Mykolaiv Oblast budgets were open only formally

The Center for Public Investigations has investigated how military administrations in Mykolaiv region, from the oblast to the rayon ones, comply with the legal requirements to publish information on local budgets for 2025.

This was reported by analysts of the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the Decree of the President of Ukraine and the Law "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law," heads of military administrations have the right to approve local budgets, and their orders must be made public. However, as the review showed, most administrations use old websites of former state administrations with outdated and inconvenient navigation, which makes it difficult to find the documents you need.

Searching for the required order on the website of Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration turns into a real quest: the document on the regional budget, although found after several attempts in the maze of menus, is posted in a single PDF file, which directly contradicts the requirements of the current open data legislation.

A similar situation is observed on the websites of Bashtanka and Mykolaiv district state administrations, where resolutions are also published, but only in PDF format, which does not formally comply with the law.

PHOTO: CPR

A separate case was recorded on the website of the Pervomaisk District Military Administration, where the decision on the budget for 2025 could not be found at all at the time of the audit, as the last published documents dated October 2024.

Against the background of these violations, the Voznesensk District State Administration stands out as the only example of full compliance: the search on its website is organized logically, and the budget document itself, along with its annexes, is posted in an archived form in the formats required by the current legislation.

The general trend, analysts noted, is obvious: administrations are trying to ensure openness, but so far they have been 'opening' budgets mainly in the inconvenient and legally unstipulated PDF format.

Катерина Глушко