December 7 is a Day of Local Self-Government in Ukraine. I think that it is the most important and the closest authority for each Ukrainian. As a MP, I stand up for this point. As what is the value of the laws we adopt if they are not implemented at the local level?
I was very interested in the course of the local self-government reform in Poland. I remember laughing when I saw a caricature of Polish government in one of local magazines, which depicted a donkey that almost overturned under the weight of the cart of local self-government reform. Because they, like we today, faced a very difficult task – to change the country.
The Poles carried out their reform during almost a quarter of a century! And it was not obvious for almost anyone outside the country. However, the results were impressive. Polish self-government is 60 percent of the country’s budget. Each entity has as much freedom as it has own incomes.
Unfortunately, as opposed to Poland, our country still remains in the uncomfortable position of a stubborn donkey. We’ve seen so many different reforms of government: from banal staff reduction with its further extension to “impracticable projects” connected with the territory redrawing. Finally, two years ago, the reform of financial decentralization made progress. The budgets of every level began to receive more money.
Moreover, in 2017, it is planned that local budgets will finance expenses on public utility and energy resources in the facilities of health protection, will maintain educational institutions (except teachers’ wages), will indemnify for free usage of public transport by benefit-entitled citizens.
According to the official information of Kharkiv City Council, the additional expenses on this will make up UAH 2.5 billion, while the city obtains only UAH 590 million at the expense of budget decentralization.
As the result, one hand gives, the other takes away, and almost five times more! But it is possible to discredit the very idea of decentralization this way.
There is another achievement of the reform. The range of procedures is handed over to local councils. In particular, when the registration powers were taken away from the Ministry of Justice, the competition appeared among the registering institutions. Some village heads even created work places, trained the specialists and carry out the registration of rights to real estate. People come to them even from Kharkiv to register their apartments in the city, because it is much cheaper, comfortable and faster to make it there.
There are not so many similar villages in Kharkiv oblast so far. In some cases it was decided that it is better to hand over these procedures to regional authorities. Who entitled them to misrepresent the adopted law?
Of course it happens also because local self-government is not always ready technically to work, because some villages still live without the Internet, and in some of them even the mobile network is unstable.
And now, the second stage of e-declaration starts for all officials on January 1. Can you imagine the whole army of village and town heads, who will appear under threat of criminal punishment because they are not able to fill their declarations due to technical difficulties?
It is unnecessary to say that many of them should be first taught to use new technologies and to provide this opportunity technically, and demand afterwards. It is obvious, as we’ve launched such huge changes. It was clear even in the times of fabulist Krylov that the quality of music does not depend on the arrangement of musicians on the stage.
