Old corruption schemes have not disappeared from Ukrzaliznytsia. Viktor Medved

Corruption schemes have not been eliminated in any area of the railroad's operations, only front companies have been changed, Viktor Medvid, director of the William invest expert consulting company, told Hromadske.
Golos Stolytsi RIA Novosti Ukraine - Golos Stolytsi radio station About 300 million hryvnias of profit may be received by Ukrzaliznytsia at the end of the year. Such prospects were announced by the company's chairman of the board, Wojciech Balczun. According to him, the financial plan for the year was changed, the number of repairs was increased, construction of new railcars, rolling stock renewal, and procurement improvements were launched. Viktor Medvid, director of the William invest expert consulting company, commented on the financial prospects of Ukrzaliznytsia on the air of the Holos Stolytsi radio station.

How reasonable are Wojciech Balczun's expectations? Facebook of the press center of Ukrzaliznytsia Soon, Ukrzaliznytsia will have nothing to transport. Exporters on the tariff increase - Of course, they are well-reasoned, the question is that these are rather low figures for a railroad, at the level of a medium-sized business. But on the other hand, 300 million hryvnias of profit... "Ukrzaliznytsia" may stop being unprofitable for the first time in many years? - It has never been unprofitable, the railroad, never. It has always been profitable. The issue is that the profit figures have been artificially adjusted over the last two years, let's say, 15 billion in losses of the railroad, which is purely inefficient work of the financial department employees who did not restructure debt obligations into hryvnia at the appropriate dollar rate. As a result, the railroad has committed itself to paying 15 billion in overpayments on loans, in fact. That is, they took three times less and paid three times more. All enterprises have been restructured, except for the railroad. As for the other indicators that are available, they are fictitious, meaning that the profits of enterprises are understated. In reality, this company freely generates 10-15 billion hryvnias every year without straining. So 300 million is ridiculous.
And where does the profit of 10-15 billion go?" This is an example, I showed you 15 billion just in the work of their financial department. In general, these are mostly corruption mechanisms related to the withdrawal of funds. For example, if you take any type of repair, there are 3-4 intermediaries involved in the process, who perform the services. Therefore, let's say that if the price paid by the railroad is UAH 1,000, the cost of this service is UAH 100-200. In light of these developments, the indicators are certainly not very effective on paper. At the same time, the entire management of the railroad is a multimillionaire. I'm not talking about those activities that are related income, which are essentially all privatized by individuals. Like the entire infrastructure of railway stations and so on - it is all in the shadow sector and does not generate income. There is an example of one bank that had branches and all its ATMs only on the railroad and earned hundreds of millions of hryvnias from this. This is all essentially parasitizing on the body of a state-owned enterprise. There are a lot of these parasites, and the railroad's management is well aware of this, but sadly, the management has changed, and the flows have simply been redistributed, but none of the flows have been eliminated. That's why 300 million is less than 1% for an enterprise that generates about 50 billion hryvnias of gross revenue per year, net from its core business. RIA Novosti Ukraine Yevhen Kotenko After tariffs rise, Ukrzaliznytsia will increase administrative costs - expert

But the company is still turning a little bit of a profit, and corruption schemes are gradually being tightened up?

- No, absolutely not. Not at all. The schemes that worked before in any railroad direction are still working as they have always worked. The beneficiaries have just changed, i.e., the front companies, but the schemes are working. I emphasize once again that 0.7% of gross revenue, profit for such a monopoly enterprise, is nothing at all. It's not even within the statistical margin of error, it's ten times less than the statistical margin of error, you understand? These are absolutely disgusting figures, so there is nothing to be proud of here.