Earlier, the Machukhy municipality hosted an experience exchange event. Twenty heads of municipalities of the Poltava Oblast came to adopt approaches to managing the work of land improvement utility companies in wartime. The event was organised by the team of the local Regional Office of U-LEAD.
The event focused on Druzhba, a utility company of the Machukhy Village Council, which services 24 settlements of the municipality, providing garbage removal and water supply services. According to Vitalii Turchenko, Acting Director of Druzhba, which is subordinated to the Machukhy Village Council, the company also provides equipment services such as tractors, towers, dump trucks, mowing, etc. The utility company has 11 pieces of equipment, a tender for a grader is currently open, and a tender for a garbage truck has been completed.
“The purpose of this experience exchange visit is to show other communities how the utility company manages its activities and works consistently in such difficult conditions. This requires both established communication with the locals and working with socially responsible businesses. The synergy of efforts of the entire municipality is the key to success,” said Iryna Balybina, head of this Regional Office.
There are many myths about the work of utility companies. Some say that they cannot be profitable, successful or competitive. Serhii Rybalko, Advisor on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government at the Regional Office, emphasised that the experience of the Machukhy municipality suggested the opposite.
“U-LEAD is aiming high — we wish to debunk such myths and promote the best practices of local self-government.”
According to Valerii Bilokin, head of the village of Machukhy, the municipality is learning a lot thanks to U-LEAD’s efforts:
“We see a lot of new things, learn from them and implement them in our municipalities. The problems in every municipality are almost the same, but everyone addresses them differently. That is why exchanges like this one are useful.”
As was stated by Iryna Balybina, this is the last such meeting for the heads of municipalities in the Poltava Oblast this year. However, numerous consultations and training sessions on the development of local self-government are scheduled for 2024.
Check out the progress of the visit in the report on the IRT TV channel.