Mykolaiv Oblast Council holds a remote meeting, denies access to citizens
On March 9, two local councils in Mykolaiv held online meetings: the City Council and the Oblast Council. While the Mykolaiv City Council, whose meetings are held as conference calls, livestreams them on YouTube, the Oblast Council's meeting was effectively held in secret. This was reported by the IMI representative in Mykolaiv oblast.
The decree on convening the session starting March 6 had appeared on the official website of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council the day before. It says that the fifteenth unscheduled session of the Oblast Council will be held on March 9 at 11:00 a.m. remotely, in the conference call format.
21 issues were to be considered at the session. In particular, early termination of deputies' mandates, amendments to comprehensive programs, approving the jury lists of two district courts, approving the regional budget use report for 2022, hearing reports on the results of the Prosecutor's Office's work in 2022 by the Mykolaiv Oblast Prosecutor General.
The head of the Oblast Council, Hanna Zamazeyeva, announced the adopted decisions on Facebook. She noted that during the meeting, the deputies adopted several decisions, namely, amending to the "Turbota" program, approving the regional budget use report for 2022, supporting the creation of a Mykolaiv Oblast Development Agency, hearing reports on the results of the Prosecutor's Office's work in 2022 by the Mykolaiv Oblast Prosecutor General.
Clause 3 of Article 70 of the Regulations of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council specifies that the executive apparatus of the Oblast Council must inform the public about the procedure for accessing the livestream of the Oblast Council's remote meeting no later than 24 hours before the remote meeting.
Roman Holovenko, a lawyer at the Institute of Mass Information, noted that in legal terms, the regulation of the openness of remote meetings of local councils is not very clearly outlined, but if we base our conclusions ob the Regulations of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council (Clause 3 of Article 70), then the public should really have access to the livestream.
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