The Mykolaiv City Council website is set to be updated with funding from donors: the city does not have the funds to do so

Mykolaiv City Council. Archive photo NikVesti

The Mykolaiv City Council website is being updated and is in the final stages of development. As the city lacks the funds for this, donors are stepping in to help. They are also being asked to contribute so that Mykolaiv can connect to a mobile app.

This was revealed during a meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Housing and Utilities Committee, according to NikVesti.

Yevhen Bohachenko, director of the municipal enterprise «City Information and Computing Centre», noted that the city council’s website has long been in need of an update.

«The city council’s website has been in need of modernisation for several years now. However, as this is not considered a priority expenditure, we are working with donors. We have a plan in place to update the city council’s website using non-budgetary funds, namely donor funds,» said Yevhen Bohachenko.

According to Andrii Volkov, the executive committee’s chief of staff, the website’s development is already in the final stages: last year, donors worked with the council’s departments on the website’s maintenance and content. However, councillors have not been told when the website will be launched.

«Our colleagues from Denmark are currently working with us, and they are generally in the final stages of this website. The burden of its development has been lifted from us and handed over to the donors,» noted Andrii Volkov.

In addition, councillor Yurii Stepanets asked what kind of funding from donors was being discussed. However, the chief of staff did not provide this information either, citing the fact that all contracts are concluded by the donors.

«The City Council does not pay for the services involved in creating this website, and all contracts are concluded by the donors. We don’t even see them. We only interact with them regarding the technical aspects of its creation, but the contracts themselves are part of their commercial activities. We are in no way involved in that,» replied Andrii Volkov.

The Mykolaiv City Council website currently looks like this. Screenshot from the website

Yurii Stepanets also asked whether Mykolaiv was considering joining the Misto app, as other cities have done. According to the executive committee’s chief of staff, there have been proposals to create an app. But there is no funding for its development either.

«Of course, we are looking into how they are being used in other cities. We have also had proposals regarding the creation of such apps in various configurations for our local community. At the moment, we have not yet decided on the path we will take. And first and foremost, the big issue for us this year is that we have virtually no funding for its development. Therefore, I think we will continue to communicate with donors, and if the opportunity arises, we will also create such an app using donor funds, rather than using the city’s own funds,» noted Andrii Volkov.

Councillor Yurii Stepanets noted that the issue is not about creating a separate app, but rather joining an existing one. We could ask the developers for a commercial proposal to see how much it would cost.

«Could the e-government department send such a request directly and perhaps report back to the committee, explaining how much it would cost the city, so that we aren’t talking about some made-up figures and whether it’s expensive or cheap, but have clear, specific figures so that we really understand how we can manage this, because this is really about digital accessibility, convenience and, first and foremost, the comfort of city residents,» the councillor suggested.

According to Andrii Volkov, they will conduct a review of other cities regarding the app. But he noted again that there is no funding.

«In any case, we will carry out such a review in other cities. I would like to point out that we currently have a sum of funds at our disposal that barely covers our expenditure on staff costs and certain aspects related to maintaining our technical systems; in other words, we have no additional funding that we could obtain and direct specifically towards this project. And at the start of this year, we were even forced to let two employees go in order to keep the others on and keep things running, because we had no funding,» replied the executive committee’s chief of staff.

Yurii Stepanets summarised that councillors are working with charitable organisations and donors, so they too can seek assistance for the city regarding the mobile app.

As a reminder, the Mykolaiv Regional Council has established a new municipal institution, «Innovative Technologies and Networks», to administer and develop regional information systems and cyber security. It will also be responsible for implementing security programmes across the region.