Housing and Utilities Commission approves amendments to Odesa city target programs until 2028

On Thursday, June 12, members of the Standing Committee on Housing and Communal Services of the Odesa City Council supported changes to four city target programs until 2028.

According to Intent, this was the second time it happened. On Wednesday, June 11, the consideration of the Commission on Housing and Communal Services was postponed due to the uncoordinated actions of the department and district administrations of the city. As it turned out during the meeting, the amounts by which the proposed changes to the programs were to be made were not clear to the commission members.

At the meeting on Thursday, Deputy Mayor Anna Pozdnyakova explained that millions and billions of hryvnias were added to the programs to be able to attract international technical assistance in the future.

"Starting in 2026, the format of financing capital expenditures will completely change. Now the concept of capital expenditures disappears and the concept of public investment appears," the official said.

According to her, this is due to Ukraine's implementation of European legislation.

"We have returned to medium-term budget planning, when the maximum budget expenditures will be set for three years in advance. They are calculated by the Department of Finance on the basis of city target programs until 2028 inclusive. This is a prerequisite," said Anna Pozdnyakova.

According to her, this is done in order to catch up with similar planning in the EU - their 7-year planning ends in 2028. In the future, Ukraine will also develop its programs for 7 years.

She agreed that it seems a bit strange today, as the programs are much "bloated" and far exceed Odesa's budgetary capacity, but the target program is a framework document. And in general, increasing the amount of money in the programs involves attracting non-budgetary sources of funding rather than the city budget.

"This is the so-called international technical assistance," the official added.

So she urged the commission members to approve these changes, otherwise they will not be able to be extended.

"That is, we have to adopt all the programs at this session on July 2. If we do not include some measures in the programs today, for example, expensive ones or those for which we do not have funding from the city budget today, then we will not be able to make changes to them later. After all, the new resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers does not yet provide for this," explained Pozdnyakova.

Therefore, the deputies of the Housing and Communal Services Commission approved the changes until 2028:

• City target program for the improvement of Odesa for 2022-2026;
• City target program "Unbreakable Odesa";
• City Target Program for the Development of Housing in Odesa for 2022-2026;
• City Target Program for Energy Efficiency in Odesa for 2022-2026.

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