Better Regulation Delivery Office, a European Union-funded non-governmental organization, on March 26 launched an electronic platform to allow everyone to track how funds are being spent on roads across Ukraine.
The web portal shows budgets and actual spending on road construction, road repairs and traffic safety. The portal will list roadwork tenders, and includes a calculator that allows motorists to calculate how much they are contributing through excise duties on fuel.
“To create an efficient market, it’s necessary to have tools for long-term planning instead of seasonal pit-patching, and also to ensure equal and competitive conditions for tender participants in the regions,” said Vladislav Prytomanov, head of transport and infrastructure at BRDO.
In 2018, over Hr 35 billion (about $1.3 billion) was spent on roads in Ukraine. However, BRDO noted that 95 percent of all roads are in “unsatisfactory conditions” and 40 percent need a full rebuild. Also, 4,500 bridges need urgent repair, according to a statement made in August by former Deputy Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kava.
This echoes the findings of the World Economic Forum, which ranked Ukraine’s roads as 130th out of 137 evaluated countries.
“Among the main reasons for this are chronic underfunding of the road sector, ineffectiveness of control over the use of funds, and corruption,” BRDO stated.
Last year, Ukraine created the Road Fund, meant to guarantee stable, long-term financing. Additionally, responsibility for the road network was decentralized, with the majority – 123,105 kilometers – transferred to local authorities along, with funds and autonomy to decide which roads to repair.
The main body, Ukravtodor was left with 46,985 kilometers of roads of national and international importance. Ukravtodor gets 60 percent of the Road Fund.
The Ukrainian government plans to spend about Hr 56 billion (close to $2 billion) on roads in 2019. Part of this funding comes from excise taxes on fuel paid by motorists.
BRDO said that motorists pay a duty of 0.21 euros from every liter of purchased fuel, 0.16 euros of which goes towards the Road Fund. Of that 0.16 euros, 35 percent go to local roads, 60 percent to roads of national importance and 5 percent towards financing road safety.
Victor Sassin, the director of the Department for the Strategic Development of the Road Network of the Ministry of Infrastructure, said he agrees with the need for an effective instrument to control spending on roads, according to the announcement.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry also brought in two independent organizations to oversee road construction – the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative, established with the help of the British government and the United Nations, and the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, an internationally recognized association of independent engineers.
