One in five orders issued by the Odessa authorities is …

One in five orders issued by Serhiy Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration (MVA), is not published on the official website.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The Center reviewed 442 orders issued by Acting Mayor Ihor Koval and 224 orders issued by MVA Head Serhiy Lysak, and found that neither the mayor nor the MVA publishes all documents. This is indicated by discrepancies between the number of published orders and the latest order number.

Specifically, the mayor’s main series goes up to No. 414, but only 395 have been published. Consequently, nineteen documents are missing. Some of these orders were issued in late June, so they may simply not have had time to be published yet. However, five order numbers (Nos. 63, 84, 128, 154, 290) are scattered throughout the entire half-year, so they are simply missing.

The situation regarding the publication of orders on the MBA website is even worse. The latest issue is No. 282, but only 222 have been published. About sixty orders are missing from the website, meaning one in five is missing. At the same time, there is no concentration of omissions at the end of the quarter. Of the first 34 orders, at least 13 are missing, and in May–June there is an entire block of missing documents from No. 203 to No. 225.

Experts at the Center for Policy Analysis note that the law does not prohibit classifying individual acts as confidential, but requires at least an indication of their existence.

Of the more than 1,000 personnel orders issued by the mayor, only 45 have been made public. This does not constitute a violation, as most personnel documents contain personal data and, by law, may not be published. Appointments of officials that are of public interest are posted on the website.

In addition, it was found that the Odesa authorities do not always comply with the Law “On Access to Public Information,” which requires that a document be published no later than five business days after the date of approval. The mayor meets the legal deadlines for publishing orders in 93 out of 100 cases, while the City Council does so in 95 cases. On average, orders are posted on the website three to four days after being signed.

No instances of orders being assigned retroactive numbers were found. In all series, the numbers increase strictly according to the dates of signing. However, there are individual orders that were published before their signing dates. For example, Igor Koval’s Order No. 159—“On Additional Measures for Celebrating Easter”—was signed on March 24, but the webpage was created on March 10. Consequently, either a mistake was made in the date, or the document was backdated.

Similar anomalies exist in the MBA. In particular, an order with the duplicate number “290/203-2026” was identified, as well as a personnel act that ended up in the general list.

In Odesa, the renovation of a school kitchen, funded by the EU and the local budget, may be awarded to a company that has been repeatedly mentioned in criminal proceedings and journalistic investigations. The firm is the sole bidder for the project. Experts from the Center for Policy Analysis (CPA) analyzed the tender and gathered information about the company.

Юлія Калабайда

One in five orders issued by the Odessa authorities is not posted on the official website

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