The network operated by national railway administration Ukrzaliznytsya is in a decrepit state, and it will take several years to renew the entire enterprise, the administration’s CEO Wojciech Balczun has said.
“The need for
modernization at Ukrzaliznytsya is immense,” Balczun said in an Aug. 19
interview with Ukrainian television channel 5 Kanal. “The locomotives and passenger carriages are
80 percent worn-out.”
According to railway
chief, the modernization of rolling stock is actually a continuous process. By
the time all of Ukrzaliznytsya’s current carriages have been brought
up-to-date, he said, the process will have to start over again.
“And even if we start
it overnight – given that we have several thousand passenger carriages and
several tens of thousands of freight trucks – the modernization will take us
years,” he said. “But we first plan to accelerate the renovation of passenger
carriages, because the public perceives us through (their condition).”
Ukrzaliznytsya is to draw
up a brand new investment plan and policy. The rail administration will also
have to tackle the huge level of corruption, which saps it of capital.
“I knew that (corruption)
was a problem, but I couldn’t have foretold it was such a serious one,” Balczun
said. “From the very beginning I’ve just seen schemes that are made for
corruption – very opaque procedures. Quite frequently, we pick the most
expensive offer with the lowest quality in our tenders. And the problem is not
if we’re using (state electronic procurement system) ProZorro or not. The
problem is in the way the (product) specification is drawn up, which is done in
such a way that there can only be one possible winner.”
According to Balczun, Ukrzaliznytsya
loses from such rigged tenders millions of hryvnias that should be used to improve
quality and standards in passenger services, and to attract freight transportation.
“If we can limit
the extent of this corruption, and I don’t see what else we can do,
Ukrzaliznytsia will be one of the best and richest companies in Ukraine,” Balczun
said.
Balczun, a Polish
citizen, said that the scale and range of management problems in the world’s 14th
largest railroad network which he now heads is immense, but he also said that
this was exactly what motivated him to come to Ukraine.
“Everyone, mainly
Ukrainians, keeps saying it’s impossible to improve this company, to fix it. When
someone says that something can’t be done – I leap into it. I’m not sure I will
succeed, though. I understand the risks.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be
reached at [email protected].
