Mykolaiv deputies propose to allocate ₴317 million of the budget surplus to salaries

Deputies at the session on 26 February. Photo: NikVesti

Deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council approved the report on the implementation of the budget for 2025. The remaining balance is to be distributed at the session in March.

The issue was considered on 26 February during the session, according to NikVesti.

At the end of the year, the city budget's revenues amounted to 6 billion 867 million hryvnias, while expenditures amounted to 7 billion 313 million hryvnias. As a result, a surplus of 317 million hryvnias was formed.

During the discussion, councillor Tetiana Dombrovska proposed to allocate the surplus primarily to increase salaries for employees in education, sports, culture, and social services. She recalled that on 26 December, resolutions were adopted to increase salaries, which requires additional funding from the city budget.

According to the director of the city council's finance department, Vira Sviatelyk, approximately 155 million 944 thousand hryvnias are needed to implement the salary increases . At the same time, the final calculations are expected in March.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the community budget currently lacks funds not only for salary increases, but also for their payment in general. According to him, the issue of distributing the free balance will first be considered by the relevant deputy commission, and then submitted for approval at the session in March.

The head of the budget committee, Fedir Panchenko, noted that the free balance funds will likely be directed towards paying salaries.

«Most likely, we will have to do so, but we will work on this issue at the next session,» he said.

At the same time, councillor Serhii Kantor expressed the opinion that, in connection with the new financial obligations, it is necessary to review the budget as a whole. In his opinion, mistakes were made during its adoption, in particular regarding the amount of funding for certain areas.

«When adopting the budget, we violated all the laws governing its adoption. Now we are 'reaping' the consequences of our decisions. I have spoken about this publicly. The issue is too complicated with regard to these resolutions, of which there were 26 and everyone knew about them. But for some reason, everyone ignored the proposed budget that was voted on. The issue is complicated. We need to return to the adopted budget. For me, the 1.5 billion allocated to the municipal enterprise is fantastic, and this also needs to be analysed and corrected,» said Serhii Kantor.

After discussion, the report on the implementation of the budget was put to a vote. The decision was supported by 30 deputies.

We will remind you that earlier, the head of the culture department of the Mykolaiv City Council, Yurii Lyubarov, said that the sector currently lacks more than 5 million hryvnias to pay salaries. According to him, the problem can be temporarily solved by redistributing budget limits from the months of the second half of the year.

Therefore, members of the city council's budget committee recommended adjusting the budget limits to cover the shortfall in funds for paying salaries to workers in the culture and education sectors.

As is known, the Department of Housing and Communal Services (DHCS) and the Capital Construction Department (CCD) of Mykolaiv performed the worst in terms of the city's budget for 2025. In particular, the CCD spent only 142.7 million hryvnias out of the planned 235 million, and the DHCS did not use 231.4 million hryvnias.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said that the Capital Construction Department and the Department of Housing and Communal Services were unable to spend the money due to problems with contractors.

Thus, the Capital Construction Department's (CCD) budget execution rate was 60.7%. At the same time, labour costs in the department were 100% executed: of the planned 8.8 million hryvnias for salaries and accruals during the year, the entire amount was used down to the last penny.

Execution of the 2025 budget by departments of the Mykolaiv City Council

• Executive Committee: cash expenditures — 1.2 billion hryvnias, which is 87.9% of the plan for the year;
• Department of Education: cash expenditures — 2.3 billion hryvnias, which is 95.6% of the plan for the year;
• Health Department: cash expenditures — 253 million hryvnias, which is 98.8%;
• Department of Labour and Social Protection: cash expenditures — 350.5 million hryvnias, which is 98.8%;
• Department of Culture and Cultural Heritage Protection: cash expenditures — 221 million hryvnias, which is 98.6%;
• Department of Sports: cash expenditures of 195.8 million hryvnias, which is 99.4% of the annual plan;
• Department of Housing and Communal Services: spent 1.4 billion hryvnias, which is 86.1% of the annual plan;
• Department of Energy and Energy Conservation: spent 57.5 million hryvnias, which is 92.8% of the plan;
• Capital Construction Department: cash expenditures — 142.7 million hryvnias, which is 60.7% of the annual plan;
• State Architectural and Construction Control Department: spent 10.4 million hryvnias, which is 96% of the annual plan;
• Department of Emergency Situations and Civil Protection: spent 96.4 million hryvnias, which amounted to 88% of the annual plan;
• Department of Municipal Property: spent 9.2 million hryvnias, which is 99.6% of the department's total budget;
• Department of Administrative Services: spent 40.8 million hryvnias, which is 99.8% of the department's budget;
• Finance Department: spent 22.6 million hryvnias, which is 56.6% of the annual plan;
• Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption: spent 12 million hryvnias, which is 88.8% of the annual plan;
• Zavodskyi District Administration: spent 87.8 million hryvnias, which is 99.7% of their annual budget;
• Administration of the Korabelnyi District: spent 88.3 million hryvnias, which is 99.7% of the annual budget;
• Administration of the Inhulskyi district: spent 94 million hryvnias, which amounted to 97.9% of the annual budget;
• Central District Administration: spent 93.4 million hryvnias, which amounted to 99.6% of the annual budget.

Earlier, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the remaining funds in the Mykolaiv budget at the end of 2025 amounted to about 300 million hryvnias, which is «the lowest figure in recent years».

As is known, the Mykolaiv City Council plans to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget. According to the city's calculations, its own budget revenues for 2026 are only enough to cover 82.5% of the actual needs, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.