The State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) has created a commission to investigate into facts of kickbacks at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky railway station.
Ukrzaliznytsia told Interfax-Ukraine that on Sept. 24, 2014, a first meeting of the said commission was held, and then its representatives went to the central railway station of Kyiv to work there.
Earlier ticket agents sent an address to Ukrzaliznytsia Director General Borys Ostapiuk and the commission was created.
According to the report of the ticket agents, a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine, starting from 2006, the team of the central railway station of Kyiv, in particular, ticket agents have suffered from the growing illegal extortion regularly collected by the top managers of the station.
“The ticket agents are to pay a kickback under a threat of dismissal. For example, only for being taken to the job the future ticket agent is to pay from $2,000 to $3,000 and during the working period they are to give UAH 500-1,000 every month. The prolongation of the contract costs Hr 500, the overtime leave – Hr 100, and Hr 300 cost the non-monitoring of the audio file archive which register the whole working day of a ticket agent,” reads the address.
According to the address, there is a clear scale of kickbacks, a vertical of persons responsible for collection of the money is built, and concrete managers of the station who are responsible for the concrete sections and concrete workers are defined.
“All money flow within the station went to the head of the central railway station, but the direct executors responsible for the collection and the fulfillment of the ‘shadow’ target are staying at their jobs and continue collecting the money. They are deputy head of the central railway station, chief ticket office process engineer, cash collector and others,” reads the address.
The ticket agents asked the top managers of Ukrzaliznytsia to help them and use all possible tools to fight corruption in the railway sector.
