“The quality of roads will be monitored by independent companies. It is no secret that previously new or renovated road facilities were often accepted “with closed eyes” – they simply “forgot” that there were norms and standards,” wrote Oleksandr Kubrakov, head of the State Agency of Roads of Ukraine (“Ukravtodor”), on his Facebook page on December 6.
According to him, such an approach nullified the whole meaning of construction – poor-quality roads quickly wore out and needed new repairs.
The list of potential controllers at MIU has not been announced yet. It is only known that Kubrakov met on this issue with the Austrian iC consulenten to discuss the possibility of cooperation within the framework of the pilot project – on the highway N-08 Boryspil – Dnipro – Zaporizhzhia (via Kremenchuk) – Mariupol.
Why are third-party inspectors needed, and will they be able to guarantee the best quality of the road surface in Ukraine?
It’s all about the amounts
In 2016, the Ukrainian government made the road sector a priority – for the first time, the state allocated about UAH 10 billion to Ukravtodor (UAD). This is an unprecedented amount for the road sector, equal to at least two previous annual budgets of the UAD.
Since then, the amount of funding has only increased, and next year the total road budget should amount to almost UAH 77 billion.
The principles of financing have also changed – some projects are still financed within the framework of targeted state programs, but most of the money comes from the Road Fund (RF), which began operating in 2018 and collects excise tax on fuel and vehicles imported into Ukraine.
In addition to the RF, local budgets participate in financing the road sector. In 2018 (as part of decentralization), the UAD transferred 120,000 km of roads to the balance of local councils.
The state also spends part of the money collected as a result of the customs experiment on highways – in 2017 it was UAH 2.2 billion, and in 2018 – UAH 3.2 billion.
Nuances of distribution. A significant share of the road budget has always gone to repaying UAD debts. There were years when this expense item took up more than 60% of the agency’s budget. For example, in 2015, UAD received UAH 24.5 billion, of which UAH 17.5 billion was given to creditors.
Since 2016, the situation has begun to improve – then 40% of the agency’s budget went to servicing loan obligations. The UAD budget was distributed in approximately the same proportion in 2017. And in 2018 and 2019, the agency spent about 20% of its annual budget on repaying loans.
So, builders and repairmen can build and repair more and more kilometers of roadway, and at the same time earn more.
New players. Changes in financing coincided with changes in the market. If until 2013, construction and repair work was carried out by structural units of the State Highway Administration and several private companies whose owners were close to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Highway Administration, in 2016, contracts were also awarded to companies that had never participated in large projects.
According to the data of the ProZorro website, which was studied and structured by Mind, the following companies were most successful in tenders this year: Altkom, Avtostrada, Avtomagistral Yuzhden, PBS, Onur International, Techno-Bud-Center, Poltavabudtsentr, Slavdorstroy, Rostdorstroy, a structural unit of the state holding company Belarusian Avtodor – Road Construction Trust No. 2, Gomel.
This list includes only two companies that actively won tenders for road works until 2013 – Altkom and Onur.
Most of the work is carried out by private structures. But sometimes regional road transport companies are lucky. For example, SE Vinnytsia Oblavtodor, which is part of the State Joint Stock Company Highways of Ukraine, during 2019 often won tenders held by the regional Road Service, in 2018 – success in the Lviv region was accompanied by SE Lviv Oblavtodor.
The only exceptions are the Turkish Onur and the enterprises of Belavtodor. But the Turks are familiar with the peculiarities of the Ukrainian road market since the construction of the Odessa highway. In addition, Onur once left Ukraine – in 2012 it stopped the work of its subsidiary of the same name. Only Onur Konstruktion International remained to work here, which, according to Nashi Groshi, was patronized by Igor Konenko.
Of the announced foreigners, none of them made it to state tenders – moreover, such companies, judging by the information from ProZorro, do not even apply for competitions. The exception is the enterprises of Belorussky Avtodor.
So are controllers needed?
In the world, specialized companies and/or engineers from FIDIC, the international federation of consulting engineers, usually carry out the control. In Ukraine, there are also representatives of FIDIC, the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ukraine. But such specialists are involved in quality control only in projects that are implemented with loans from MFIs. For their services, controllers, depending on the scope of work, take 3–5–10% of the project cost.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to involve independent inspectors in work performed with money from the state budget, but without success. For example, in 2016, the UAD canceled the tender for involving such companies at the very last moment, motivating its decision by the fact that ordering such work from the agency is unprofitable for private companies.
Will the Ministry of Internal Affairs be able to attract independent experts now?
MIU officials note that such an initiative previously met with resistance in the Cabinet of Ministers, but was supported within the ministry. “Independent control is needed. The question is who will it be? I believe that these should be well-known international companies that will be responsible for their own reputation for supervision, and not an engineer who has received a FIDIC certificate.
Because an engineer, apart from his diploma, is not responsible for anything else,” says Volodymyr Omelyan, former Minister of Infrastructure.
According to Mind.ua
