In February, 23-24, 2017, in Mykolayiv the Academy of Ukrainian Press and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany conducted a workshop that was dedicated to decentralization and administrative reform coverage peculiarities. Journalists, local activists and journalism students took part in it.
‘Don’t be afraid of decentralization, one should just apply some knowledge about it’, - mentioned Vitalii Zhaynyi, the expert. He outlined the legislative and judicial decentralization aspects, gave successful examples of administrative division, most typical problems and the ways to solutions. There was a discussion with the local activists on the point of right and wrong decisions taken by local authorities, their power and markers which are worth attention now, so that there would not be more problems in future.
The most interesting for participants was the problem of inability of local authorities to deal with unexpected revenue to the city budget due to the reform. According to journalists, the balance costs were put on a deposit account in a bank instead of using completely last fiscal year.
Media trainer Andrii Yurychko paid attention of participants to writing journalistic works about the conducting of tenders, procurements, budget funding distribution. He said, the most captivating publications actually concern the violations of local authorities, in particular, non-target or illegal funding distribution. However, if the local government took the decision to accumulate the costs, save them for the future and earn from interest payments, it hardly can be considered as a violation. Besides that, media can follow all the local budget expenses, write and push the civil society to reaction when violations are taking place.
A huge three-year joint project of the Academy of Ukrainian Press and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (with the supported of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany), is aimed at increasing of qualification level among Ukrainian journalists.
The event is organized by the Academy of Ukrainian Press in cooperation with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom with the supported of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
