“We agree that it is necessary to optimize the management model of Rail Baltica so that it was even more effective. However, the purpose of changes cannot be changes. The main purpose has to be kept in mind – to finish the railway line important for entire Europe on time. We are ready to announce public procurement procedures for railway line building from Kaunas towards the Latvian border soon and to start the building works in 2021,” says Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Jaroslav Narkevič.
In the opinion of Lithuania, with regard to conclusions of joint audit performed by the audit authorities of the Baltic States in 2019, in the course of the project’s implementation, it is necessary to make the decision-taking chain more effective and to control risks related to budget and project’s implementation terms properly.
The legal analysis was performed to assess effectiveness of the project’s implementation model. It revealed that integration processes would have negative impact on the schedule of the project’s implementation, thus it is suggested to search for optimal solutions.
“Having considered all the possibilities and their conformity to our national legal acts, and having assessed our experience in building Rail Baltica (where Lithuania is the most advanced country), we suggest to make the management form more effective, i.e. joint implementation teams and the leading managers should safeguard the project’s implementation in the territory of each country. Such a model would allow the countries implementing the most optimal management mode of the project and Lithuania would be able to preserve control of processes related to national security,” informs J. Narkevič.
In order to guarantee clear responsibility for the project’s management, the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport and Communications offers to form a supervisory committee from vice ministers of three responsible ministries. In such a way, the strategic control of the project and solutions of general management and implementation of the project would be within the competence of the States.
According to the optimized implementation management model suggested by Lithuania, the activities of joint venture RB Rail would be supervised by the Supervisory Council. The company’s board would be formed from national representatives responsible for teams implementing the project in different countries.
“Such a model reflects both, national and the EU interests – to implement the project Rail Baltica on time, qualitatively and for the fixed price. If these changes were made, the States would remain responsible for building of railway Rail Baltica in their countries and would preserve control of infrastructure of strategic meaning ad processes related to national security. At the same time, we would reinforce the concept of joint project, because the teams of the project’s implementation gathered in common offices would carry out actions in the territory of each country. Their work would be coordinated and follow the single agreed plan, and, which is very important, this would allow completing the project that is in the halfway until 2026,” claims J. Narkevič.
