Many laws, but little action for the region: how Odesa MPs have been working for five years

During the five years of the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation, MPs from Odesa Oblast submitted almost 1,500 bills, but in their inquiries, they hardly ever addressed issues related to the region.

These conclusions were made by experts of the Odesa regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine after analyzing the activities of MPs in parliament during this period.

In the July 2019 elections, 16 MPs were elected to the parliament from Odesa region: 11 in single-member districts and five on party lists. The monitoring covered 13 MPs who remain in office to this day. Three of them lost their seats early: Andrii Kostin (became Prosecutor General), Ihor Vasylkovskyi (lost his mandate after losing his Ukrainian citizenship) and Tetiana Plachkova (from the OPFL, resigned voluntarily).

Over five years , the Verkhovna Rada adopted 28% of legislative initiatives submitted by Odesa MPs: 404 out of 1468 bills were passed. Oleksiy Honcharenko submitted the most bills - 248, of which 30 were adopted. Serhiy Koleboshyn is the leader in terms of the number of initiatives adopted - 85 out of 141 submitted drafts.

During the last year of work, MPs rarely raised the issue of Odesa region in their parliamentary inquiries. A total of 1121 requests were submitted, of which 469 were addressed to the Cabinet of Ministers. Oleksandr Tkachenko submitted 517 inquiries, which is 46% of the total number of inquiries submitted by Odesa MPs over the past five years. Only his inquiries of the last year concerned Odesa Oblast.

Odesa MPs took part in 74% of the votes. Oleh Kolev was the most active - 94% of votes, while Anatoliy Urbanskyi participated in 54%. Mykola Skoryk missed the most votes - 32%.

Most Odesa MPs rarely spoke at plenary sessions. They made 1147 speeches, 87% of which belonged to Oleksiy Honcharenko and Mykola Skoryk. Stepan Cherniavskyi spoke twice: in February 2022 and in June 2024. Three MPs have not spoken for several years: Yulia Didenko spoke for the last time in February 2022, Anton Kissé and Oleksandr Tkachenko - in 2021. Oleh Kolev has not spoken at all.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, the contact information of the deputies on the Rada website is not fully open. There are only email addresses, and Facebook pages remain the main way of communication. The MPs prefer online appeals and appointments by appointment, or have stopped holding personal appointments altogether. Only three MPs regularly inform voters about their receptions: Oleh Kolev, Oleksiy Leonov and Stepan Cherniavskyi.

The total amount of salaries paid to 13 Odesa deputies in 2019-2023 is UAH 30.1 million. Anton Kisse (UAH 2.8 million) and Mykola Skoryk (UAH 2.5 million) received the most. Eight MPs received compensation for renting a house or hotel room in the amount of UAH 7.4 million.

Only six out of 13 MPs regularly report on their work. Reports can be found on the websites or Facebook of individual MPs, including Anton Kisse, Oleh Kolev, Oleksiy Leonov, Serhiy Koleboshyn, Oleksandr Tkachenko, and Anatoliy Urbanskyi. Oleksiy Leonov reported in a TV format.

According to Anatoliy Boyko, the head of the Odesa CVU, although some deputies worked diligently, in general, they do not pay enough attention to the issues of Odesa region, as well as public reporting to voters.

As a reminder, early parliamentary elections were held on July 21, 2019, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved the parliament. The Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation began its work on August 29, 2019. Due to the martial law, elections are not currently being held, and the Rada's powers have been extended until the first meeting of the newly elected parliament.