About the Heads of Large Budget Funds
In Kyiv, there are numerous pressing issues across various sectors: from transportation to housing and utilities, from healthcare to road management. Meanwhile, the leaders of the relevant departments of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) enjoy substantial salaries that are added to their pockets every month.
For instance, the head of the Department of Economics and Investments of the KCSA, Natalia Melnyk, received a salary ranging from 29,000 to 120,000 hryvnias last year. Specifically, in April, she earned 100,956 hryvnias, in June – 106,360 hryvnias, and in August – 120,216 hryvnias.
The director of the Department of Territorial Control of the KCSA, Mykhailo Budilov, earned between 36,000 and 178,000 hryvnias. The head of the Department of Transport Infrastructure, Ruslan Kandybor, received from 42,000 to 154,000 hryvnias. These salaries can be compared to those in Europe, such as in Germany or France.
Financial Generosity for Budilov
Let’s analyze in more detail how the municipality paid the head of the Department of Territorial Control of the KCSA, Mykhailo Budilov, in 2024. This information was provided by the KCSA in response to an information request from the editorial team. Like some of his colleagues – heads of other structural units, Budilov also approached his superiors for financial assistance to resolve social and domestic issues. They obliged: in January, he received 53,544 hryvnias, and in July, his request for financial assistance was granted for the amount of 58,486 hryvnias.
1 Monthly bonuses are a traditional part of salaries in the KCSA. What were they for Budilov?
January: 7,078 hryvnias; February: 7,752 hryvnias; March: 7,382 hryvnias; April: 37,014 hryvnias; May: 14,156 hryvnias; June: 3,258 hryvnias; July: 7,078 hryvnias; August: 5,285 hryvnias; September: 10,336 hryvnias; October: 10,336 hryvnias; November: 15,505 hryvnias; December: 9,866 hryvnias.
As we can see, April was particularly generous with bonus payouts – 37,014 hryvnias. In April, Budilov also received sick leave payments of 1,920 hryvnias. Overall, he was on sick leave three times during the year: in January, April, and December.
Therefore, along with other allowances, the head of the Department of Territorial Control of the KCSA received the following salaries each month last year:
January: 89,989 hryvnias; February: 36,678 hryvnias; March: 34,932 hryvnias; April: 178,201 hryvnias; May: 74,405 hryvnias; June: 61,644 hryvnias; July: 134,305 hryvnias; August: 45,241 hryvnias; September: 68,937 hryvnias; October: 68,937 hryvnias; November: 74,106 hryvnias; December: 112,947 hryvnias.
Such payments must have been quite pleasing. They reached their maximum in April when a substantial sum of 178,201 hryvnias was credited to his salary card.
December was also rich in generosity: the salary was 112,947 hryvnias. Evidently, this significant payment in December was influenced by vacation compensation of 42,286 hryvnias.
2 The beginning of 2024 was also favorable for Budilov, as he learned about his January salary: 89,989 hryvnias.
Judging by such a hefty salary, Mykhailo Mykhailovych must be working diligently. After all, his responsibilities are considerable and crucial for the city. The Department includes management for: urban maintenance control, parking, and issues in the housing and utility sector. He also oversees the municipal enterprise "Kyivblagoustriy."
Among the main tasks of the Department are: monitoring the state of urban maintenance and territory upkeep, ensuring compliance with stopping, parking, and vehicle parking regulations. From open information it is known that there are nearly 700 illegal nighttime parking lots operating in Kyiv. What has Budilov's Department done to eliminate this illegal business? The community is unaware of this. Meanwhile, he consistently received bonuses for quality, high-performance work.
“Working Hard”
From Budilov's Facebook page, the territorial community should also learn how he works towards maintaining order in the city. We checked the posts on this page in 2024. In January – there was not a single post, while his salary for that month reached 89,989 hryvnias.
In February – there was one post, specifically a photo of Budilov with his fellow “Svoboda” party members as a memory.
In April, a brief post about placing temporary structures catches the eye.
“A few more decisions are ahead, and we will definitely put things in order in this area,” – promises Budilov.
Did they fulfill the promise? Recently, it became known that near the "Pochaina" metro station, "entrepreneurial individuals" registered ownership rights on containers as real estate to later seize land that is not only under this property but also nearby. This was stated by the head of the Kyiv Military Administration Timur Tkachенко.
“Under non-existent buildings, hectares of valuable Kyiv land are allocated. It could have been sold at auction for hundreds of thousands or even millions of hryvnias. This money could have been used by our community to provide dozens of thousands of strike drones for the front. But instead, the city’s land is being squeezed for a pittance. In this case, as in others, the traders aim not only to seize the land under the containers. They are ‘carving’ a much larger plot for their interests, not for the benefit of the community.”
The KMA has a list of similar plots throughout the capital that fraudsters can acquire for a song – as a result of manipulations with legislation. And these are not isolated cases; there are hundreds of such objects.
So where is the watchful eye of the director of the KCSA's Department of Territorial Control?
What else was significant for Budilov in April? He reported his presence at the city’s clean-up event and participation in the inaugural meeting of the new composition of the city accessibility committee. He writes:
“The main task is to ensure comfortable movement around the city for persons with disabilities and people with limited mobility.”
Has this comfort improved over the year? Substantially – no, in our opinion. And what was Budilov's salary in April? 178,201 hryvnias.
Perhaps May turned out to be more productive? A few posts about Easter, personal photos…
Then came the summer months. In June, Budilov reports that the Kyiv City Council supported “the draft decision and established new rules for placing kiosks, electric charging stations, vending machines, parcel lockers, terminals, and electric transport rental points. The project will be implemented progressively across the capital's districts over two years.”
3 He notes that there will be “uniform archetypes and requirements for the appearance of all objects” (verbatim).
Kyiv residents can clearly see what is happening with kiosks in the city, how they are “shuffled” around, and how many of these pavilions look terrible. The controlled chaos continues.
In July, there was only one entry on Budilov's page. Let’s remind his July salary: 134,305 hryvnias.
In August, Budilov congratulated everyone on Independence Day. After that, he "appeared" on his Facebook page only on November 24, stating that “the capital approved recommendations for the installation and operation of generators.” Questions arise regarding the effectiveness of monitoring compliance with these recommendations. When will the Department of Territorial Control of the KCSA inform about this?
4 On November 29, Budilov informed Kyiv residents that “autumn is behind us, and we are preparing for a challenging winter.” And that the Department “summarized the results of the work of communal services and units during the two-month beautification campaign that concluded on November 15.” Of course, there are figures on how many illegal dumps were eliminated, how many protocols were drawn up for parking violations,