The anti-corruption public initiative "Return the Billions to Local Budgets" was presented on the International Anti-Corruption Day on September 12, 2014. According to the founders of the initiative, Kyiv-focused monitoring and advocacy experience may be useful for other cities in Ukraine.
The decentralization provides new opportunities for public participation in policy-making (including participation in the budget process) at the local level. However, there is a real threat of corrupt practices’ transfer at the local level and continued imitation of fight on corruption.
The initiative idea was a response to the needs identified in the course of long-term public monitoring of budget and anti-corruption policies in Kyiv, as well as consultations with political parties, civil society and journalists at the local level (in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa). The consultations were held in October and November 2014 in the framework of the project on evaluation decentralization campaign promises of politicians and the impact of decentralization on local budgets, as well as part of activities on revealing corruption and conflict of interest in public sphere.
Why did anti-corruption public initiative "Return the Billions to Local Budgets" start in Kyiv?
It's simple. Open Society Foundation has 5 years of experience in public monitoring of Kyiv city budget and provides the expertise for the initiatives at the local level in Kyiv. Much has been done at the municipal level. We have succeeded in demanding a public discussion on the capital city budget execution for 2014 and the draft city budget for 2015. We carry out an advocacy campaign against the Kyiv General Plan 2025 ‘named after Leonid Chernovetsky’. OSF put on the agenda of the local government the issue illegal construction, land acquisition and corruption related to land in the capital city. We investigate and draw attention to the abuses by utility services providers. OSF representative is the senior expert of the Reanimation Package for Reforms-Kyiv. We gladly share our best practices.
Misuse of land, property and budget in Kyiv is not something special. Similar cases occur in other cities of Ukraine.
Kyiv local community loses billions of hryvnias due to the decisions of local authorities. Kyiv city budget represents typical corrupt practices at the local level.
Land, property and budgets are the basis for enormous abuses at the local level. Systemic corruption leads to de-legalizing local budget revenues.
The list of typical problems and abuses at the municipal level includes, but does not limit to land, illegal construction, unaccounted trade (performed in so called Small Architectural Forms (SAF), advertisement and car parking, community property, operation of utility providers in private interests, etc.
The budget (public funds) is never enough, because the abuses ‘steal’ the public money.
The authorities change, but those in power stay (especially in the departments with the highest corruption risks). The new people act as predecessors, with minor variations.
In other cities the situation is not that much different from the situation in the capital. It is rather a question of scale. Therefore Kyiv experience is useful to other community initiatives.
What do we offer?
1. The comprehensive and systemic approach. We analyze not only budget and budget procurement funds, but also the causes of corruption and related abuses and manipulations that lead to privatization of public resources for the benefit of some politicians and interest groups. All these harm the interests of the community.
2. Directing community protest in a constructive direction. ‘Breaking the fences’ allows you to draw attention to the problem. But will you solve the problem this way? We analyze the policy and influence it (through blocking the decisions, initiating public discussions, reviewing the programs, initiating the changes in budget policy and finding allies, etc.).
3. Multidisciplinary experience. 5 years of budget and anti-corruption policy analysis at national and local level. We progressed from the analysis of the budget law implementation in the capital city to the description of corruption-related ‘black holes’ (losses) in the budget, and the analysis of corruption impact on budgeting, objective analysis of strategic city documents and targeted programs (in urban planning, land use, small and medium enterprises, etc.).
4. Comprehensible Kyiv budget. We simplified the perception of Kyiv budget by visualizing it. The budget data is available at the OSF web-page and everyone can have look at the budget process and contribute to its formation, monitoring and substantive discussions.
5. Cooperation with local community initiatives (on urban development and land documents (for example, Kyiv General Plan 2025 and detailed layout) against illegal constructions in the historic district, to protect green areas and secure the interests of small and medium enterprises to access local resources, etc.) and political parties in the city council.
What was achieved in Kyiv?
1. For the first time ever the discussion on capital city budget for 2015 was held in November 2014.
2. We blocked the adoption of absurd Kyiv General Plan for 2025 (we revealed the schemes for ‘stealing’ the land of the size of entire city rayon through change in designated use), conducted and continue to conduct advocacy campaigns by participation in the meetings of the Ministry of Regional Development, through public addresses and cooperation with the Reanimation Package for Reforms, etc.)
3. We identify and publicize the issues of ‘problematic’ construction (held contrary to current urban planning documentation), which may become or have become a source of conflict between developers and local residents.
4. We included the issue of illegal construction to the agenda of the local government and demonstrated how the city budget lost billions of hryvnias due to the land fraud. We influenced the blocking of illegal construction. City officials started paying attention to the problematic sites. We initiated the consultations with initiative groups on ‘problematic construction’ with the Mayor and influence further decisions of the members of the standing commission in the city council.
5. We drew the attention of Kyivites to the cost of corruption for the city budget. Currently we work on the development of urban anti-corruption program for the local government. The OSF also works on developing a new national anti-corruption program (State Program on implementation of national anti-corruption policy in Ukraine (Anti-Corruption Strategy) for 2015 - 2017).
Public activists often lack the competence and understanding of the legal intricacies, budget process and economic analysis, decision-making process, opportunities of the opposition and interest groups, law enforcement and judicial authorities, prosecutors and others.
Our initiative is open for every group interested in cooperation at the local level. These groups can be potentially interested in addressing specific local problems (corruption in utility services provision, illegal construction in the yards and the green areas, the quality of public services (roads, transportation, etc.). Such public activity should improve the quality of public monitoring at the local level based on the best practices (analysis of urban development strategies, urban target programs, budget policy, urban planning documents, index-cadastral maps of land, etc.).
What opportunities will the initiative participants get?
1. To monitor local policy and demand a clear position of politicians on specific problems of local development.
2. To become the participants of the discussions not to ‘tick the box’, but act as the influential players and prepare reasonable proposals for changes in budget policy at the local level; learn to defend the proposals in public.
3. To identify the land fraud and manipulation in urban planning and land acquisition, which are the bases of corruption at the local level.
4. To evaluate the cost of corruption for the city budget and identify the key beneficiaries.
5. To look for allies (stakeholders) with common interests to solve specific problems.
6. To evaluate the responsibility of elected politicians and encourage them to specify the position on local problems.
7. To effectively lobby the increase in local revenues and their further efficient use.
8. To prevent the conflicts related to illegal construction.
9. To use the advocacy tools – starting with investigative journalism through direct action with law enforcement, litigation, important and influential stakeholders.
10. To build a dialogue with the authorities and stakeholders.
The activists will learn to analyze the data on land, water, forest and urban cadastre and detect the abuse on the basis of the existing legislation.
We will be happy to enhance your influence on the local politics. Let’s unite to fight the abuses in land, property and budget!
Join the initiative:
Please register to participate in the activities of public anti-corruption initiative "Return the Billions to Local Budgets" in your city:
• Kharkiv;
• Dnipropetrovsk;
• Zaporozhzhya;
• Odesa;
• Mykolaiv;
• Kherson.
Registration form for each city:
The name of the organization or initiative group:
Contact person:
Website URL and Facebook page, if available:
Contact information: e-mail and telephone
What is your background in public monitoring and protecting the interests of the community?
What is the problem at the local level you want to solve?
