Having received guidance and advice, as well as practical knowledge under the Budget Stabilisation Plan project implemented by U-LEAD with Europe, the finance professionals of the Marazliivka municipality (Odesa region) were able to cut local budget spending by UAH 250,000.

This was announced by Anna Horodetska, Head of the Finance Department of the Marazliivka Village Council, who participated in the project’s activities.

“I am very grateful to the U-LEAD experts for such a timely and useful project. Together with them, we analysed the expenditures and revenues of our budget in the course of engagements. We went through each step and realised that we had to rethink our activities. For example, we planned to spend a lot of money on the development of a regulatory monetary assessment. But the expert suggested how it can be done differently. This has already saved us UAH 250,000 for other important needs of the municipality,” said the finance professional. 

The Budget Stabilisation Plan project brought together representatives of 40 municipalities from all over Ukraine. Southern regions were represented by ten municipalities: Marazliivka, Fontanka, Kushuhum, Kobleve, Vilniansk, Tomakivka, Mahdalinivka, Vasylkiv, Dmitrivka and Priiutivka. The project expert for these regions is Oleksandr Ivanina, Expert at the Institute of Budget and Socio-Economic Research (IBSED), and his tandem partner is Olesia Holynska, Advisor on Local Finance and Management of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Odesa region.

Over the course of two months, each of the participating municipalities conducted a comprehensive analysis of more than 150 budget indicators. Based on the findings, together with experts, they developed special tools that would facilitate assessing revenues and expenditures, identifying opportunities for balancing funds and mitigating financial risks.

According to Olesia Holynska, the Budget Stabilisation Plan is a unique document that responds to the needs of a specific community and cannot be reused as is. However, experience and best practices in this area can be applied to other local self-government bodies.

“The municipalities in the South have worked very hard. For instance, three out of 10 participating municipalities have officially established working groups that have developed a rather realistic budget stabilisation solutions that are ready for implementation. This is a leap forward,” the advisor said.

Oleksandr Ivanina provided advice on developing a budget stabilisation plan. “Stabilisation measures should be based on people’s needs and accumulate human resources.”

“Even the best infrastructure, in which hundreds of millions have been invested, can be destroyed, and the only thing left will be the human resources,” he said. 

He added that all stabilisation measures should be based on local economic development.

After all, local economic development is the source of the primary accumulation and use (stabilisation) of municipal resources such as municipal property, human resources, the budget, etc. According to the expert, local economic development should have stable indicators in wartime and show steady growth in the post-war period.

“The U-LEAD Programme was the first to offer municipalities a project to develop budget stabilisation plans. This is a unique experience for local self-government bodies. We plan to invite project participants to exchange experience at the events for finance professionals in 2023,” said Yuliia Molodozhen, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Odesa region.