresponding council - 82 cases; b) caused by the conviction court decision or administrative offence of corruption related activities committed by the mayor - 15 cases; c) death of the mayor - 18 cases; d) decision of the corresponding council made by a secret vote at least by two thirds of the total composition of the council - 2 cases.
Local Government Lawyer School
The Local Government Lawyer School gives an opportunity to graduate students of law schools (law departments) to adapt their knowledge in law to the actual needs of local governments. By doing so, they learn about the legal framework of local government operations and the protection of legitimate rights and interests of interests of territorial communities.
Over the period of February 25 – March 01, the Project conducted the 5th Session of the Local Government Lawyer School. The applicants were selected based on the outcomes of the oral interview conducted after the applicants submit their application forms.
The program of the training consisted of the four components:
training component; internship at the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance, Executive Committee of the Bucha City Council, Executive Office of the Kyiv Oblast Council, and Executive Board of the Association of Ukrainian Cities; self-training and preparation of individual assignments; and, verification of the learned knowledge and skills in the form of the preparation of the report on the fulfillment of individual assignments and exams.
13 students received their certificates upon the completion of the School.
2.5. Component 5: Special Emphasis on Crimea
On March 28-29, 2013, the Project conducted one study tour for local government officials from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to other Ukrainian cities. Five persons took part in the tour. All of them pointed out the great value of such training and the opportunity to learn the hands-on experience of their colleagues and learn how to avoid mistakes while copying it in their cities.
Topic: Reforms in the housing and Training topic: utilities sector and organisation of - reforms in the housing and utilities sector and organisation activities of managerial companies of activities of managerial companies 73 QUARTERLY REPORT January - March 2013
The topic of the training was selected based on the findings of the survey of Crimean city councils conducted by eh Date: March 28-29, 2013 Crimean AUC RO. City: city of Luhansk According to the members of the Crimean delegation, the experience of the Luhansk City Council in organising the Participants: heads of city and town activities of managerial companies will allow to significantly departments of housing and utilities from simplify the work of utility companies in the city and will the cities of Alupka, Alushta, Inkerman, increase the responsibility of residents of apartment blocks. and Feodosiya. One should mention the experience of the city council in the practical establishments of such companies, training of apartment block managers, preparation of draft agreements for residents to provide utility services, preparation of sample documents for the corresponding administrative and financial management of apartment blocks, and experience in co- financing repair works in apartment blocks. As far as the reform of the housing and utilities sector was concerned, the study tour participants paid a particular attention to the experience of operating neighbourhood boilers on solid fuel. One should mention that such boilers run at the 90% efficiency and use the solid fuel produced after cutting green plantations in the city. In other words, this fuel is free and allows to save local budget funds.
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Chapter 3. IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS AND WAYS TO RESOLVE THEM
The main problem the Project faced in the reporting quarter was the unstable activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This fact postponed the kick-off meeting of the inter-faction local government support group (local government caucus) and submission of a number of draft laws prepared by the DIALOGUE Project experts to the parliament for consideration.
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Chapter 4. SUCCESS STORIES
MINISTRY OF FINANCE TOOK INTO ACCOUNT DIALOGUE PROJECT PROPOSALS FOR REAL PROPERTY TAX
Aiming at improving the efficiency of local taxes and fees, expert of the DIALOGUE Project developed and presented to the authorities a comprehensive bill on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine. The draft law has, among other things, a proposal to tax not only the residential, but the total floor space of residential property. On January 15, 2013, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine published on its website a draft law amending Article 265 of the Tax Code of Ukraine to define the total floor space of residential property as the tax base for real property as opposed to the land plot. Thus, the Project manager to overcome the resistance of the Ministry of Finance concerning the improvements of the efficiency of local taxes.
