At the end of last year, the newly appointed head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Sergey Hrynevetsky, formed his team. One of his deputies was Oleg Muratov, an official with a lot of experience - it is worth saying that he held high positions in the OGA for more than ten years, and then headed the Southern Office of the State Audit Service for more than four years. In an interview with the ElitExpert agency, Oleg Muratov told what the new governor's team was able to achieve during this term and what problems and challenges Odesa Oblast is facing now.
— We met with you immediately after your appointment as the deputy head of the OGA. Then you shared with us your plans for the first steps in your new position. Now, after 7 months, what have you accomplished that you can brag about?
— Of course, first of all, the residents of our region should give an assessment. However, I believe that with the efforts of our entire team, under the leadership of Sergey Rafailovich Hrynevetskyi, we managed to restore elementary order in the region. After all, order begins with the cleaning of territories, with safety on the roads, with cleanliness on the roadsides, with passporting, with bringing garbage dumps into normal condition, and so on. In addition, we managed to build a working relationship with the regional council, which is very important.
— By the way, how do you like working with Sergey Rafailovich Hrynevetskyi?
— I can say that it is very comfortable. We are like-minded. I am a player in his team and frankly speaking, I continue to learn from him. I have received offers to work in the OGA before, but I saw my place only in this team. Especially since we still have a lot to do. I don't want to vocally criticize the predecessors, but the acts of audits of communal enterprises speak for themselves about the results of their work...
— We know that you oversee a very important area — restoration of the irrigation system of the lands of the Odesa region. According to experts, if successful, this will give a powerful boost to the region's economy. At what stage is this project and why is it so important for Odessa region?
— Yes, this is a priority in our activity. Today, there is a crazy demand for the restoration of irrigation, and primarily in the south of our region, both from farmers and ordinary consumers, because objectively there is a large food deficit in the world today. Now we see global climate change, we see how, for example, in Kyiv in July, the absolute temperature record was broken several times... Therefore, without irrigation, we cannot guarantee stable food production. This is a question of national security. The drought that occurred in 2020 pushed us, so today we have selected 12 projects for the reconstruction and restoration of irrigation systems in the territory of the Odesa region. In Soviet times, about 230 hectares were irrigated, but today it is about 40-45 hectares. This year, about 55, and we have set ourselves an ambitious goal: to double this number in two years.
I would like to note that the President of Ukraine called the restoration of irrigation systems in the country one of the national priorities. A simple example is that the average yield on irrigated land is almost twice as high as on land that does not have such an opportunity.
— The Odesa region is traditionally not a laggard in the field of infrastructure development. What can be said about, looking back at the first six months of 2021?
— We are now globally engaged in the "Big Construction" project. This includes road repairs and a large number of social infrastructure facilities. The position of the government and our position is that next year this project includes not only schools, kindergartens, sports complexes, but also objects that will bring profit. That is why we are actively working on finalizing project documentation for the Izmail airport. We see it as a new regional hub.
Also, today we want to restore the marine logistics chain, to make a pier in Mayaky and Shabo. So that a tourist who came to Odessa had the opportunity to arrive by sea, for example, to the Shabo Wine Culture Center, and then to the Belgorod-Dniester Fortress. In the summer, there is quite a lot of traffic in this direction, especially on weekends. For the same reason, together with the Automobile Road Service, we will build a highway bypassing the Moldovan territory: this is a question of both national security and investment attractiveness.
A similar story is also related to the construction of the high-voltage power line "Novoodesskaya - Artsys". which will make our region safe from the point of view of the energy situation. Especially since without XNUMX% energy security, not a single respectable investor will implement serious projects in our country.
In addition, we are preparing a number of global environmental issues. For example, we are developing a new environmental program for the region for 2022-2026. They actively began to restore forests, adopted the program "Forests of Odesa Region". Unfortunately, over the past five years, 20 to 50 hectares of forests were planted in our country, and the natural loss was much greater. Therefore, we want to increase this figure many times over.
— And how are things in the region with salaries?
— Increasing the average wage level in the region is one of our main tasks. Already at the end of May, we see small improvements. Now the average salary in Odessa region is almost 12 thousand hryvnias, which is 370 hryvnias more than in April. And in Ukraine as a whole - 13500, but for May, on the contrary, it decreased slightly, by 45 hryvnias.
Now we have a positive movement in salaries of all industries that we had in the backlog. For example, in trade - plus 600 hryvnias, in construction - plus 850 hryvnias, in the field of catering and hotel business - plus 1500 hryvnias. Agricultural wages also started to rise a little.
