The Government continues to create a regulatory framework to complete the decentralization process. The documents have been approved to launch the process of formation and reorganization of district state administrations in Ukraine. The relevant order was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on December 16.

The meeting of the Government also approved the Procedure for the formation and reorganization of district state administrations, including the transfer of property, rights and responsibilities of the DSA, which ceased to operate due to changes in the administrative structure.

"Since district state administrations form draft district budgets and submit them to district councils for approval, the issue of streamlining the DSA system according to the new territorial structure is extremely important nowadays. This year is coming to an end and next year the new districts should enter with a budget. The full functioning of districts depends on this," said Oleksii Chernyshov, Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine.

It should be noted that as a result of the decentralization of power in Ukraine, the Government and the Verkhovna Rada created 1,469 territorial communities instead of 11,500 and formed 136 districts instead of 490. Along with the reduction in the number of districts, the number of district state administrations should be reduced.

Until now, the procedure for the formation and liquidation of district state administrations has not been determined by law, and therefore, there were no legal grounds for their reorganization. On December 6 this year, the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Regulation of Certain Issues of Organization and Activity of Local Self-Government Bodies and District State Administrations" came into force, aimed to bring their system in line with the new administrative system.

It is expected that 320 district state administrations will be reorganized by joining 100 RSAs in the administrative centers of the new districts, and there will be set up 13 DSA out of another 40 in the new districts in which district state administrations were previously absent.

The process of reorganization of the DSA will be coordinated by the regional state administration. An RSA head must form reorganization commissions within 20 days and approve their personnel.

The commissions, in particular, will be responsible for the state registration of new DSAs and the reorganization of old ones, inventory and transfer of property, preparation and submission of financial and accounting reports, and transfer of staff.