WEEKLY ROUNDUP

As soon as Monday the Ministry of Transport press service voiced an official protest in reply to "gross violations" of the law by the judiciary. The pretext is most typical for a time of troubles. The Illichivsk municipal court dismissed a protest of from the Odesa oblast prosecutor's office that the state in the person of the State Property Fund and the Ministry of Transport was again being robbed in a big way, for about 27 million hryvnias. And, what is especially undesirable for the regime, the act of robbery (the auctioning of two passenger liners at throw-away prices) was this time widely publicized. This is why the authorities put off indefinitely the departure of the Taras Shevchenko and Odesa Sun from the port of Illichivsk, and brought a suit under Articles 165 and 80 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code against the culprits. The case is to be heard at the High Court of Arbitration, Odesa Oblast Court, and Odesa's Prymorsky District Court.

On the other hand, two special commissions, a government one chaired by Serhiy Tyhypko and one from the oblast justice department under O. Semenov, are in an unenviable position. They will have to carefully investigate the legal aspects of the sales scandal or, in other words, the reason why the well-oiled privatization mechanism has gone awry. The Semenov commission, however, balked: how can it stand up for state interests if the available data say the liners do not belong to Ukraine (they were listed as foreign property well before the auction gavel struck), while there are probably still other documents secreted away? What it seems to come to is a documented case of split property.

It is hard to help a person who shows the symptoms of schizophrenia, much less a state, whose structures show a split personality in their decisions and actions. On the other hand, however, somebody surely stands to gain from this. Here is the opinion of Vasyl Zubkov, Chairman of the Central Council of the Marine Transport Workers' Union: "The current policy is to see to it that sea vessels be forced to be sold at throw-away prices. Who is to blame? The state apparatus as a whole plus a lack of political will in the top leadership. First the vessels were "snatched" by an offshore company, transferring a part of their earnings through a settlement account for the immediate needs of the Black Sea Shipping Company (BSSC), such as paying wages, loans, and bailing out impounded vessels. Then things were reoriented: the offshore company was subordinated directly to the Ministry of Transport. Then came injunctions: pay for government telecommunications ($1.5 million) and cover other costs. Meanwhile, BSSC is running up new debts: about twenty million in wage arrears alone."

The past week also saw an event testifying that society begins to recover from the disease of election campaign pandering. Conductors appeared in Odesa's trams and trolleys. This means passengers will have again to pay fares, like in any other European city. The fare is 30 kopiykas. More than 24,000 single-use and 3,500 monthly transport tickets were sold on February 1. The transport people's earnings are thus increasing, but slowly. However, the attitude of ticket collectors to hitchhikers (known as "rabbits" here) in Odesa is liberal and selective (and not only in the year of the rabbit).

By Mykhailo AKSANIUK, The Day
Odesa