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The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will decide whether to prolong the contract with Wojciech Balczun, CEO of Ukraine's railways giant Ukrzaliznytsia, after hearing the report on his performance over 2016, which should be submitted in the next few weeks, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade says.
"Analyzing the current situation with the expiration of the contract with Wojciech Balczun, the Ministry of Economic Development considers that the decision on the action of the contract of Ukrzaliznytsya CEO should be preceded by hearing the reports of the company's supervisory board by the government of Ukraine in order to analyze the company's performance in 2016. Within a few weeks, the head of the board and the supervisory board are to prepare and submit the report," the press service says.
The ministry noted that after hearing the report on Ukrzaliznytsia's performance, the decision would be taken to continue or terminate the contract with Ukrzaliznytsya CEO Wojciech Balczun.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Cabinet on January 18 decided to withdraw Ukrzaliznytsia from the Infrastructure Ministry's subordination vertical to make it report directly to the government. Balczun praised this decision on his Facebook page.
However, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan described the government's decision as "odd." In his words, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, which will control the railways instead of the Infrastructure Ministry, has no "knowledge or skills" to manage rail roads.
Omelyan stressed that Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Wojciech Balczun's performance from May 2016 to January 2017 caused UAH 50 bln ($1.85 bln) in damage to the Ukrainian economy. The minister noted the failure of the company's reform, the suspension of corporatization process, the loss in courts of a number of lawsuits that led to the company losing "billions," as well as the loss of part of transit shipments and insufficient implementation of the capital investment program.