Analysis, public finance

Open Society Foundation suggestions formed the basis for municipal action plan to prevent and reduce the risks of corruption in Kyiv city administration

Ivan Sikora, Open Society Foundation Director, has doubted the the estimated construction cost of Troyeshchina metro line, which was announced by Mayor Klitschko’s team. Construction talks on this major Kyiv infrastructure facility might be connected with the beginning of the election campaign, Sikora suggested.

The campaign aims to unshadow the resources of local budgets. The Kyiv example demonstrates how the billions of hryvnias remain in the shadows, despite the promises of the city authorities to make "a devastating attack on corruption." The presented methodological approaches, coupled with the joined action, will increase the effectiveness of public activists, journalists and bloggers’ fight against land, property and budget manipulations.

"The reforms start in Kyiv" and "To live in a new way" are the well-known election campaign slogans, which made VitaliyKlytschko a mayor, and his "UDAR" team a majority in the Kyiv City Council. The generous promises to fight corruption and hold the radical reforms remained on paper for more than five months.

The public discussion of the draft Kyiv city budget for 2015 took place on November 4 for the first time. The debate, however, is not likely to affect the major sources of corruption risks inherent in the revenues structure of the general budget, namely the payments for land and personal income tax.

Kyiv government attempts to legalize the land carve-up with new General Plan: an open letter of NGOs and civic movements.

Despite Klytschko controlled the majority in the Kyiv Council and was appointed as the head of Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), during his first 100 days he failed to implement any significant changes and Ukraine’s capital continues to suffer from the old problems

The text of the public address was generally supported by the participants of the round table "Anti-Corruption and Budgetary Policy Roadmap for the Kyiv Government". Open Society Foundation experts had finalized the address based on the discussions and further consultations.

The Director of the "Open Society" Foundation presented the results of a comparative study of the Centres for administrative services provision (CASP) in Desna district of Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv at the conference "Reform and public control in the provision of administrative services in Ukraine".

The Effectiveness of Spending of UAH 11,1 mln from the Budget Funds Remains Unclear

by the Open Society Foundation on the start of the 2014 budget process in Ukraine on September 10, 2013, Kyiv, Ukraine

Kyiv Budget: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Budget Policy./ By Oleksandr Babanin and Ivan Sikora