The leaders of the 2018 Transparency Ranking of 100 Ukrainian Cities are Drohobych (85.2 points out of 100), Mariupol (76.4), Vinnytsia (70.3), Pokrov (68), Dnipro (66.6). It should be noted that the list of the leaders is completely different from last year’s top 5, which included Lviv, Kropyvnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiiv and Kyiv.
The ranking shows if the information was proactively provided to the citizens, the quality of preventative anti-corruption measures and openness of local authorities to citizens who want to find out certain information.
The city ranking was compiled based on 91 indicators in 13 accountability areas. We took into account budgeting and finance, procurement, housing and communal policies, education, social services, information on the work of local authorities etc. Detailed information can be found on the website transparentcities.in.ua.
The general transparency level across 100 cities has increased from almost 30% in 2017 to over 41% in 2018. In 2018, 27 Ukrainian cities scored more than 50 points, an increase from 6 cities in 2017.
Drohobych, the leader of the ranking, increased its score from 46 to 85 in 2018, jumping from the 10th place to the very top. Positive achievements in the city include the electronic waiting list for housing applications, an archive of decisions on providing financial aid for the past two years; the city also scored the maximum in 5 areas out of 13 assessed by TIU analysts.
Speaking about the increase in points in 2017-2018, the biggest leaps were made by Pokrov (from 18.3 points to 67.95), Mariupol (28 to 76.35), Dnipro (from 25.6 to 66.6), Drohobych (from 46.2 to 85.2), Bakhmut (from 27.26 to 62.23).
The most transparent accountability area in Ukrainian cities is access and participation – its transparency level is as high as 62%. It should be noted that transparency of this area has grown by 15% in comparison with 2017 – 85 cities out of 100 have increased their score. Such indicators as the option to send an electronic application to the city council and public access to commission meetings without mandatory permission of the council members were among the most popular improvement areas.
The area of information on the work of local authorities comes in second by openness – it is almost 56% transparent. Compared to 2017, the transparency of this sector has grown by 10%, with 72 cities improving their score – by publishing announcements and messages from the city council on the official website, among other things.
The smallest increase can be observed in the area of financing and grants – the area has become only 5% more transparent compared to 2017.
The least popular indicators to implement are those pertaining to publication of annual reports of supervisory boards and administrations of municipal enterprises and publication of information on the review results of whistleblower reports on conflict of interest on unethical behavior of local official for the past two years – they are currently implemented in 3 cities out of 100.
“Currently, the decentralization process is underway in Ukraine. This reform can only be successful if the local authorities are accountable. Otherwise, problems just descend from the national level to the local level. Analyzing city transparency trends, we can observe, on the one hand, general improvement of the transparency level across 100 cities and readiness of certain city councils to cooperate with the community, and on the other hand, formalization of the very notion of transparency,” comments Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, chair of the Board at Transparency International.
TI Ukraine is actively assisting with transparency and accountability implementation at the local level. The project team is open to cooperation with regional authorities and is ready to assist all its representatives, provide advice and recommendations when they use our tools.
Find out more: http://transparentcities.in.ua
Point of contact: Alina Kobenko, communications manager of Transparency International Ukraine, phone number +38 093 064 88 65, e-mail: [email protected]
