Odesa plans to simplify access to city council projects

In Odesa, draft decisions of the city council often appear too late, and financial applications are almost inaccessible.Ihor Koval promised to change this and introduce machine-readable formats.

This was announced by Ihor Koval, Secretary of the Odesa City Council, on the air of Intent.Insight.

The Odesa City Council should improve the transparency of document publication and provide machine-readable formats for access to big data, the official said.

In a conversation with Valerii Bolhan, editor-in-chief of the Intent publication, the official explained that currently, draft decisions are often published less than 10 working days before the session, and annexes with financial indicators are received late due to technical reasons or force majeure. This deprives the community of the opportunity to get acquainted with the documents in a timely manner and analyze budget expenditures.

Koval emphasized that the fight against this problem is ongoing: the share of publications with delays has decreased from 25% to 5-8%. He also emphasized that the majority of MPs carefully analyze documents and do not support violations of regulations. However, the introduction of formats that can be automatically processed by a computer remains difficult for most Ukrainian councils.

In addition to transparency issues, Ihor Koval spoke about his experience in academia and local government, as well as his work with students and the Youth Council. According to him, communication with young people inspires and allows shaping the country's future, as about 10-18% of students demonstrate high potential for democracy and civic engagement.

The official also emphasized that meetings of standing committees play a crucial role. He urged the deputies to actively participate in the work of the commissions, even if it is not within their direct competence, as open discussions allow voters to see how decisions are made.

The city council secretary added that the authorities' current priority is to ensure transparency of the council's work, broadcast meetings and engage the community in discussing key issues for the city.

Анна Бальчінос