Ternopil City Council withholds data on officials' salaries until media outlet appeals to Commissioner

The Ternopil media outlet 20 Khvylyn only received the full data on the salaries of the Mayor and all his assistants, advisors, and deputies after appealing to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner, chief editor Natalia Burlaku reports on Facebook.

"20 Khvylyn regularly reports on the salaries of officials of various structures. We don't wait for the annual declaration reports. And this is definitely not our first material. But it took three months to get full data on the salaries paid to Serhiy Nadal, his deputies, assistants and advisors. We had the long 'song and dance' with the City Council, who either told us they would have to print out 122 pages, which no one asked for, or gave us 'bare data' on total amounts without itemization. But we did get the 'full picture' in the end, although we had to turn to the Human Rights Commissioner for help. At his request, we were given an opportunity to review all the materials we requested,” the media outlet's head wrote.

According to 20 Khvylyn, the journalists tried to obtain data on the salaries paid to City Council officials as of December 16, 2024, which is when the first query was sent.

The City Council extended the query processing period for 20 days and later respondend with a request to pay 336 UAH, since that is how much printing out copies of all documents (122 pages) would cost. However, the media outlet was asking to send the response by email.

“Since the City Council did not provide us with the first 10 pages of data free of charge, as they were supposed to according to the Law of Ukraine 'On Access to Public Information', the journalist replied to the City Council, explaining that the requested information is of public interest and therefore no fee should be charged for copying and printing such information. But the City Council disagreed with this statement and refused,” the media outlet reports.

In their next query, the media workers asked for the first 10 pages of the requested information and “to designate a room for us to review the rest of the documents or their copies, make extracts from them, take photographs, etc., which also complies with the Law of Ukraine 'On Access to Public Information.'”

20 Khvylyn journalists report that the City Council did respond after that, providing them with data on the salaries accrued and paid to the city mayor, his deputies and advisors. However, the information was summarized and did not list the specific bonuses, additional payments, material benefits, vacation pay, etc., which the journalists had asked for in the first query.

After that, the media outlet's journalist reported the violation of the right to access public information to the Human Rights Commissioner. Only then did the journalist receive the first 10 pages of the requested information by email and was able to review all 122 pages of documents in person at the City Council.

“As it turned out during our visit to the City Council, the number of pages was explained by the fact that they were preparing to give us information on the salaries of all City Council employees, and not just the mayor, his deputies and advisers,” wrote 20 Khvylyn.

Only after that did the journalists write an article on the salaries of Ternopil City Council officials.

In 2023, the Ternopil City Council refused to disclose the officials' salaries to a 20 Khvylyn journalist, saying they would provide the answers after martial law is lifted. The officials also argued that they were doing this to "prevent manipulation of public opinion and incitement to property- or social status-based unrest."

Also in 2023, the Ternopil Oblast Military Administration only provided Misto journalist with information on the 2022–2023 income of the chair and his deputies after she appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.

The overall number of access denial complaints to Commissiner from Ternopil oblast grew by 28% in 2024.