Slawomir Nowak has a long road ahead of him. Patching up Ukraine’s crumbling road network, the Polish citizen faces a range of obstacles, detours and roadblocks along the way.
Nowak took over the state road agency Ukravtodor as its acting head in October, at the invitation of Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan. Nowak’s record includes experience in various infrastructure areas in Poland, but in Ukraine his main goal will be to strengthen the country’s road links with the European Union, simplifying business logistics at the same time.
Bureaucracy challenge
Nowak, 42, has an office crammed with dozens of road maps on the walls and on his desk. His schedule includes meetings with Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and the Cabinet of Ministers.
His first road construction season starts this month. In 2017, the first task will be to repair 2,000 kilometers of roadways and, later, construct new roads.
His day, however, starts with a stack of documents for signing.
“I thought the bureaucracy was huge in Poland, but here… it’s probably one for the Guinness Book of Records,” he says. Novak even has to file a request before using an electronic signature.
Two nations’ experience
Why did he volunteer for such frustrations?
“I decided to support Ukraine and my Ukrainian friends in government,” Nowak says. “I believe that Ukraine should be a member of the European Union and the European community.”
Despite that, Nowak has chosen not to move his family to Ukraine. Every weekend he takes a flight to his native Gdansk on the coast of the Baltic Sea, where his family lives and every Monday he returns to his office in Kyiv.
He got to know Ukraine and Ukrainians while serving as Poland’s minister of transport in the second government of former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. While in charge of the infrastructure network in his home country, he cooperated with the Ukrainian government and authorities when Ukraine and Poland jointly hosted the European Football Championship in 2012. He also served as a lawmaker in Poland for 10 years.
“It is satisfying for me that Poland and our roads are a good example for Ukraine now, as that was part of my previous job,” he said.
Seen by some as a possible future prime minister, a minor scandal took him out of politics in Poland: from 2011 to 2013, he failed to declare ownership of an expensive watch given to him by his wife. He was found guilty of filing five false asset declarations, and fined 20,000 Polish zloty. He resigned from Tusk’s government in November 2014, and started a private business.
Today, Nowak says he is out of politics. “The new chapter of my life is only about having a profession,” he says.
Underfinancing
Nowak recalls how Poland’s highway infrastructure “dramatically improved” after it joined the EU in 2004. With investment into the sector, the country built new highways, motorways, and expressways, he said. But Ukraine doesn’t have the kind of money Poland had at that time, nor the hope of much investment, Nowak admits.
“It is a huge challenge,” he says.
The state has neglected the country’s road network for almost 30 years. Today, as travelers can verify, 90 percent of the road network is in a bad condition. Over the years, the government has typically allocated only 3 percent of the sum the road agency reckons it needs to maintain the road network in good condition.
But in 2017, Ukravtodor might get a record sum – about Hr 20 billion or $700 million. That would be enough to repair around 2,200 kilometers of highway. However, the allocation is not a done deal and depends on debt restructuring and assistance by international organizations.
As of now, Nowak has Hr 5 billion. “The level of expectation is very low, which is good for me, and it means that every improvement, every repair, will be a huge success,” he says.
Ukravtodor will gain new sources of funding in 2018, includng revenues from excise taxes on oil products produced or imported to Ukraine, fees from toll roads and fines imposed on overloaded vehicles.
Building toll roads features high among Nowak’s plans and will interest investors, including a highway between the Polish border town Krakovets and Lviv, a section of the highway from Bila Tserkva to Kyiv, and part of a bypass road around Kyiv.
The new roads will have weight limits to prevent damage from overloaded trucks. Plus, the weight control system will be automated.
Meanwhile, decentralization of control of the road network will shift 120,000 kilometers to the responsibility of local authorities, leaving the state agency with just 50,000 kilometers starting in January.
“Even that’s too much, frankly speaking, but it’s an improvement,” Nowak says. In Poland, the analogous state agency is responsible for 19,000 kilometers of international and intercity highways.
New approach
Before 2017, Ukravtodor’s budget was allocated only for one year, making it “impossible to plan and to spend properly,” he says. Today, Novak is developing a five-year construction plan. “In the new contracts, the guarantee will be for a minimum five years for repairs, even 10 years,” he promised.
But building durable roads will require a new breed of contractor. Nowak said that, as of today, five companies compete in roadbuilding tenders — too few.
“The main challenge is to open this market up to new players, especially ones from the European Union,” he said. “If we open up, we will have better quality roads, cheaper prices, and no corruption.”
Nowak is improving the transparency of tenders by introducing price monitoring and new technical standards. Winners will be selected using the ProZorro online procurement system. Road construction standards will be overseen by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, according to an agreement signed in December.
For instance, in the recently called tender for to build the Zhytomyr bypass, Ukravtodor received 55 applications from 18 countries. “I believe it’s because of me, but it’s probably not,” Nowak says with a smile.
GO highway
Today, there’s no funding for new projects, but Nowak hopes the money will start to roll in by 2019, when the road fund starts operating at full capacity and toll roads begin to bring in a profit.
In the meantime, Nowak hopes to connect Odesa in southern Ukraine with his native Gdansk in northern Poland, linking the two ports and Black and Baltic seas. It will be called the GO highway, derived from the first letter of the two cities.
After repairing the road from Uman to Odesa, and connecting it with a road to the Polish border in Krakovets, Nowak hopes for access to the Trans-European Transport Network. “It’s a huge treasure for Ukraine’s economy – unfortunately not used,” he said of Baltic Sea port access.
