Kyiv, 26 December 2018 – The results of the monitoring of the transparency and integrity of road repairs in 2018 were presented in Kyiv. The analysis was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. It included a comprehensive review of the quality of road works performed and liabilities were imposed on contractors whose quality of work was substandard.

97% of the roads in Ukraine need to be repaired, according to the Government of Ukraine. The main issues are chuckholes, rutting, cracks, roadside defects and road markings. The Government foresees the construction of high-quality roads around the country in the next five to seven years. In March 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the State Targeted Economic Programme for National Roads Development in 2018-2022, with almost 300 billion hryvnias (approx. 10 billion US dollars) earmarked. The Programme determined that the absence of an effective and independent quality control system was one of the main reasons for Ukraine’s low road quality.

In September 2018, UNDP, with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, launched the Initiative on monitoring of transparency and integrity of national road repairs.

"We are pleased with this new coalition of civil society, local governments, engineers and the Ministry of Infrastructure. For a fraction of the contracted value, you can actually find out whether that road was done well, whether it needs more work; one can hold contractors responsible for the job they are supposed to be doing. So we want to congratulate all the partners – the Ministry, the oblasts involved and the NGOs that have been working hard on this matter. We are very proud of you and I am very pleased that we can celebrate that today!”, said Janthomas Hiemstra, the Acting UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine.

The initiative set the following objectives:

- Supporting civil society in monitoring public procurement, budget allocations, bidding procedures and possible conflicts of interest in road construction;

- Monitoring the quality of road works;

- Introduction of Universal Design principles.

From October until December 2018, 12 Ukrainian regions (Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, ​​Kherson, and Mykolaiv) were analysed by 13 civil society organizations, in cooperation with regional state administrations, to evaluate the procurement of road mending/repairs services and the maintenance status on certain areas of the repaired roads.

The CSO representatives investigated about 80% of local roads and 30% of state roads repaired in 2016-2018. The inspection took place at sites where the warranty period for road pavement granted by a contractor was still in place at the time of inspection.

In total, under this project, civic activists inspected more than 400 sites on 2,578 km of roads, including 1,312 km of state roads and 1,266 km of local roads.

Among the main deficiencies identified were:

- Rutting - almost 50% of the inspected sites in Vinnytsia and Kherson regions;

- Chuck holes - 21% of the investigated sites in Kyiv region;

- Roadside defects - 70-80% of the inspected sites in Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Vinnytsia regions;

- Road marking defects - more than 64% of the investigated sites in Ternopil and Kyiv regions;

- Cracks - 50% of the inspected sites in Kyiv region and more than 30% in Poltava and Odesa regions.

In total, the CSOs submitted 143 requests to the respective authorities on those defects. So far, 92 official responses were received, and Ternopil oblast has already got the first success stories and examples of imperfections fixed by the contractors.

Media inquiries: Yuliia Samus, UNDP Communications Specialist, yuliia.samus@undp.org, communciations.ukraine@undp.org

Photo credit: Andrey Krepkikh / UNDP Ukraine