On Monday, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman held a meeting with the participation of experts dedicated to legislative support to decentralization of power and reformation of local self-government.
Other meeting's participants were Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing Public Utility Economy Hennadii Zubko, and representatives of the Presidential Administration.
The participants discussed the status of elaboration of the draft laws required to implement the decentralization constitutional amendments. In particular, the draft law "On prefects" was presented in the frames of the meeting.
The document defines prefects' key functions, first of all the examination and study of decisions passed by local councils. It was noted that the office of prefects should retain the balance between branches of power. In this contexts, Groysman noted it was important to delegate appropriate liabilities as well as authorities to prefects. The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada noted there should be mechanisms allowing to bring a prefect to responsibility for illegal actions or inactivity.
Another topic of the meeting was the settlement of problems of unified territorial communities. The participants also discussed draft laws on decentralization of power that would not envision amending the Constitution of Ukraine.
Groysman advocated thorough regulation of budget issues for local councils. The Chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament expressed confidence that to ensure such a regulation the Verkhovna Rada and the Government should intensify their work to adopt the state budget for 2016.