Feb. 1, 2025, 10:39 p.m.
Odesa City Council 2024 Deputy Fund Allocation: Key Insights and Trends
Цей матеріал також доступний українською715
Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh
The deputy fund of the Odesa City Council is a part of the city budget that is distributed among the deputies for spending at their own discretion. In 2024, the total size of the fund amounted to UAH 244 million, which allowed each deputy to dispose of UAH 4 million. Experts of the all-Ukrainian civic campaign"Certification of Local Council Deputies" analyzed how Odesa deputies spent their funds.
In 2024, the largest amount of money from the deputy fund of the Odesa City Council was spent on the Health Department - UAH 85.8 million. The second place was taken by the Department of Municipal Economy - UAH 49.3 million. At the same time, one city council member who disappeared after the full-scale invasion and does not appear at council sessions, Nikita Avdeev, continues to participate in the distribution of the deputy fund.
Odesa deputy fund 2024
The deputy fund of the Odesa City Council is a part of the community budget aimed at addressing urgent issues of social and economic development of the city's territorial community directly on the initiative and under the control of the deputies of the Odesa City Council. The deputy fund is formed as part of the development budget and may not exceed 10% of its expenditures. According to the regulation, the deputy fund can be used only for capital expenditures.
The decision of the Odesa City Council dated 29.11.202 "On the Budget of the Odesa City Territorial Community for 2024" approved the deputy fund in the amount of UAH 244 million, i.e. 4 million per deputy.
In recent years, the amount of the deputy fund per deputy has been gradually increasing.
Image: Certification of local council deputies
Odesa deputy fund
- 2017: the amount of funds per deputy was 500 thousand hryvnias.
- 2018: the amount of funds increased to 1 million.
- 2019: the amount of funds per deputy reached UAH 1.5 million.
- 2020: the amount of funds increased by another 500 thousand, which amounted to 2 million hryvnias per deputy.
- 2021-2023: the amount of the deputy fund per deputy amounted to UAH 3 million.
- 2024: the amount of funds per MP increased to 4 million.
- 2025: 5 million hryvnias are allocated for each deputy.
Breakdown of expenditures by spending units
The largest share of the deputy fund expenditures in 2024 was accounted for by the Healthcare Department - UAH 85.8 million. The funds were used to purchase medical equipment and durable goods, namely X-ray machines, resuscitation systems, medical gurneys, etc.
Image: Certification of local council members
Odesa deputy fund departments
The Department of Municipal Economy ranks second in terms of the amount of distributed expenditures of the deputy fund, with UAH 49.3 million. In general, the funds were allocated for "capital repairs - works to eliminate accidents", repairs in residential buildings and administrative buildings.
In 2024, the Department of Education and Science became the administrator of about 39 million budget funds. For comparison, in 2023, the bulk of the expenditures in this area were spent on the construction of shelters, and in 2024, funds are being allocated for major repairs and emergency repairs in subordinate educational institutions. However, there are also expenditures for the equipment of shelters.
In 2024, UAH 4.4 million was allocated to the Department of Culture and International Cooperation. These funds were used to renovate the premises of one of the libraries, purchase a gas boiler, install backup power supplies, and replenish the library collection.
A small share of the depot fund was allocated to the capital construction department and the Khadzhibey district administration - UAH 148.5 thousand and UAH 59.7 thousand, respectively.
In 2024, the allocation of the deputy fund of Odesa City Council demonstrates a continuation of the priorities set in 2023, in particular, support for healthcare and municipal services. The bulk of the expenditures were again allocated to medical equipment and repair of housing networks, reflecting the urgency of these needs in the context of war.
Money for the Armed Forces
For the second year in a row, the Odesa City Council has been reallocating funds from the deputy fund to the army. For obvious reasons, the report does not specify the specific names of expenditures. However, all of them are made through the redistribution of city budget funds in accordance with the municipal target program "Safe City of Odesa" for 2020-2024.
These funds are managed by the municipal security department, which was allocated UAH 24.75 million, or about 12% of the total amount of the deputy fund. Funds for this item of expenditure were transferred by 11 deputies: Oleksiy Asaulenko, Oleh Bryndak, Serhiy Danyliuk, Oleksandr Edelman, Volodymyr Kornienko, Zhanna Mandrychenko, Vadym Morokhovsky, Petro Obukhovhttps://intent.press/news/localgovernment/2025/odesi-potribno-15-milyarda-na-tramvajni-koliyi/, Svitlana Popova, Oleksiy Potapsky, and Roman Senyk.
For comparison, in 2023, the amount of expenditures in this area amounted to UAH 40.6 million, which is almost one and a half times more. At that time, 31 city council members allocated funds from the deputy fund for the needs of the Armed Forces.
Unused funds from the deputy fund
According to the working group's report, in 2024, 53 city council members used the right to distribute the deputy fund. In total, the deputies' applications resulted in the financing of expenditures worth UAH 203.2 million, which is 83% of the total amount of funds allocated.
Less than 90% of the deputies used their deputy fund: Yuriy Schumacher (87%), Daria Rybak (86%), Maryna Boyko (85%), Nikita Avdeev (83%), Oleh Etnarovych (71%), Eduard Stas (62%), and Vasyl Ieremia (52%).
According to the regulation on the parliamentary fund, each MP must submit an application for the use of his or her parliamentary fund by May 1 of the current year. The report of the working group on the use of the deputy fund states that in 2024, about 350 applications from deputies were considered during 18 meetings of the group.
In February 2024, the city council amended the regulation on the deputy fund to address the issue of the impossibility of using the deputy fund by absentee deputies.
A clause was added to the regulation: "If a deputy missed more than 50% of the plenary meetings of the sessions of the Odesa City Council in the past year without valid reasons, by the decision of the working group of the Odesa City Council on consideration of the deputies' proposals on the use of the deputy fund, such deputy may be deprived of the opportunity to use the deputy fund in the current year." It is important to note that such a deputy "may" but is not necessarily deprived of this right.
According to the "Certification of Local Council Deputies" campaign, according to the voting records, two deputies missed more than half of the meetings of the sessions during the calendar year 2023: Oleksandr Edelman (attended 40% of the meetings) and Viktor Naumchak (30%). Although these MPs missed most of the meetings, they used the deputation fund in 2024.
Among the MPs who used the deputy fund in 2024, there is also a one hundred percent truant. This is Nikita Avdeev, a "non-factional" MP from the banned OPFL party, who has not attended sessions since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is also known that the deputy is abroad. However, this year, by the decision of the working group, he allocated 3.3 million hryvnias for the repair of residential buildings.
The city council's website does not publish minutes of the relevant working group's meetings, and its report for 2024 does not indicate the reasons for the absence of the deputies or other grounds for the decision to use the depot fund by these three deputies.
In times of war, most resources are directed to urgent security needs and infrastructure restoration. In the opinion of the Attestation experts, historically, the introduction of the deputy fund in local councils has raised many questions about the effectiveness and urgency of using budget funds in general. However, it is now being used as a tool to respond to the challenges and needs of the city and its citizens. Given that some deputies do not use the funds planned for the year in full or do not exercise their powers in accordance with the requirements of the law, the city council should develop clearer criteria for using the fund.