Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian has asked the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company’s Board Chairman Wojciech Balczun to dismiss the company’s employees whose actions or inaction created a shortage of freight cars for the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih steel mill.
"[Deputy Infrastructure Minister] Yurii Lavreniuk is in charge of the investigation. We informed the law enforcement agencies about this last week. I held a separate conversation about this with Wojciech Balczun; such things are unacceptable, and the entire hierarchy that had something to do with it should be dismissed immediately," Omelian wrote on Facebook.
According to Omelian, such schemes were virtually eliminated in 2015, but they have returned for some reason.
As reported, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih’s Chief Executive Office Paramjit Kahlon said last week that the company was experiencing an acute shortage of freight cars, which had resulted in a shortfall of UAH 217 million in revenue. At the same time, a number of private companies were offering their freight cars at a margin of 5-20% while Ukrzaliznytsia was saying that there were no freight cars.
Kahlon suggested that Ukrzaliznytsia’s local divisions in Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro, which distribute rolling stock, were responsible for this situation.
