TSN The stolen money for Euro 2012 roads will be enough to build a 6-lane Lviv-Donetsk highway!

The current state of the roads is due to the fact that 98% of all repairs are emergency repairs, says Viktor Medvid, an expert in evaluation at the consulting company Invest-Expert.

"The shelf life of this 'patching' is from 3 to 6 months. Accordingly, if the roads were repaired last year, there will be a complete mess in the spring. Roads are not being repaired because it is unprofitable, according to vidgolos.com.

For example, an organization paves 1 km of road. Controlling authorities then selectively check the width, length, and depth. They conduct an examination and determine how much is stolen. And if you do patching, which is always done chaotically, you can write off any amount, but it's impossible to check. That's why people here like to do repairs before winter, so that the snow can still fall, and in the summer they can say, "You see, we've already done it." Most of these works are done only on paper," Medved said.

The expert explains that the road surface in the country is getting old.

"We have to do more and more 'patching' work. Relatively speaking, if this year 100% of roads were repaired, next year there will be 120%, then 140, 200. The only way out is in capital road construction. In this case, it is enough not for 3-6 months, but for 10-20 years.

There should be a state construction program. But so far we have a sad experience. In 2004, $500 million was invested in the construction of the Odesa highway. It was supposed to last for 20 years. And now it is completely unusable.

This happened because the construction technology is being violated. Capital construction involves deeper repair work. Not only the asphalt, but also the foundation. And they put asphalt on top without repairing the foundation. And they carry out patching. They violate the technology," says Viktor Viktorovich.

He adds that the problem is not new.

"They have been stealing since the Soviet Union, they are stealing now, and they will continue to do so. Only appetites have changed. Previously, kickbacks amounted to 10-20%. And today, based on our calculations, it is 80-90% of the cost of roads. Imagine what kind of figures these are," the expert said. "For one of the Ukrainian channels before Euro 2012, we calculated the money allocated for road construction. In one form or another, they wrote off the amount of money that could have been used to build the Lviv-Donetsk road. A new, very high quality, one thousand kilometers long with six lanes."

He clarifies that officials steal at all levels.

"Money comes from the top down. Because local budgets can only make serious repairs under the state program. And in order for the local budget to receive a subsidy, inflated amounts with a corruption component are already included in the project documentation.

As soon as the local budget receives money, it has to give kickbacks to the top. And they also have to steal on the spot. Out of every hryvnia invested in a road, only 20 kopecks are actually spent on construction.

We conducted an experiment on one of the road sections. We bought crushed stone, asphalt and everything we needed to repair the road ourselves. We did not make major repairs, but emergency repairs. The cost was 70 hryvnias per square meter. Officials have UAH 2764," Medved emphasized.