The scale of corruption at Ukrzaliznytsia was far more serious than Balczun had expected / Photo from UNIAN
Wojciech Balczun, the chairman of the PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia board, has said the railway giant loses billions of hryvnias every year due to corruption, whose scale he realized when he took up the reins of the company was far more serious than he had expected.
"I thought it could be a problem, but did not imagine it was so serious. Almost from the very beginning, I see only those schemes that are conducive to corruption. The procedures are very non-transparent. Very often, we choose the highest bid at our tenders and the lowest quality. And the problem here is not whether or not we use the ProZorro [e-bidding system], because we do use it. The problem is with the specifications, which are developed in such a way that they are designed for one winner. And this is despite the fact that at the stage of the tender, the procedure fulfils the rules of the game and this is a big problem for the company," Balczun told Channel 5.
Read alsoUkrzaliznytsia posts UAH 16 bln loss in 2015Therefore, he said, the company ends up losing billions of hryvnias per year, which should have instead been utilized in the interests of the company, to improve the quality and standards of passenger transportation and boost freight traffic.
"If we manage to curb the scale of this practice – I do not see any other way out – Ukrzaliznytsia will become one of the best and richest companies in Ukraine," he stated.