Reform of corporate management started in “Ukrposta” post company one year ago. During the first year of work the new team achieved the key 10 goals defined at the start, said acting Director General of the company Ihor Smilyanskyi, presenting the yearly report at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
“Ukrposhta” started renovating its infrastructure in cooperation with EBRD. No post office was closed and all offices will continue their work. This year the company purchased 70 new vehicles – more than over 5 previous years. Moreover, it launched modernization of offices and has already purchased 8300 computers. In January-June 2017 the company’s income from delivery of parcels increased by 33 percent, international parcels delivery – by 34 percent, income from trade by 36 percent and income from payments – by 22 percent. The number of express delivery increased tenfold since the beginning of 2017.
“Ukrposhta” prepared a development strategy for the next five years. “It is an ambitious plan to increase profits from current UAH 4,4 billion up to UAH 13 billion. […] Moreover, we have more ambitious plan for this year and we expect 6,4 billion instead of 5,5 billion, as was written in the strategy,” Smilyanskyi noted.
The international audit of the company is conducted by PwC, one of the internationally renowned professionals in the field. “By the end of the year we will have a report about 2 years of the company’s activities, prepared according to international standards,” Smilyanskyi noted.
The management team has been renovated by 95 per cent. In some cases, acting managers were reappointed to their posts according to results of an open competition, but there are many newcomers. Thirteen thousand staff members underwent qualification training. Approach to salaries has been modified: now they are closer to market-based level and depends, as well as bonus payments, on the individual efficiency of every employee. “Urkposhta” now quicker responds to customers’ addresses. An average delivery time frame for parcels has been reduced from 48 to 24 hours in Kyiv. In addition, the company is increasing the use of e-documents instead of papers and launches АРІ for online-shops and personal cabinets for customers, and plans to stop using postage stamps after October 2017.
Creation of post bank (creation of post accounts) will be launched by draft law #6601 “On amendments to regulatory documents of Ukraine on financial services in the field of postal services”, which has already been passed to the Parliament. It would make post offices more profitable and banking services accessible for people from small villages where there are no bank outlets, as well as minimize spending on infrastructure.
After corporatization “Ukrposhta” received the full right to manage its real estate property, so it plans to establish market fees for rent and therefore increase income from current UAH 10 million to 100 million. The use of ProZorro system for procurements helped to save nearly UAH 100 million.
In the upcoming year, the company will continue improving infrastructure and service quality. There are plans to increase volumes of deliveries, open outlets of a new format, launch courier delivery and option of after-delivery payment, create a mobile app for its services. Ihor Smilyanskyi emphasized that they want to work on equal conditions with other market players, without any bonuses from the state but with the right to cooperate with commercial players.
According to Volodymyr Omelyan, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the first year of reform was a success. “We created a new, transparent system of corporate management allowing to implement long-term strategies and involve international loans for company’s development. Now it can function as a joint-stock company and select the best model for its further development. The next stage is the creation of Supervisory Board, which must be high-quality, fair, transparent and efficient. It is crucial for it to comprise of professional and impartial members, for that it was not an imitation of reform but a functioning body.… Corporatization brings a contemporary business model of state assets management. It helps to reduce the influence of political players on state enterprises and stop the use of state enterprises as ‘feeders’ for some private or political players. I hope this mechanism will open opportunities for independent development of these enterprises,” emphasized the Minister.