Almost three years have passed since the formation of the first amalgamated hromadas (AHs). Since then, hundreds of hromadas have undergone the process of reorganisation, resolved thousands of personnel issues, and made plenty of decisions.

At the same time, the first months of work of the newly elected councils, in particular holding of the first sessions, remain particularly vulnerable. Many of the decisions that need to be taken are new to local self-government bodies, and the patterns of neighbours are either not perfect themselves or are no longer in line with the legislation that has changed since then. As a result, mistakes occur.

The monitoring results show that with each new wave of formed AHs, the number of mistakes decreases, and their nature does not usually lead to any negative consequences for the council. However, even such mistakes should be avoided, and here are the most common ones.

1. Signing the first decisions by the head of the TEC.

2. Adoption of the council’s decision, which terminates the powers of the chairman, deputies or council of the previous convocation.

3. Absence of the information on the oath of office of a local self-government official in the council’s decision, minutes of the plenary session and in the work record book of the village / settlement / city head.

4. Liquidation of legal entities – local self-government bodies, creation of liquidation commission.

5. State registrar's announcement on reorganisation and establishment of the term for filing creditors’ claims.

6. Empowerment of the secretary of the settlement, city council with the powers of the secretary of the executive committee.

7. Resolving of the issue of assigning starosta’s responsibilities not at the first meeting.

8. Incorrect numbering of convocations.

9. Use of the term "head of the council" instead of the village, settlement, city head.

10. Imposition of starosta’s duties not on the former head or the person, who performed his/her duties, but on another person.

11. Noninclusion of the record about the reorganisation of the village and settlement councils, included in the AH, in the work record books of the employees.

Detailed methodological recommendations and sample documents for the first steps of amalgamated hromadas (for AHs, where the first elections were held on 29 April 2018) can be downloaded here.

Explanations on their application, as well as answers to other questions, can be obtained from the Local Government Development Centres of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, operating in each oblast.

The publication was prepared by:

Marsym Bryzytskyi, expert of the Analytical and Legal Group of the Central Reform Office under MinRegion;

Lesya Fedchenko, expert of the Analytical and Legal Group of the Central Reform Office under MinRegion.

The authors are grateful for the materials provided by Nataliya Dankovska and Tetyana Guliyan, legal advisers from the Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhya Local Government Development Centres.

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE