Is the position of Chairman of the Board of the "Road Infrastructure" Agency being offered via SMS… Is this a new type of communication and what happened... Diana Rusinova from the European Center for Transport Policies speaks to FACTI.
- Ms. Rusinova, have the passions died down after your dialogue with Regional Minister Ivan Ivanov regarding his proposal to head the RIA?
- I don't think there were any passions. Let's be honest.
- But how did you accept his first proposal then?
- The so-called "proposal" was sent via SMS. It's not serious to receive such an offer via text message, but apparently the level of communication in the state administration has already reached that point. I replied that this was frivolous on his part, but apparently he took it as a refusal. However, after hearing it on the air of a national media outlet, I realized that this was a very serious proposal from the minister. I met with my colleagues on Monday and discussed the case and made the decision to accept it because I believe that this is a way to take responsibility, not just to talk. I am neither afraid of taking responsibility, nor am I worried about anything. I have proven many times that I am not afraid, and for so many years I have been proving it with my name, with my face, with my actions.
- Did you realize when you subsequently sent a letter to Prime Minister Zhelyazkov that you were ready to take the post of head of the RIA, what you were doing?
- I am very aware of the challenge that the “Road Infrastructure“ Agency represents. I have never You had illusions that this was some sweet post that I would go and shake my legs at. On the contrary - RIA is a very difficult task.
- But in such a post without political support - how does it sound...
- I do not think that the Chairman of the RIA Management Board should be a political appointment. He should be an expert appointment.
- But the head of RIA is subordinate to the minister and in 90% of cases is his appointment...
- This is the biggest problem in RIA. It is a mistake that such posts are given out on a political principle - – “I am this person's man, you are that person's man“. And they are not given on a principled basis to experts who can make the reform that we all need. This is the big problem in state agencies, not only in RIA. This is a difficult agency, burdened by extremely cumbersome procedures, burdened by people who do not want to work, extremely encapsulated, closed and opaque. Starting even with the “Public Relations“ department, because they do not maintain good communication with people. After all, the idea of a PR is to inform people, to maintain communication, so that citizens are aware of the work of this public structure and what is happening in it. I gave a very clear request that if I become the chairman of the RIA, the first thing I will do is to shed light on its work, so that citizens can be given the opportunity to understand what exactly every leva that the state collects from them for vignettes or tolls goes for.
- Is this achievable…
- Of course it is achievable.
- And would they allow you to do it?
- I do not accept such a position in order to comply with the whims of some people. Most likely they would allowed it, because - if not, then I will have to say the names of those people who do not allow it.
- We see that two months have passed since Siyana's death, and the area where the accident occurred, because you were there after the accident, has not improved...
- There will not be any soon. I read their excuses in the last letter from the RIA. I will send you 200 of their letters so that you can see that they are the same, that they are copy-paste. That there was no technological project, that if a contractor is found, that sometime in 20 years it can be done.
- Do you think that the RIA can change from today to tomorrow, what kind of change are you talking about?
- I do not think so, I know that the RIA must be reformed, it must change at all costs, and this inaction of theirs cannot continue in this way. The RIA bears direct responsibility for life and health to the people who travel on our roads. RIAs are legally obliged to provide safe roads for people.
- A few days ago you were also at the scene of the accident with the truck that hit a gas station sign, and this was also in the area where Siyana died. Another accident?
- Last weekend I was in several accidents. I was also in a section with a concentration of traffic accidents on road II-13 between Byala Slatina and Knezha and there was also a serious accident. A child has two broken legs, a woman has a chest injury, and a man's legs were crushed. It was very bad, he could lose his legs. And this happens there every time it rains - accidents all the time. There was safety there, but even that was not done like people, unfortunately. As the chairman of a civil organization, I told them that I was ready to share our modest resources with the state, which has greater resources and capabilities, if we could help in some way. They asked us for one or two meetings and that was it. The dialogue stopped.
- And how do you explain this?
- The goal is to blind people. It's up to Rusinova, it's up to the people around her, to blind the eyes of Nikolay Popov and the people around him, to blind the eyes of the mothers from “Angels on the Road“. And let's continue as before - one day passes, another comes. Or “every miracle in three days“.
- What is the lesson from this communication with the proposal for the head of the RIA?
- My personal conclusion is that the state is not ready to reform. Nobody has the desire for any change. There is a lot of talk about “we will change here“, “we will fix there“, “we will brighten up“, but nobody wants to do it. Nobody will allow it. In this case, I'm not talking to you now, but I'm referring to the next 10 or 20 years, in which it will be like this.
- Isn't that a bit pessimistic…
- It's not. Look, the people who work at the RIA don't want any change. There's something else. And it's up to us - the citizens, the drivers - how we will move on the roads and whether we will follow the traffic rules. We see that the drivers themselves do not follow the rules. They park at an intersection, there is a "no parking" sign, but they park "… only for a little while". We blame the state, but, ultimately, we will also have to look at ourselves. So in the next 20 years, I don't see how there will be any change. When a disaster happens, we look for those responsible, but on the principle, "if it's not me, someone else should be at fault, and I can do whatever I want". This is the truth, no matter how much we hate to admit it. In road safety management in Bulgaria, everything is reactive and nothing is preventive. We are always chasing events and it always happens that we cannot get ahead of them. In other words - we are always in line.