Contractors to blame: Sienkevych explained why the Capital Construction Office and the Department of Housing and Communal Services were unable to spend ₴300 million of the budget

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the Capital Construction Office and the Housing and Utilities Department were unable to spend 300 million hryvnias of the budget in 2025 due to problems with contractors.

He made this statement during his annual activity report, according to NikVesti.

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 of the planned 235 million hryvnias, and the DHCS did not use 231.4 million hryvnias.

«Have you assessed why this happened? We see that the greatest underperformance is in the Department of Housing and Communal Services and the Department of Capital Construction. This is already a systemic issue: every year, 30–40% of the budget is implemented. Have you worked on correcting these mistakes? Perhaps we need to change our approach. After all, we are spending money on their salaries, but we are not actually seeing any results,» asked Kateryna Sereda, editor-in-chief of NikVesti.

«Perhaps. Next week, the Capital Construction Office and the Department of Housing and Communal Services will hold an open report on the results of their work. They will prepare presentations for each area: what budget was allocated, what projects were implemented, how much money was spent and how much was returned to the budget, with an explanation of the reasons,» replied Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Oleksandr Sienkevych during his report on activities in 2025. Photo: NikVesti

He added that the reasons for non-fulfilment were objective and subjective, one of which was that employees were being taken away by the Territorial Recruitment Center.

«The TRC takes away employees, which stops work for a month, two, three, four. We terminate the contract or work on adjusting the estimate, or resolve other issues. As for subsidies, in order to receive them, we must include this money in the budget. For example, school №38, a contractor comes in and starts work, we reserve funds for him from co-financing. Again, people go to work, the TCC stops. Everyone goes to the front, of course, work stops. We need to finish this and that, but there are no people. They look for people, finish something, receive part of the funds, start messing around, and again there are not enough people,» summarised Oleksandr Senkevich.

The departments of Deputy Mayors Korenev and Andriienko performed worst in terms of the Mykolaiv budget: what is known

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According to NikVesti analysis of data on the use of budgetfunds at the end of the year, the lowest percentage of implementation was recorded by the Capital Construction Department (UKS) under Deputy Mayor Serhii Korenev, which spent only 142.7 million hryvnias of the planned 235 million hryvnias. Thus, their budget execution rate was 60.7%.

At the same time, labour costs in the department were 100% fulfilled: of the planned 8.8 million hryvnias for salaries and accruals during the year, the entire amount was used down to the last penny.

Thus, according to the results of 2025, 92.3 million hryvnias remained unspent, which the Capital Construction Department was supposed to spend on capital expenditures, namely repairs, reconstruction and the purchase of fixed assets.

The largest department in terms of unused funds at the end of the year was the Department of Housing and Communal Services (DHCS). Its work is supervised by the deputy mayor, Yuriy Andrienko.

Of the planned 1.6 billion hryvnias in expenditures, the DHCS spent 1.4 billion (86%). 231.4 million hryvnias remained unused. The lowest percentage of implementation was for capital expenditures, namely the repair of the housing stock, where only 74.4 million hryvnias (28.8%) of the planned 258 million hryvnias were spent. However, salary expenditures were implemented at 100%.

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 annual plan;
• 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 real need, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.