Deputies without authority: how the procedure for approving Odesa's budget has changed

Last week, a regular session of the city council was held in Odesa, with the budget for 2026 as one of the key issues. This time, the procedure was different from the usual ones: the deputies did not approve the financial document, but only made recommendations to the city military administration (MMA).

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

After the introduction of the MMA, the deputies were actually deprived of the authority to approve the budget. Currently, the functions of drawing up, approving and amending the local budget are assigned to the head of the Odesa MMA, Serhiy Lysak. Accordingly, the deputies can only make recommendatory decisions, which was directly stated during the session.

The draft decision was given an unusual title: "On Approval of the Draft Budget of the Odesa City Territorial Community for 2026." The deputies asked the MCA to approve the prepared document, but the final decision remains with Serhiy Lysak.

The agenda of the session caused discussions: out of about 160 questions, only three were sent out on time. MP Iryna Kutsenko and her colleagues emphasized violations of the regulations and irregular receipt of draft decisions. After the head of the MBA made a remark about the discourse in the hall, the agenda was approved and the consideration of substantive issues was moved to the floor.

When considering the report on budget execution for 9 months of 2025, questions arose about loans and amendments to the draft budget for 2026. In particular, the funds for repayment of the loan principal and interest were redirected to the reserve fund, which increased its volume to UAH 1.651 billion.

According to the announced figures, the city's budget revenues amount to UAH 16.004 billion, expenditures - UAH 15.881 billion, while UAH 12.5 billion is planned to be allocated to the general fund. Of this amount, UAH 500 million is allocated to support the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and UAH 95 million to 10 medical facilities where work is underway. The rest of the reserve fund will be distributed later.

This year's legal peculiarity was that the amendments to the draft budget made by the Standing Committee on Planning, Budget and Finance were not approved by the Executive Committee. By law, commissions are not allowed to change draft budget decisions. Therefore, the actual adoption of the draft budget by the deputies was advisory in nature and was not a full-fledged approval of the financial document.

This situation demonstrates that the formal budget approval procedure in the city has changed, and the final authority over financial decisions now belongs to the city military administration.

Recently, members of the Standing Committee on Budget and Finance expressed clear dissatisfaction after the head of the Odesa City Military Administration decided to cut the salaries of the city council's executive bodies. To understand how salaries are formed in the city council, the Center for Public Investigations analyzed the main factors. The research showed that this reduction is only the first step in the necessary optimization.

Анна Бальчінос