Transparency of budgetary processes in hromadas, on the one hand, speaks for the willingness of local authorities to hear public opinion and to be guided by it when making budget-related decisions. On the other hand, it allows hromada residents to monitor the quality, effectiveness of budget decisions both during their adoption and in execution, said Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, on the sidelines of the ceremony of awarding the winners of the Crystal of the Year Budget Transparency Rating among Ukrainian amalgamated hromadas and cities.

The ceremony took place in Kyiv on 29 January. This is the first in Ukraine award for budget transparency, which simultaneously shows the state of affairs in the budget sphere and serves as a guideline for indicators and practices of budget process transparency.

“During the implementation of the local self-government reform, budget decentralisation managed to achieve a lot of qualitative results, including the change in the mentality of hromada residents, especially those hromadas that today are active reform participants. They demonstrate strong cohesiveness and determination for actions that gradually change the lives of their hromadas for the better, show an interest in everything that happens in these hromadas. It is pleasant that cities and hromadas respond to society’s request and open the door to those places that yesterday seemed unexplored brushwood, such as the budget process,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda.

He added that budget transparency and openness enhances public trust in local authorities, contributes to the improvement of social policy and allocation of budget funds.

“If people understand the actions of the authorities, and such actions comply with their requests, they will always support such a government body. Hromadas in Ukraine demonstrate their readiness to help the residents understand the “language” of local budgets and jointly perform them. The Crystal of the Year is a confirmation of these words. I am convinced that next year significantly more hromadas will take part in the initiative to evaluate local budget transparency,” said the First Deputy Minister.

It should be noted that the Crystal of the Year rewards the best cities and hromadas evaluated by an internationally recognised methodology. All nominees were rated by 34 criteria. This methodology is a list of goals to be achieved by the municipalities so that it can be stated that all financial processes are properly organised. This is a picture of the future ideal funds’ management of cities and hromadas, when all stages of the budget process – from planning to reporting – are transparent and understandable for taxpayers, who, in fact, fill these budgets. The methodology has been developed and recognised by a consortium of international and Ukrainian organisations working to improve the quality of governance and financial management.

The details of the ceremony and the winners of will be announced on decentralisation.gov.ua in the following materials.