As of July 2019, there are 22 acting amalgamated hromadas in the Kyiv Oblast. 19 hromadas are now at different stages of the amalgamation process. Oleh Lyubimov, director of the Kyiv Local Government Development Centre of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, has reported these figures at the press conference.

“Nowadays, we have 22 amalgamated hromadas in the Kyiv Oblast. There are 17 hromadas established by means of first elections, and 5 other hromadas, where the first elections took place on 30 June. Besides, another six AHs are waiting for appointment of their first elections by the CEC. We also have hromadas that are at the last stage of taking decisions on their amalgamation processes.

 

 

In 2019, 16 AHs have had direct inter-budgetary relations with the state budget. Now, according to the Kyiv LGDC, own revenues of AHs budgets increased by UAH 121.3 million or by 112.6% in the structure of the consolidated budget of the Kyiv Oblast (compared to last year).

In the future, another 7 cities of oblast significance - Bila Tserkva, Brovary, Boryspil, Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi, Vasylkiv, Fastiv, Irpin - will become centres for establishing AHs.

 

 

According to the director of the Kyiv LGDC, the monitoring data given by the Ministry of Regional Development show that the Kyiv Oblast takes the 20th place in terms of hromadas amalgamation processes. Such rates of implementing the decentralisation reform, according to Lyubimov, have their own reasons. One of them is the lack of readiness depicted by the Kyiv Oblast State Administration during the previous years to have cooperation on decentralisation. This led to the fact that the creation of AHs in the Kyiv Oblast was delayed for various reasons, and the oblast over the past year had to catch up with the fact that other oblasts did in 2016-2018.

Among other obstacles in implementing the reform, Lyubimov has underlined the strong influence by political centres of various levels, ranging from village councils to the Verkhovna Rada, opposition from rayon councils, separate village and urban settlement councils, dependence of village heads from local business, political uncertainty at the national level.

 

 

“We expect the President of Ukraine to speak out clearly and consciously about decentralisation and to declare that there is no other way to complete decentralisation, and it is necessary not only to continue this reform, but to complete it," Lyubimov said.
Currently, according to the Kyiv Oblast Administration, amalgamated hromadas cover 17% of the Kyiv Oblast’s territory, having 18% of the Oblast's population.

 

 

The Kyiv Local Government Development Centre was opened in autumn 2015 with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, and the Centre's task was to increase the capacity of executive authorities and local self-government bodies in implementing the decentralisation reform.

 

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