A roundtable on Strengthening the Local Financial Initiative of Extractive Regions was held in Valky, Kharkiv Oblast, on 18 August. The event was attended by the representatives of local governments, extractive companies, the general public, and local media outlets from five extractive raions of the Kharkiv Oblast: Valky, Kolomak, Krasnokutsk, Kharkiv, and Derhachi raions.
The event was opened by Chairman of the Valky Raion Council, Vitalii Onosha. The roundtable participants were welcomed by Olena Kulyk, head of Directorate for Local Self-Government, Community Development, and International Relations at Executive Staff of the Kharkiv Oblast Council, who noted the importance for local communities to know how much minerals are extracted and how much taxes are paid.
Vitalii Filenko, chairman of the Board of NOVA Energiya NGO, told the participants about the effective use of the rent paid by the oil and gas producing sector for implementation of social projects, about energy efficient activities and improvement of the environmental situation.
The discussion of rent payments was also joined by Eduard Yurchenko, member of the Valky Raion Council and chairman of its Standing Committee on Local Government and Administrative-Territorial System Development.
The Head of Department for Interaction with Local Governments and Monitoring of Reforms at Executive Staff of the Oblast Council, Oksana Usan’ has informed the attendees about the implementation of Comprehensive Local Government Development Program in the Kharkiv Oblast. In turn, Olena Moroz, head of Department for Development of Territorial Communities, investment, and Project Management at Executive Staff of the Oblast Council has familiarized the event participants with the basic steps in writing the projects, for realization of which the revenues from rent payments made by extractive companies into local budgets could be used starting in 2018.
In the course of the roundtable, the representatives of local governments received useful recommendations for drafting their own plans for improving energy efficiency of settlements and raions, learned about the progress in EITI implementation in Ukraine, changes in the legislative and regulatory framework for extractive industry, and the problems of control over use of rent at the local level
The event was held under the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project with regard to the realization of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Ukraine component. The Project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research (IBSER).
Glyanec