DIALOGUE PROJECT PROPOSALS MANAGED TO IMPROVE THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO LOCAL INVESTMENT PROJECT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT
DIALOGUE Project experts repeatedly appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers about the poor capacity of local governments to finance regional investment programs (projects), whose estimated cost is less than envisaged in the Mechanism for the Preparation, Evaluation and Selection of Investment Programs (Projects) Implemented at the Expense of the National Regional Development Fund (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine # 656 of July 04, 2012). Having heard the DIALOGUE Project proposals, the Cabinet of Ministers on January 30, 2013 amended the Mechanism mentioned above, to reduce the minimum estimated cost of the investment programs (projects) to be implemented with the budget funds: from 5 million UAH to 1 million UAH for investment programs (projects) of regional (inter-regional) nature and for those to be implemented in oblast significance cities, and from 1 million to UAH 200 thousand UAH for investment programs (projects) of rayon nature and for those that are aimed at resolving the problems of one or more territorial communities (rayon significance cities, villages and towns). Thus, the preconditions for local governments to involve funds of the National Regional Development Fund to finance projects aimed at developing local infrastructure were prepared.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE TAKES INTO ACCOUNT DIALOGUE PROJECT PROPOSALS
Aiming at resolving problems of local budgets, the Project experts engaged in an active cooperation with the Coordination Center for Economic Reforms Implementation under the President of Ukraine. The result was the incorporation cooperation was the reflection in the National Action Plan for 2013 (approved by Decree of the President of Ukraine # 128/2013 on March 12, 2013) of DIALOGUE Project proposals. The National Plan envisages a number of steps in the form of instructions to the Cabinet of Ministers concerning the reform of local self- governance, in particular: x a task for the Cabinet of Ministers to submit the draft Decree of the President of Ukraine on Approving of the Concept of Local Government Reform and Reform of the Territorial Arrangement of Government Institutions and the Action Plan for its Implementation to the President of Ukraine for his consideration (Paragraphs 227.1., 227.2.); x elaborating the legislation on service in local governments, which among other things should raise the level of financial security local government officials and to make the corresponding regulations (Paragraph 229.1);
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x reforming the system of social services through the introduction of a new mechanism of financial support for social services in the course of local budget expenditures taken into account in calculating the amount of intergovernmental transfers (Paragraph 49); x providing the provisions concerning better provision of benefits to certain categories of the population in order to increase the targeted nature of such services and better satisfaction of individual needs (Paragraph 50); x revisiting a number of regulatory and legal documents, which define the staffing standards for budget expenditures associated with the provision of the corresponding social services (Paragraph 61); and, x specifying mechanisms to regulate the provision of administrative services (Paragraph 81). Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers was given clear instructions and the timeframe to resolve local government problem issues.
DIALOGUE PROMOTES IMPROVEMENTS OF THE TREASURY ADMINISTRATION OF LOCAL BUDGETS
Since September of 2012 till the present time, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine has been blocking payments of local government expenditures of non-earmarked local budget line items: housing and utilities, transportation, maintenance of public sector institutions and social infrastructure, road infrastructure and urban improvement, capital expenditures (repairs, reconstruction, and construction), etc. It does not allow local governments to use the available funds to meet their contractual commitments or to provide services or works to sustain their corresponding communities.
Project experts prepared legislative amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine and the Code of Ukraine of Administrative Offence in the part dealing with improved procedures for the treasury administration of local budgets. These changes were reflected in the three bills registered in the parliament (Registration # 2283 of February 12, 2013, Registration # 2381 of February 25, 2013, and Registration # 2382 of February 25, 2013): - securing the right of local governments to use the services of state-owned banks for the revenues and expenditures of local budgets that are not taken into account while determining the amount of inter-budget transfers (so-called Basket Two, discretionary local government resources); - establishing clear timeframes for the implementation of payment orders from local budgets; and, - increasing the accountability of state executive officials that implements the state policy in the area of treasury administration and of its territorial bodies for the failure to comply with the timeframe to take action on local budgets spending units.
DIALOGUE PROJECT EXPERTS PERSUADED THE CABINET OF MINISTERS TO REMOVE THE DRAFT LAW ON MODEL LOCAL GOVERNMENT STAFFING SCHEDULES FROM CONSIDERATION
In 2012, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine prepared behind the closed doors and submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers consideration a draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation” (concerning model local government staffing schedules), which envisioned granting the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with the authority to approve model local government staffing schedules. The DIALOGUE actively opposed this draft law, because its provisions conflict with the European Charter of Local Self-Governance and with the
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Constitution of Ukraine, limit the rights of local governments and lead to increased centralization of government authority. DIALOGUE Project experts conducted an extensive campaign for central state executive agencies about the need to reject this draft law. As a result of these actions the Cabinet of Ministers took into consideration the position of the DIALOGUE Project, which was reflected in the decision of the thematic sub-working group on improving the territorial arrangement of government institutions and local self-governance and in the opinion of the Ministry of Regional Development, and removed on January 18, 2013 the issue of improving the legal regulation staffing schedules of local governments.
