The mayor of Mykolaiv has cast doubt on the findings of the public budget review

The mayor of Mykolaiv has questioned the findings of the public assessment of the budget. Screenshot from a video

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych criticised the results of the public assessment of the city budget, stating that the analysis failed to take into account the specific nature of public transport operations and used incorrect methods to compare different cities.

He made these comments during a staff meeting on 15 June, according to NikVesti.

According to the mayor, any assessment of effectiveness must be based on clear criteria and a comprehensible methodology.

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«You can’t compare kilograms with metres, you see? And you certainly can’t compare, for example, one company in Lviv with another in Mykolaiv simply by looking at the figures,» noted Oleksandr Sienkevych.

He expressed doubt about the accuracy of comparing Mykolaiv’s figures with those of other cities, particularly Lviv, without taking into account the specific nature of how municipal services are organised.

Separately, the mayor drew attention to the public transport sector. According to him, the assessment failed to take into account that there are two separate municipal transport companies operating in Mykolaiv — «Mykolaivelektrotrans» and «Mykolaivpastrans» — which perform different functions and are funded according to different principles.

Oleksandr Sienkevych explained that electric transport is a monopoly service, so the city pays the company for the transport work carried out — the number of kilometres travelled by trams and trolleybuses.

In contrast, «Mykolaivpastrans» operates in a competitive market alongside private transport operators. At the same time, it is this municipal enterprise that provides free travel for eligible groups of the population, and the city reimburses it for the associated costs.

«We have two transport companies, but this was not taken into account at all when assessing budget efficiency,» the mayor emphasised.

According to him, every decision and every funding mechanism has its own logic, so it is incorrect to compare individual figures without analysing the reasons behind them.

«It is not enough simply to say that there is a certain amount of money and a certain amount of transport in one place, and a certain amount of money and a certain amount of transport in another. We need to understand why it works this way,» he noted.

At the same time, Oleksandr Sienkevych spoke positively about the very fact of public scrutiny of budgetary processes and the city authorities’ openness to such initiatives.

«It is very good that there is public discussion of the budget in Mykolaiv and that there are organisations involved in this. Public oversight is, perhaps, better than that of law enforcement agencies, because it is public,» said the mayor.

He called on civil society organisations and experts to work together to develop clear criteria for assessing the effective use of budget funds, so that such studies take into account the actual realities of the city’s operations.

It should be recalled that in May, a report on the public assessment of the city budget for 2024–2025 and the plan for 2026 was presented in Mykolaiv. Civil society experts note that the city budget is unbalanced, sources to cover the deficit have not been identified, and significant expenditure on supporting municipal enterprises lacks sufficient strategic justification.

Among other things, the experts drew attention to expenditure in the electric transport sector and compared figures for Mykolaiv and Lviv. According to the budget programme specifications, the planned reimbursement for one carriage-kilometre in Mykolaiv in 2026 is 87 hryvnias.

For comparison, the authors cite Lviv, where compensation for one carriage-kilometre in 2026 amounts to 45 hryvnias. The report notes that this raises the question: why is the cost in Mykolaiv almost twice as high? The authors of the assessment also compare the transport indicators of the two cities.