Green Leaf has already analyzed the draft amendments to the city budget. The decisions published on the city’s official website on May 1 make it possible to analyze what exactly the city deputies voted for. Green Leaf examined the figures.

Overall budget figures

Revenue side of the budget increased by almost UAH 303 million. This is close to what was stated in the draft decision.

As financing of the budget deficit, another UAH 172.5 million was taken from the hidden unallocated UAH 1.1 billion .

Analysis of the expenditure side showed that reallocations also took place there. Following a “bad tradition,” the city budget reserve fund was reduced by another UAH 311.3 million, and another UAH 52 million of the deputies’ fund was allocated (a little more than UAH 100 million remains unallocated).

The specified UAH 838 million was distributed as UAH 823 million in expenditures, while another UAH 15 million went under the lending item “Provision of budget loans to business entities” through the Department of Economic Development.

We present the distribution of expenditures in a table. The table does not include chief spending units where the change is less than UAH 5 million. These are:

Name of chief spending unit	Amount, UAH million
Department of Education and Science	80.6
Department of Health	36.8
Department of Municipal Services	32.1
Road Management Department	11.8
Department of Transport, Communications and Traffic Management	25.9
Capital Construction Department	478.2
Department of Municipal Security	146.5

The Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health are more or less straightforward.

For the Department of Municipal Services the increase in expenditures was mainly due to increased financing of the City Target Program for Civil Protection of the Population, which had previously been severely underfunded, as Green Leaf reported earlier.

The Road Management Department received additional funds for major repairs of sidewalks.

The Department of Transport, Communications and Traffic Management received additional funds under the budget program “Contributions to the authorized capital of business entities.”

For the Capital Construction Department:

This includes UAH 219.5 million in subvention funds for projects (facilities and measures) aimed at eliminating the consequences of armed aggression, as well as UAH 54 million out of UAH 62 million in co-financing from the city budget. While the subvention funds are allocated under budget program 1517383, the co-financing appears under budget programs 1512010 (hospital building repairs) and 1517310 (water-main construction). It is not entirely clear why and on what grounds UAH 12 million had been allocated earlier.

It also includes UAH 72.4 million in subvention funds for projects under the Ukraine Recovery Emergency Credit Programme.

Funds were also provided for repairs and construction of educational institutions, medical facilities, protection of architectural monuments, other transport-related activities, and more.

The Department of Municipal Security received all UAH 146.5 million to finance the “Safe City Odesa” city target program. All these funds are being transferred to the state budget under program classification code 9800.

Unfortunately, however, not all the funds went to financing combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

For example, it is not entirely clear why the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center needed an additional UAH 1.8 million for office equipment and for such items supposedly “most necessary” for victory over Russian aggression as “payment for the production of insignia and other products.”

Also highly questionable in terms of bringing victory closer is the allocation of UAH 2.1 million to finance the activities of the Territorial Office of the Economic Security Bureau in Odesa Oblast. It gives the impression of a bribe to a law-enforcement body paid for by Odesa residents.

More details on funds allocated in 2024 to the “Safe City Odesa” city target program for transfers to the state budget, including a comparison with the previous session, are available via the link (Safe City Odesa 9800.xlsx).

In summary.

As of the end of April, Odesa had indeed slightly increased financing for combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but not to the full extent possible. It should not be forgotten that the city budget still contains a kind of “stash” in the form of unallocated balances from previous periods amounting to almost UAH 1 billion.

We should also remember the UAH 400 million city budget reserve fund, which the city authorities have been using for purposes other than its intended function for years.

The overall direction of the budget amendments also indicates that the city authorities are allocating funds either to correct their old “sins,” such as increasing financing for the civil-protection program, or to questionable projects, such as continuing to invest money in a water main for a private entity, which even the State Audit Service commented on.

Overall, looking at the budget indicators, it is hard to escape the feeling that this is an ordinary peacetime city budget. Because despite having more than UAH 1 billion in available financial resources, the city authorities are in no hurry to direct them to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to bring victory over Russian aggression closer.