Serhiy Chernov, head of the Kharkiv Oblast Council, president of the Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils, told about the complexity of the budget process in connection with decentralisation on the air of Hromadske Radio.

He said that in course of four years of local self-government reform there have been significant changes, including financial decentralisation.

The share of local budgets in the consolidated budget of Ukraine has increased from 46% to almost 51%. Almost one percent per year is a lot. At the beginning of the reform own revenues and fees in local budgets did not exceed 1%, and now they increased up to 30%.

Due to appearance of significant additional financial resources on the ground, certain ministries try to entitle local self-government bodies with authorities, that are not specific to these governmental institutions, including their funding from local budgets.

At the same time, property is not transferred to the ownership of hromadas of the oblast, the policy in the field of secondary vocational education remains exclusively in the state competence, and these educational institutions are financed by local self-government bodies of the oblast or other level, depending on where they are and according to what is written in the Budget Code.

“I cited only one example, but the same can be found in the healthcare or social protection sectors. Such phenomena discredit the reform and may cause social tension,” says Serhiy Chernov.

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