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 Research: Only 43% of local council deputies report their activities

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The Institute “Respublika” analyzed 24 cities: 11 regional centers, 11 cities of regional and district significance and 2 villages activists have been working with for a long time. “There are 880 deputies in all these councils. As of April 25, we collected reports of 382 deputies. This is 43.4% of the total number,” said Oleksandra Skyba, deputy head of the Institute “Respublika”, at a press briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. The reports were taken from websites of local councils, local media and official requests to all local councils. Several councils said they had not received the reports yet.

These deputies represent 31 political parties. Most of them are from “Petro Poroshenko Bloc”, “Batkivshchyna” and “Opposition bloc”. 45 of 117 deputies of “Batkivshchyna”, 17 of 36 deputies of “Oleh Lyashko Radical Party” and 22 of 105 deputies of the “Opposition bloc” have reported. “Deputies of the party ‘Solidarity’ showed the best results: 75 of 149 deputies and also ‘Samopomich’ – 35 of 77 have reported,” said Yurii Sereda, lawyer of the Institute “Respublika”.

The western regions showed the best performance – an average of 75% of the deputies, central – 35%, northern – 32%, eastern – 31%, southern – 25.5%. As of April 25, the highest reporting – over 85% – was in the city councils of Kropyvnytskyi, Yuzhne, Uzhhorod, Rivne, Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Lutsk, and Dobropillia in Donetsk region. Zero reporting was in the city councils of Derhachiv, Zhmerynka, Zaporizhia, Zinkovo and Rubizhne. Only one deputy of Kherson City Council and two from Skadovsk have published their reports. Yurii Sereda reminded that Article 16 of the Law “On Status of Deputies of Local Councils” obliges them to report on their activities to the voters at least once a year, and the local council – to set the dates of the reporting. “The report should specify the deputy’s activities in the council and its bodies during the reporting period, his activities in his constituency, problems and tasks set before him, his participation in decision-making by council and its bodies, and monitoring of implementation of these decisions,” he noted. The report shall also include information about work with voters. In practice, deputies often publish their reports either in the newspaper or on the council website, and not in the public format, as it would be appropriate. Although deputies must notify about this report 7 days earlier, they often notify the day before. Oleksandra Skyba stressed that due to the lack of interaction citizens do not understand why they should come to the polling station.

If the deputy fails to report, he can be withdrawn. There were such cases in practice. For example, in the village of Synytsia (Bohuslavsky district, Kyiv region), eight of 12 village council deputies were withdrawn, and the village head resigned. “I advise that the voters who are not satisfied with the activities of their deputies, or who see that the deputies do not report on their work in the council and its bodies, should create an initiative group and withdraw the deputies from the local councils pursuant to the law,” added Yurii Sereda.

 In June, activists plan to publish the research of activities of deputies based on the information in their reports and hold meetings on this topic with representatives of communities and authorities. “One of our proposals is to introduce an order that would regulate to which date the reports to be submitted,” added Oleksandra Skyba. The second proposal – to prescribe exactly how the reports should be published.