— Cabinet ofThe Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine monitors the social and economic development of regions where they are taken into account 38 different indicators. How do we look against the background of the whole country?
- We look good. In the first quarter of 2021, when our team started working, we managed to improve 20 indicators, and we have a decrease in only eight.
— And in which industries have improvements occurred?
— For example, according to indicators of the social sphere. In particular, the population's access to administrative services has greatly improved, the level of land inventory in the region of state and communal ownership has increased. Very significantly, from the 15th to the fourth place, it was possible to rise according to such an indicator as the level of use of road fund money, provided for the construction, reconstruction and repair of roads. This means that we calculated the situation in advance, conducted all tender procedures together with the Highway Service and launched the process on time. Also, there is even such an important, but rather poorly understood indicator for an ordinary person, as "the average number of participants in open tenders in tender procedures". Here we were on the 21st place, and we rose to the top five, becoming the fourth in the country. Why is this indicator important? It directly affects the efficiency of the use of state funds. The more participants in the tender, the greater the probability that the price will decrease. Therefore, people come to us, participate in tenders, because they see that there are no "contractors", in which the tender is signed in advance for two participants, and that they can really win.
— You have to work in an ongoing pandemic…
— Therefore, the key task for us now is the maximum vaccination of the population. About 7 thousand people were vaccinated in Odessa during the last weekend. True, we believe that no less than 10 people should be vaccinated per day in the region, but to be fair, we started with a figure of seven hundred and even less, not 7.
— Today, 91 united territorial communities have been formed in the Odesa region - this is the largest number of communities in the regions of Ukraine. Moreover, many of them had first elections last year. Are there any difficulties in this matter?
— Some leaders won the elections, but they don't know what to do next: they say, somehow it will happen. That is, we see a shortage of qualified local managers. And they need to be taught elementary first, and only then they are asked. In general, we are in touch with them every day.
And sometimes we have to talk in harsh mode. Many are used to the fact that a good leader is considered to be the one who wrote 10 letters to the President, the Prime Minister, the Governor, so that they responded to their needs "from above" and did something. But now, under the conditions of decentralization, the financial component and resources are put in place, the deductions go to local authorities. In some communities, the budget is now comparable to the regional development budget... Therefore, the most difficult thing is to change their worldview.
- As you know, the maritime industry is one of the most important for the region. What is being done in this direction and was it possible to resolve the issue of salary arrears in the ports of the region?
— The situation is complicated. The fact is that wages are tied to income. If the company is working successfully, that is why it pays the salary. If there is no work or there is not enough of it, then this is where all the problems come from. And in the first half of this year, only 47 million tons of cargo were processed in the ports of the region - this is 10 million less than last year. We think that the flow of grain cargoes will significantly change this situation, but for now we have what we have. All the ports of the Odesa region showed minus results, only the Izmail port showed a slight plus. If we take, for example, the port of Yuzhny, the largest port in Ukraine, it handled almost 2021 million in the first half of 25 - more than half of the total volume of transshipment at the ports of the Odesa region - but even here we see serious decreases, somewhere by 6 million tons.
On the other hand, there is a positive thing in the fact that the Ministry of Infrastructure was headed by professionals. We hear and understand each other, and that's already good. Well, in general, I think we will manage to turn the situation around.
In addition, it is planned that the small ports of the region - Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, Ust-Dunaysky - will soon be privatized. We, as the regional administration, became part of the commission that determines the conditions of privatization and prescribed key conditions for future owners. This is primarily the repayment of all salary debts to employees, a ban on staff reduction, reprofiling, etc.
— In conclusion, I would like to ask about something. We have known you for a long time, and no matter what position you held, you always had a concrete plan of action. What global goals do you set for this post?
- The answer is simple. We are Sergey Rafailovich's team, we want to make Odesa Oblast once again the best region in the country, a region where people want to come and live here. After all, we have very favorable conditions both for life and for business, there are all the necessary natural and geographical conditions. It is also very important to preserve human potential. Now we are faced with the problem of a shortage of kindergartens and schools, but at the same time we observe an overabundance of higher educational institutions. And we are now working very actively to ensure that, for example, our vocational schools produce fewer secretaries-typists and manicurists (although I do not dispute that these professions are also necessary), and more specialists for the real sector of the economy. Because we have a clear shortage of workers - in construction, in industry, and in many other areas.
In general, answering your question, I would like to say this - we want to make our region so comfortable that people who are traveling to Ukraine for the first time want to start getting to know the country precisely from the Odesa region.
Interviewed by Elena Ovchinnikova
