On 22 February, a new Administrative Service Centre that will provide over 180 types of administrative services to the hromada and rayon residents was opened in the village of Nova Ushytsya in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

The Ukrainian and Swedish experts of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme provided assistance in the institutional establishment of the ASC, reconstruction of the interior of the premises, as well as furnishing and equipment of the Centre with specialised software. Due to the new ASC, more than 28,000 hromada and rayon residents received an access to high-quality one-stop-shop administrative services.

The new settlement-rayon ASC will employ 11 specialists, who have passed advanced training, developed by the Swedish and Ukrainian experts of the Programme. The ASC of the Novoushytska AH is one of the few in Ukraine joint ASC, when AH and rayon state administration work together in one room and provide over 180 services.

Susanna Dellans, Project Manager of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme’s Support to Improved Administrative Service Delivery, said: “We are very pleased to cooperate and provide support to such active hromadas as the Novoushytska AH, and congratulate its residents on the opening of a modern and comfortable Centre. From now on the high-quality administrative services will be much closer to the residents. I am convinced that establishment of the ASC will significantly increase the standard of living in the hromada and contribute to its sustainable development.”

Oleh Moskovchuk, head of the Novoushytska AH, expressed his gratitude to the partners: “We received a unique opportunity to join the Programme, due to which the hromada has opened a modern and comfortable administrative service centre. We are very pleased that our residents will receive high-quality administrative services in comfortable conditions, as well as will be able to take an active part in the hromada development. We are extremely grateful to our international partners and Programme experts for their significant contribution to the development of our region.”

On the eve of the opening, the residents were informed about the features of the ASC work, its advantages, rights and obligations of employees and consumers of services. The Centre is accessible to people with disabilities and has a children’s indoor play corner.

It is worth reminding that 26 ASCs will be opened in Ukrainian amalgamated hromadas within the framework of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme which aims at improving the delivery of local administrative services. The best practices for creating and improving the delivery of administrative services that are tested and implemented in the pilot hromadas of the inception phase will be applied to all ASCs to be opened or modernised within the next phase of the Programme. That is at least 600 ASCs by the end of 2020.