Supervision of the legality of local government decisions must be proportionate, preventive and transparent.

Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, made this statement in an interview with the Decentralisation portal.

‘It should not put pressure on communities; rather, it should protect them from unlawful decisions. It is primarily a preventive tool: by consulting and communicating with state supervisory bodies, we can prevent violations before they become a problem,’ noted Oleksii Riabykin.

According to the Deputy Minister, supervision also protects communities and their officials from administrative decisions being subject to scrutiny by law enforcement agencies.

‘Often, it is precisely the lack of clear procedures that leads to conflict situations. Having a clearly defined state supervisory body and transparent procedures is a safeguard against unnecessary problems and manipulation, emphasised the Deputy Minister.

According to Oleksii Riabykin, digitisation will help to avoid ‘manual’ intervention.

‘When every act of a local government is entered into a digital register with open access for citizens, experts, international partners and journalists, it effectively prevents any ‘manual’ interference. Transparency is a two-way process. The public must be able to see all decisions, understand their rationale, and influence the process.’

He also recalled that just one day of voting in the Verkhovna Rada, when MPs failed to pass Draft Law No. 13150 on supervision, cost Ukraine EUR 710 million.

‘The draft law was perfectly ready for adoption: it met indicator 9.1 and was supported by the European Commission and three out of four local government associations.’

Currently, a new Draft Law No. 14048 has been registered in the Parliament, which provides for supervision without creating a separate Register of Local Government Acts and defines the procedure and levels of supervision.

‘The document also concerns the personnel reserve and the establishment of a civil service for heads of district state administrations, which will act as one of the levels of supervision. The Ministry will certainly provide its analysis, explained the Deputy Minister.

Speaking about this model, Mr Riabykin said that it achieves a balance between communities exercising their powers and state control. This creates trust and effective partnerships that benefit citizens.

Read the full interview with Oleksii Riabykin HERE.