Approximately ₴16 million is needed for unrealised projects in the 2021 public budget in Mykolaiv

The unrealised public budget projects in Mykolaiv due to the war are estimated at 16 million hryvnias. Photo: archive NikVesti

In Mykolaiv, approximately 16 million hryvnias are needed to implement public budget projects that were selected in 2021 but not implemented due to the outbreak of full-scale war.

This became known during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council, according to NikVesti.

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that currently, the city budget does not provide for these needs, as only protected and priority items of expenditure are financed. However, the issue of allocating funds for the implementation of public budget projects may be considered during the distribution of budget surpluses in the amount of about 310 million hryvnias.

«When we get to the redistribution of budget funds, we will propose a certain amount of money for this year's public budget from the 2021 projects. We have monitored and updated them. If the deputies say that this is 'not the right time', they will be carried over to 2027 along with the projects that will be selected this year,» explained Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Tetiana Shulichenko, director of the city council's economic development department, specified that the amount based on the results of the 2021 project review is currently about 16 million hryvnias.

At the same time, some deputies expressed doubts about the advisability of «automatic» funding for old projects that have lost their relevance due to the war.

«One of the projects in the Central District is the installation of bicycle repair equipment for 800,000 hryvnias. It seems to me that in the context of power cuts and the threat of blackouts, this is not an urgent issue. There should be a filter so that we can consider the relevance of each project based on the needs of wartime,» said Oleksandr Bereza.

In addition, at the meeting of the budget committee on 27 January, the further implementation of the public budget was also discussed. According to Tetiana Shulichenko, in 2026, the implementation of new projects within this programme is not planned — only the acceptance of initiatives, competitive selection and voting are planned. The first implementation of new projects is proposed to begin in 2027, for which the programme plans to allocate 21 million hryvnias.

According to Tetiana Shulichenko, all participatory budget projects have been implemented, except for those planned for 2022, which is due to the start of full-scale war. For these projects, a mechanism for implementation through the relevant city target programmes of the respective chief administrators has been proposed, subject to the availability of funding.

Mykolaiv public budget

It should be recalled that in September 2017, deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council approved the Regulation «On the Public Budget of the City of Mykolaiv». The city introduced a mechanism for involving the public in the distribution of funds from the city budget of Mykolaiv.

In 2018, Mykolaiv residents selected their first project as part of the «Public Budget». Nine large and nineteen small projects were selected as winners and shared 10 million hryvnias among themselves. For more information on the fate of the losing projects, please refer to Subsequently, Mykolaiv residents proposed 111 projects for implementation in 2020 as part of the Community Budget.

In 2021, Mykolaiv residents submitted 166 ideas as part of the «Mykolaiv Public Budget for 2022» programme, 125 of which were admitted to the vote. The winners were 40 projects with a total value of 20,347,980 thousand hryvnias. Among them were 12 large, 21 small, and seven social projects.

However, during the martial law in 2022, no funds were allocated from the local budget for capital projects. And since the «Public Budget» provides for such expenses, the implementation of all ideas was temporarily suspended.

In 2025, the Mykolaiv City Council, in collaboration with Save the Children International, held a Youth Community Budget competition.