Oleksandr Shevchenko: "road repairs funds end up in the pockets of officials"
Ukrainian roads remain in a terrible state, as road repairs funds end up in the pockets of officials. This was the main message of Oleksandr Shevchenko's interview, given by the UKROP's politician during the live broadcast on "1+1" TV channel.
As the parliamentarian noted, today in Ukraine there are almost 120 thousand kilometers of local roads and 47 thousand kilometers of state importance roads. In order to do their full reconstruction we lack about 1.5 trillion UAH.
"This is an almost unreachable amount, as it exceeds our yearly country's budget. Our tendencies of road repairs do not meet the worldwide standards of quality and financing. Most of the money is being spent on low-quality roads, or funds allocated end up simply disappearing in the pockets of corrupt officials", - said Oleksandr Shevchenko.
According to the politician's report, the construction of roads is usually delayed due to the lack of regional development strategy. This year, local budgets have received about 11 billion UAH for road repairs. These funds were distributed among settlements in manual mode, not by principle of expediency.
"As a rule, local officials spend money to fix the pits, build 50 meters of a road in the village where they were born, or in the village their relatives live, or whatever political motiffs they pursue", - said Oleksandr Shevchenko.
"The State should allocate funds primarily for the construction of senior importance roads, those that connect regions and districts, as those are the foundation of the Ukrainian economy. Companies engaged in road repairs should be responsible for their results. Contractors should provide guarantees and repair the roads if necessary".