LEGAL BARRIERS TO PREVENT THE ACCUMULATION OF DEBT OF COMMUNALLY- OWNED HEATING COMPANIES TO THE NAFTOHAZ UKRAINY COMPANY
The discrepancies between Order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy # 288 of July 15, 2010 “On Approving the Methodology for Determining the Volume of the Natural Gas Used to Produce Heat for the Population in the Event that Business Entities Supply Heat to Different Categories of Consumers” and CMU Resolution # 869 of June 01, 2011 in the part dealing with the calculation of the price for the natural gas used to produce heat for the household consumption, allowed the NaftoHaz Ukrainy inflate cost for natural gas for utility companies by 60-80%. The bills of the NaftoHaz Ukrainy for the natural gas prepared in accordance with according to Order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy # 288 were not supported with the approved tariffs and could have lead to additional losses for utility companies in the amount of 2.5-3 billion UAH over the heating season if these companied had paid them.
In November 2012, the Association appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (Letter 5- 351 # of November 20, 2012) with the proposals to address the problems between communally- owned heating companies and NaftoHaz Ukrainy associated with the payment for the consumed natural gas. In January 2013, the corresponding decision was made by the Board of the Association.
Following this, Order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy # 288 of July 15, 2012, was suspended (notification of the State Service of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Development of January 18, 2013; Order of the Ministry of Energy was recognized not to be in line with the principles of the national regulatory policy in accordance with Law of Ukraine # 1160-IV of September 11,. 2003 “On the Framework of the National regulatory Policy in the Area of Economic Activities”).
NATIONAL DEPUTIES FROM VARIOUS FACTIONS RECOGNISE THE NECESSITY OF UNBLOCKING THE ALLOCATION OF LAND PLOTS
On January 01, 2013, the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities” (Part 3 and Part 4 of Article 24), which prohibit the allocation of land and changing their designation without urban development documents, such as zoning plan and detailed territorial outline map, came into force. But the vast majority of cities (big and small) do not have such documents, because local governments did not have (and continue not to have) funds for their preparation. The ban on allocation of land plots for urban development purposes in case of absence of urban development documents almost stopped the administration of land resources in territorial communities and completely blocked the development of cities. AUC experts drew the media attention to this problem (the ©Ⱦɿɥɨɜɚɫɬɨɥɢɰɹª >business capital] newspaper, February 18, 2013). DIALOGUE experts developed draft laws and introduced them to the parliament through National Deputies who are former mayors: both representatives of the Party of Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. Two alternative draft laws “On Regulation of Urban Development
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Activities” concerning the postponement of the ban on land plot allocation were registered under # 2363 of February 21 and # 2363-1 of February 22.
The draft laws have a suggestion to postpone until January 01, 2015 the ban on transferring (allocation) of land plots from the state and communal ownership or use to physical and legal persons for urban development purposes in case cities do not have the zoning plan or detailed territorial maps of populated areas.
THE MECHANISMS TO REGISTER THE DATA BASE OF PERSONAL DATA INTRODUCED BY THE LAW OF UKRAINE “ON PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA” BECAME SIMPLIFIED
During the DIALOGUE Day on September 27, 2012, the event participants managed to convince the Head of the State Service of Ukraine on Protection of Personal Data on the need to simplify the procedure for the registration of personal databases, many of which are mandatory for each local government in accordance with the law with their registration being unnecessary. The result was the adoption by the Cabinet of Ministers Decree # 60 of January 30, 2013 lifting the necessity of local governments to register personal data whose maintenance is required by proper labour relationships.
POLTAVA OBLAST. DIALOGUE HELPS TO RESOLVE SOLI WASTE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
On October 05, 2011, the Local Government Regional Advisory Board adopted a resolution on handling and disposal of solid waste in cities and populated areas in the Poltava oblast. As a result, the Myrhorod City Council 395 thousand UAH from the Poltava Regional Fund for Environmental Protection to purchase a garbage truck. From now and on in 2013, the new equipment with the capacity of 22 cubic meters will work for the benefit the Myrhorod citizens.
