Dec. 5, 2025, 3:02 p.m.
(ILLUSTRATION: Center for Public Investigations)
After the decision of the head of the Odesa City Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, to cut the salaries of the executive bodies of the city council by about UAH 34 million, members of the Standing Committee on Planning, Budget and Finance expressed obvious dissatisfaction.
To understand how salaries are formed in local government, the Center for Public Investigations analyzed key factors. It turned out that this reduction was only the first step in the necessary optimization.
The payroll fund is formed during the approval of the local budget for the year, which indicates the total amount of expenditures for executive bodies, and the managers determine monthly payments. The salary includes mandatory components - salary, bonuses for official rank and length of service - and incentives: bonuses for high achievements and bonuses. Bonuses are formed from payroll savings generated by vacant positions.
In 2024-2025, the number of employees of the MPA was constantly growing: in 2024 - 2100 people, since April 2025 - 2300. Trukhanov 's decisions to increase staff were not always explained, and in some cases, additional employees appeared even without an increase in salary. The elimination of some departments and the creation of new departments resulted in savings in terms of positions, but at the same time, the number of employees in district administrations increased.
Changes in the payroll also affected the Department of Finance: funds for salaries and accruals were included in the budget program passport, but disappeared after the changes were made. Most likely, these funds were used for larger bonuses.
In the 2025 budget, the salary was higher than at the end of 2024, due to changes in salaries and planned indexation, although only a part of the salary within the subsistence level was formally subject to indexation.
Interestingly, the average salary in the city of Kyiv is twice as high as the city average. The explanatory note to the draft budget for 2025 states that the average monthly salary in executive bodies was supposed to be UAH 21,000, while the average for the Odesa region in August 2025 was UAH 21,078.
The final conclusion is that the system of remuneration in the COS is characterized by contradictory decisions, selective application of norms, and inflated average figures per staff unit. Therefore, the reduction of the payroll fund initiated by the new city mayor looks logical and reasonable.
Earlier, the Center for Public Investigations analyzed how budget funds for the 2025 improvement program were allocated in Odesa under Trukhanov. The first part of the study was devoted to the Department of Education, now the attention is focused on the Department of Municipal Economy, which receives almost 80% of the funds in the area of "Organization of Settlements Improvement".
Анна Бальчінос