In autumn, the active phase of the preparation of local budgets for 2019 begins. To learn new law amendments, exchange experience and professional knowledge in budget planning, experts on local finances from local government development centres attended the training “Local Budget Planning” organised with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

The training was aimed to upgrade the knowledge in local finance management with the focus on budget planning, learning key aspects of the budget policy for 2019 as well as modern electronic tools for the monitoring and control of the use of public funds in AHs. Also, the participants learnt negotiation skills for a conflict environment.

The opening of the training was attended by Alexandra Fehlinger, Deputy Director of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, Тіmо Biank, Head of the Group for Local Self-Government at the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, as well as Halyna Semenets, Deputy Chairperson of the Local Government Development Centre (LGDC) and Тetiana Matiichyk, Coordinator of the Central Reform Office (CRO) at MinRegion.

Olena Machulna, Deputy Director of the Department for Local Budgets, Head of the Administration for Local Budget Planning at the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, told the participants about the key aspects of the budget and tax policy in regard to the local budgets and interbudgetary relations in 2019 and answered in detail the numerous questions of the participants related to the challenges the AHs are confronted with when planning their budgets.

Karolina Inginova, Expert of the National Medical Service, Maksym Dud, Adviser of the USAID Project “Reform of HIV-Services in Action”, and Olena Reshetnyak, Representative of Kharkiv Expert Group on the Support of the Healthcare Reform, explained the essentials and the key aspects of the funding for primary healthcare facilities and explained the possible ways for the build-up of a more effective system of healthcare services in hromadas. Issues related to the funding of the basic level of healthcare in 2019 were discussed in detail as well.

The team of E-Data, the official portal for the use of public funds which has been supported by the GIZ project “Good Financial Governance” since 2015, described the possibilities to use OpenData, especially E-Data and the portal “.007”, for the monitoring and control of public funds in AHs, cadaster operation as well as processing of databases and registers.

Issues related to internal financial and budget control, budget discipline and procedures for the preparation of local budgets were presented by Yanina Kazyuk, CRO Coordinator for Financial Decentralisation, and Viktor Ventsel, Expert of the Financial Monitoring Group. Both speakers were focused on the key challenges which AHs might face during the planning of their budgets for 2019 and on their possible solutions.

The training also served as an effective communication platform where LGDC experts from different oblasts presented successful practices of AHs in budget management, exchanged thoughts on possible solutions for typical problems confronting AHs during the preparation and execution of their budgets. This time, the speakers were advisers from the Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn and Donetsk LGDCs.

Alexandra Fehlinger and Yulia Sybirianska, Adviser of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, presented the key areas of the technical and financial support provided by the Programme to amalgamated hromadas and discussed possible cooperation with regional LGDCs aimed to enhance the financial capacity of AHs.

The presentations made by the speakers served as a basis for a lively discussion and questions regarding various aspects of the planning and preparation of local budgets. Now, LGDC experts are in position to provide qualified support and consultations to finance specialists and heads of AHs.