In March, the team on improved administrative service delivery of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme announced a selection of hromadas to receive assistance in the modernisation and establishment of ASCs. The selection commission of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, consisting of the Programme experts, representatives of MinRegion and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, analysed about 250 applications from local self-government bodies, shortlisted for consideration, and selected 150 candidates for participation in the Programme.

We draw the attention of all the candidates that inclusion in the list does not imply unconditional support or full support, as a significant number of applications still require proper formal confirmation of commitments and verification of information (please read more in the official announcement on the results of the first selection stage).

Specific types of assistance and its volume will be determined jointly by the Programme and the hromada, taking into account the methodological approaches of the Programme to the functioning of the appropriate ASC, and results of the visit of specialists to each hromada, in order to assess in detail the real needs and identify measures for the modernisation and establishment of the ASC. In case of detecting ineluctable obstacles to hromada’s participation in the Programme or provision of inaccurate information, the application may be rejected from Programme’s support at any stage of communication and preparation of the terms of reference for cooperation.

Starting from 21 May 2018, the authorised specialists of the Programme will be individually contact each hromada from the list. During May-July 2018, a detailed terms of reference with hromada and Programme’s commitments will be prepared for each hromada.

It is worth reminding that in general there will be four rounds with up to 150 candidates for participation in the Programme selected in each round. Thus, by April 2020, up to 600 hromadas will be supported in modernisation and establishment of ASCs.

***

We note that the main reasons for the rejection of applications of hromadas in this selection round were as follows:

• submission of applications by local self-government bodies and local executive bodies not belonging to the Programme’s target group;
• lack of information in the application for its assessment (including insufficient information on the premises, necessary photographs);
• lack of proper premises for the ASC and insufficient information in the application on any prospects for the timely arrangement of such premises and/or lack of information on financing of the relevant expenditures.

The list of candidates by oblasts is available in Ukrainian HERE