The city of Kremenchuk started collecting energy saving lamps, which contain mercury, for recycling from both companies and residents. Late last year, the utility companies received a license for activities with dangerous waste. While there is an established fee for companies of all types of ownership to hand in used energy-saving lamps, the Kremenchuk citizens have the opportunity to do it for free. As of January of 2013, about 6,000 energy-saving lamps were taken and sent for recycling.
KHMELNYTSKYI OBLAST. DIALOGUE HELPS TO REPAIR SOCIAL SECTOR FACILITIES
According to the proposals of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board, the oblast budget earmarked capital expenditures to perform repair works in social protection institutions. The funds went to repair the heat and water supply system in Smotrytsky home for the elderly and disabled in the Dunayivtsi district (170 thousand UAH) and the roof in the dining room of the Kytaihorod house for the elderly and disabled in the Kamianets-Podilskyi district (60 thousand UAH).
RIVNE OBLAST. DIALOGUE HELPS TO RESOLVE LAND ISSUES AND REPAIR ROADS
Following the meeting of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board in April of 2012 and the discussion of issues local councils face in land relations, the oblast budget for 2013 allocated 150 thousand UAH for the city of Rivne to amend to the city master plan, 250 thousand UAH to produce a plan for historical and architectural development, and 260 thousand UAH to produce the electronic urban development cadastre.
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One should also mention that in 2013 the oblast authorities continued to implement the decision of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board of January 27, 2011 “On the Road Repairs in the Populated Areas in the Oblast”. As soon as the weather conditions improve, the oblast authorities will start laying white macadam roads in the Rivne, Hoscha and Sarny districts. The oblast budget allocated the first tranche in the amount of 100 thousand UAH for these purposes.
KHERSON OBLAST. DIALOGUE HELPS CITIZENS TO GET NEW APARTMENTS
In pursuance of the decision of the meeting of the Local Government Regional Advisory Board, which took place on December of 2012, V. Saldo, National Deputy of Ukraine requested the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to allocate funds from the National Budget Reserve Fund in the amount of 56 million 400 thousand UAH for the construction of housing for residents of two dilapidated buildings in the city of Kherson. The Cabinet of Ministers made this decision on March 20, 2013. This will enable local governments to resolve socially tense issues and to move 135 families residing in dilapidated buildings to new apartments.
AUC LAWYER HELPS TO CLOSE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST TOWN MAYORS
The Prosecutor’s Office launched criminal proceedings against the Kalynivka and Velyka Dymerka town mayors for the disallowed payment for their travel to Yalta by the bus rented by the Kyiv AUC RO to attend the 8th VIII Ukrainian Municipal Forum, held July 11-14, 2012. Thanks to the assistance provided by the DIALOGUE Project lawyer, the criminal cases were closed for the absence of crime.
ARTSYZ MAYOR RELEASED FROM CUSTODY
The DIALOGUE legal assistance provided during the court hearings helped to release from custody the Mayor of Artsyz in the Odessa oblast. The mayor was charged with a large scale bribery. At the same time, members of the City Council and the staff of the City Executive Committee share the opinion that the case was staged upon the instruction of the Head of the Odessa Oblast State Administration, who was unhappy with the outcome of the parliamentary elections on October 31, 2012.
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Chapter 5. ESTIMATED SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT QUARTER
Legislation Group - Legislation drafting; - Expert evaluation of legislation; - Legislation monitoring; - Participation in the work of parliamentary committees and advisory boards set by ministries; - Preparation and dissemination of the Legislation News electronic publication; - Preparation and dissemination of the Sectoral Monitoring
Dialogue Group - Holding the Dialogue Day; - Consultations with ministries; - Working meetings of the inter-faction parliamentary group (local government caucus); - Working meetings of Local Government Regional Advisory Boards; - Preparations and conducting study tours for Crimean local government officials
Information Group - Shooting and broadcasting TV programs; - Preparation of regular radio programs; - Holding meetings of national and regional press clubs; - Publication of the AUC Herald, Press News, and Dialogue Newsletter
Legal Assistance Center - Consultations, legal assistance and protection of local governments and officials; - Expert workshops in AUC ROs; - Monitoring of pressure on local government officials; - Preparation and dissemination of the Legal Consultations electronic publication; - Session of the Young Local Government Lawyers School
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