Some heads leading amalgamated hromadas for already several years have already passed the period of initial decentralisation euphoria, and, having felt the whole burden of their duties, figuratively speaking, took off “rose-tinted glasses”, and rolled up their sleeves instead. Bohdan Dvoiak, head of the Oleshanska AH, tells about his everyday work with no pathetics and evasions.

– Mr Dvoiak, you have been heading the Oleshanska AH for two years now. What are your impressions of rural decentralisation reality?

– The elections were held in April 2017, and on 11 May, the first constituent session of the AH took place. However, in 2017, we still did not work as a full-fledged AH – each of the five village councils were still fulfilling their budgets separately. Our AH includes five village councils with 6 thousand residents. We have a lot of roads to maintain and, accordingly, economic responsibilities, etc.

– What are the most relevant issues in the AH today?

– Let's look at different sectors. In education, we have three main tasks: complete construction of gyms in Olesha; renovate the Budzyn Gymnasium and reconstruct the utility building into a pre-school educational institution in Deleva.

We have currently reached a more or less normal level of healthcare. No employee was downsized.

We carry out repairs of outpatient clinics and rural health posts. Although not expensive, but needed. We also bought a lot of necessary equipment, etc.

There are actually three out of eight villages supplied with water pipe network. The rest of the villages use the water from the well. This year in Olesha, we have finally laid the last branch of an almost 11-kilometre water pipe system.

– And how do you replenish the AH budget?

– The main revenues are, firstly, land payments, in particular for lease and land tax, and secondly, a PIT and a single tax.

– So, in your opinion, are there more pros or cons of amalgamation?

– It's been two years since the formation of the Oleshanska AH. Before I used to work as the head of the Olesha village council. So I have something to compare. Frankly speaking, my work became harder after amalgamation, because there was only one village, and now there are eight. My workload increased several times. Though in general, decentralisation has brought its positive results.

– But people are not obliged to know all the details of the management “kitchen”. In your opinion, did they feel improvements in the level of service delivery?

– To be honest, people have not really experienced changes. Moreover, we are in dispute with some rayon structures. Our AH is at the third stage of administrative service centre establishment. This will bring services closer to people. And they will definitely feel positive changes.

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE