Mykolaiv City Council deputies improve average score to 2.4 in

Mykolaiv city council showed an improvement in the scores of deputies in 2024, with an increase in the number of deputies with high scores. At the same time, the number of deputies who received the lowest scores increased, indicating a decrease in the level of transparency and accountability in their activities.

This is stated in a study by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine as part of the campaign of certification of local council deputies.

According to the analysts, during the fourth year of its work, Mykolaiv City Council showed an overall improvement in its performance compared to the previous year.

According to Olena Shevchuk, the campaign's regional coordinator, transparency and openness are an important component of effective communication between deputies and voters. Compared to 2023, in 2024, there is a positive trend in the work of the deputy corps.

On average, the performance assessment of Mykolaiv city council deputies in the fourth year of their mandate amounted to 2.4 points out of 5. For comparison, last year this figure was 2.09.

Screenshot: Evaluation of local deputies

In particular, this year the number of deputies with a score of "4" has significantly increased. In 2023, only three deputies received this grade, and in 2024, ten deputies received this grade: Natalia Horbenko, Valerii Dashevskyi, Vitalii Kim, Olena Kuzmina, Fedir Panchenko, Viktoriia Pereverzieva, Dmytro Sichko, Yurii Stepanets, Andrii Turitsa, and Dmytro Falko. At the same time, 15 MPs received a grade of "3" and 13 received a grade of "2".

14 MPs received the lowest score - "1", which indicates a decrease in the level of transparency and accountability in their activities compared to the previous year. In general, although the average score of MPs has increased, the number of outsiders has also increased: in 2023, there were 10 of them, and in 2024 - 14.

In total, the performance of 52 city council members was assessed.

Regarding the disclosure of biographical data, all deputies provided incomplete information about themselves on the council website, in particular, there is no information on their education.

50 deputies provided full information on reception offices and reception of citizens, but two deputies - Yevhen Pavlovych and Yuriy Stepanets - did not provide information on the time and place of reception. 14 MPs regularly hold receptions of citizens.

As for the use of social media for communication, 15 MPs actively use these tools to reach out to voters, while 32 MPs do not use social media at all.

Screenshot: Certification of local deputies

In 2024, 23 deputies regularly attend city council plenary meetings (more than 90% of sessions), while 5 deputies attended less than 10% of the meetings.

In terms of reporting, only 27 councillors prepared reports for the past year, which is significantly more than in 2023 (only 9 councillors). However, only 10 reports complied with the requirements of the law, and another 17 partially.

The texts of reports of 25 MPs could not be found on any of the information resources. At the same time, it is worth noting a positive trend in the preparation of reports: in 2024, 27 MPs submitted them, which is significantly more compared to only nine reports in 2023.

48 deputies published their income declarations for 2024 in the Unified State Register of Declarations, while four deputies - Andrii Yermolaev, Tetiana Kravchuk, Stanislav Martirosov and Serhii Tanasov - did not.

Earlier, experts of the Odesa regional organization ofthe Committee of Voters of Ukraine also made conclusions about the activities of Mykolaiv City Council after analyzing it. For more than two years, Mykolaiv City Council has been working and holding sessions remotely, accompanied by a non-transparent voting procedure, when it is not clear whether a deputy is present at the meeting. There are also a number of other comments on the organization of online voting.

Last year, experts of the all-Ukrainian campaign "Certification of Local Council Deputies" evaluated the work of deputies of 15 city councils, including Odesa and Mykolaiv, and none of them received the highest rating - five.

Анна Бальчінос