In 2018, more than 35 billion hryvnias were spent on Ukrainian roads. However, the vast majority of roads (about 95%) are still in poor condition, and 40% of them need to be completely repaired. Chronic underfunding of the road sector, ineffective control over the use of funds and corruption are one of the main reasons for this situation.
At the same time, every motorist pays 0.21 euros of excise duty for every liter of fuel purchased. The Road Fund* obtains 0.16 euros of this amount. Then these funds are distributed as follows: 35% are used for local roads, 60% – for roads of state and international importance, and another 5% – to finance road safety measures.
“The Road Fund is definitely a positive innovation as a target source of financing of the road sector. But, actually, free roads in Ukraine are a myth, because all our roads are fee-based. For example, when travelling from Kyiv to Odesa, you pay about 200 UAH to the Road Fund, investing in the proper quality of roads. But there is no proper quality,” the BRDO Head Oleksiy Honcharuk said.
Funding of this sector is gradually increasing: it is planned to use a record 56 billion hryvnias in 2019, which is 1.5 times more than in the previous year. However, providing full control over the use of these funds and the process transparency is critically important for positive changes in the state of roads.
With this in view, the BRDO Office created a Portal for monitoring the road construction and repair funding presented at a press conference “From a fuel station to a pothole on the road. Who is responsible?” on March 26.
The Portal will allow to control the use of funds for road repairs, tender documentation and money allocated for traffic safety effectively. That is, it will provide information on the amount and actual progress of application of funds, which every motorist pays on a daily basis:
- Road repairs in the context of regions and roads of state and local importance.
- Funds spent on traffic safety.
- Tenders that have been announced and held in the regions.
- Money actually spent by contract owners.
“The Road Fund addresses the issue of construction funding independence and provides contractors with the confidence that their work will be paid. But creating an efficient market requires having instruments for long-term planning instead of patching potholes seasonally, as well as providing equal competitive opportunities for tenderers in the regions,” the BRDO’s Transport and Infrastructure Sector Head Vladyslav Prytomanov said.
Viktor Sasin, Director of the Department of Strategic Development of Road market and Road Transportation of the Ministry of Infrastructure, agreed on the need to have an effective instrument to control the use of funds. After all, the value of this web resource for our society is not only that it provides access to a huge array of data on tenders in the regions, but also that it allows to keep track of the progress and stages of works as follows: the actual road state/potholes – road identification – its management/agency responsible – relevant tender – successful tenderer – state of the road declared. The Calculator tool also allows to calculate the amount of money you paid for road repairs during the year according to the amount of fuel purchased.
Thus, the benefits of this web resource are obvious to all participants in the process:
- Drivers and the public will get access to information on each road on the map (what is planned, how much it costs, who is a contractor, who is responsible for the current road state) as well as an opportunity to give feedback.
- Business owners will have information on road construction/repair plans, contract owners and tenders to plan their activity more effectively.
- Local authorities will receive a long-term planning instrument for the construction of local road infrastructure and their harmonization with plans on state roads.
- The Ministry of Infrastructure and regulatory bodies will have a full control over the movement of funds along with an effective planning instrument.
Lear more about the Portal at www.roads.brdo.com.ua.
For information:
*The State Road Fund, which function is to provide target financing of construction, repair and maintenance of roads of state and local importance, has been established in Ukraine since January 1, 2018. At the same time, as a result of the road industry decentralization, approximately 117 thousand km of the local road network were transferred under the administration of local authorities (Regional State Administrations), and about 52 thousand km of state and international roads are still under the supervision of the Ukravtodor.