On January 30, the seminar for activists, journalists and everyone interested in transparency “How Can a Regular Person Influence the Authorities,” organized by Transparency International, took place in Sievierodonetsk.
At the event, 25 representatives of the public gained theoretical knowledge and practical tools which they can use to influence local authorities and increase transparency of their city.
Participants of the seminar while working with the ranking, Sievierodonetsk
Trainer Oleksandr Solontay, Institute of Political Education expert, together with the participants focused on budget monitoring and supervision of work of municipal enterprises.
The following topics were considered at the seminar: practical tools of supervision of the community budget and participation in the budgeting process, best publicity practices in budgeting; management reform and supervision of work of municipal enterprises. Also, together with the trainer, the participants did two practical exercises and worked on defining practices for involving citizens in the budgeting process in Sievierodonetsk and on defining the reform mechanisms for managing the municipal enterprises in the city.
Participants of the seminar during a heated dispute
As a reminder, Sievierodonetsk ranked 73rd in the transparency ranking of 100 Ukrainian cities. The city got only 22.46 points out of 100. The city did best in the area of information on work of the local authorities – 4.4 points and in the area of budgeting and contracts, which got 4.83 points. However, there are 4 areas where the city got zero points. The most obscure categories thus are housing and education, social services and human resources.
A picture of participants of the seminar together, Sievierodonetsk
The project “Make the City Transparent, Take Part in Governance” is implemented by TI Ukraine together with the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law as part of the project “Strengthening the RPR Coalition” implemented with the support of the EU.
