Nikolai Pavlyuk
Personnel changes at Ukrainian ports and the USPA have sparked a heated debate about the "professionalism" of maritime industry leaders. Typically, the main criteria for such a leader's effectiveness are relevant education and industry experience.
Certainly, taking into account the stated criteria, the most effective leader can be considered the Order-bearer, Hero of Ukraine, Honorary Citizen of Odessa, and long-time director of the Odessa port, Mykola Pavlyuk.
To understand what makes up the ideal manager in the port industry, let's take a closer look at his biography.
Education
Nikolai Panteleimonovich Pavlyuk entered the Institute of Marine Engineers in Odessa (specializing in water transport operational engineering) at the age of 26. He studied there for eight years, from 1956 to 1964. He is a full member of the Transport Academy of Sciences (a public organization where an "academician" card costs 10,000 hryvnias, and a "corresponding member" card costs 5,000 hryvnias).
Seniority
Since 1960, he has worked at the Odessa Sea Trade Port. He began his career as a stoker, then worked as a loader and dispatcher. He became the port's director in 1985. From 2002 to 2005, he was a member of parliament of Ukraine. From 2005 to October 2011, he again served as the port's director. From 2011 to the present, at the age of 77, he has been the honorary president of the Odessa Sea Trade Port on his salary.
Rewards
In 1970, as a senior dispatcher of the 2nd district and a member of the CPSU, he was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor” - 10 years after starting work at the port.
In 1973, as deputy head of the 2nd district for operations, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
In 2000, Mykola Pavlyuk was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine for outstanding personal service to the state in the development of maritime transport, significant contributions to the technical re-equipment of the enterprise, and improved business efficiency. His personal achievements are not specified, but it is known that in 1999, Pavlyuk served as a confidant of presidential candidate Leonid Kuchma. There are also references online that Pavlyuk received the title Hero of Ukraine from Kuchma for smuggling weapons through the port of Odessa, which were shipped to hot spots in Africa, the former Yugoslavia, and conflict zones around the world, as well as for fraudulent dealings with petroleum products. But who knows what the internet says?
Also in 2000 he became an honorary citizen of Odessa.
Labor achievements
1. "Pavlyuk Overpass ." Construction of the transport overpass at the Odessa port, which had been underway since 1996, was completed in 2009. Its total length is 6,4 km, and the total cost was approximately 4 billion UAH. All bridge construction crews of Ukraine participated in its construction. The structure was named after Mykola Pavlyuk, who, through a thoughtful management decision, extended the main overpass onto private property—and since then, the structure has been the subject of ongoing controversy.
2. "Pavlyuk's Breakwater ." An equally unique monument to N. Pavlyuk is the sunken breakwater and empty terminals of his other brainchild, the "Quarantine Breakwater" project. Losses are approaching a billion dollars, half of which are state-owned, but those responsible have not been found, and the project's founder, N. Pavlyuk, a true port industry professional, has discreetly retreated into the shadows.
A sunken breakwater in the Odessa port
3. "Pavlyuk's Hotel ." Thanks to N. Pavlyuk's skill at attracting investment, an empty hotel at the seaport has marred Odessa's skyline for two decades. The criminal case materials for which N. Pavlyuk was arrested state that he "transferred the entire Odessa hotel complex to the aforementioned LLC for 49 years under economically disadvantageous terms, causing significant losses to the state, and illegally spent state-owned enterprise funds on the hotel's renovation." His renowned skills in implementing planned projects can also be seen here.
A closed hotel at the seaport
4. "Improving Business Efficiency ." N. Pavlyuk transferred the entire profitable stevedoring business to private hands for decades – as a result, all cargo at the port is handled by private companies. Those unfamiliar with the maritime industry may be surprised: why would such a helpless manager be needed, someone who is unable to maximize profits and therefore hands over the business to someone who knows how to operate? Why would a leading maritime specialist not perform his direct responsibilities but instead work with intermediaries? Laymen may be surprised that as a result of this decision, the budget loses over 500 million UAH annually, while private stevedores' profits are siphoned off to offshore companies. However, experienced port specialists like N. Pavlyuk are ready to explain to laymen the theory and practice of public-private partnerships, which create the conditions for the rational use of resources and effective management and operation of the port.
All port warehouses, berths, terminals, cranes, auxiliary transport, etc. are leased out
5. "Pavlyuk Shipyard ." Financial fraud at the now-bankrupt Odessa ship repair yard and the embezzlement of over 100 million hryvnias through the Finance and Credit bank, which is in the process of liquidation. Sound financial planning and forecasting under the direction of the Honorary President of the port.
6. "Pavlyuk's Aquapark ." Built on Pavlyuk's initiative in the village of Chabanka, a suburb of Odessa, the Odessa Seaport recreation center and the adjacent waterpark are no longer operational, despite the millions of dollars in construction costs. His extensive professional education helped Pavlyuk decide to close these facilities and abandon them.
Poseidon Aquapark is an indoor water park in Çabanka. It is one of the largest indoor water parks in Eastern Europe.
7. Charity . In 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea, on the advice of Nikolai Pavlyuk, the tugboat "Progress" was donated to Sevastopol, worth 12 million hryvnias. The tugboat is currently participating in the construction of the Kerch Bridge.
8. Thanks to N. Pavlyuk's ability to solve practical problems in the maritime field , the Odessa port mysteriously lost seven vessels during his tenure. Undoubtedly, a thorough understanding of the maritime industry is required to lose seven vessels without being noticed.
9. Ability to assume responsibility . Pavlyuk was not afraid to facilitate the illegal allocation of land, the issuance of environmental permits, and the construction and commissioning of a liquefied natural gas transshipment facility in close proximity to the oil terminal at the Odessa port. State regulations and standards, as well as rules for the safe location of particularly hazardous man-made facilities, were violated, but for Pavlyuk, the joint activities of private business and the port are sacred.
10. The interests of the port come first . Under N. Pavlyuk, instead of a sea view, Odessans received "steel banks" and permanently closed apartment windows due to the endless noise from the port, dust, dirt, and the constant vibration of thousands of banging train cars during train shunts beneath their windows. A successful public-private partnership gave Odessans open-air iron ore warehouses near kindergartens and a recreation park. Only true port industry experts are capable of disfiguring Odessa's historical and cultural landscape, creating serious environmental problems for its residents, and depriving them of peace by organizing an endless stream of dirty, overloaded train cars and road trains in the center of the resort city.
A grain terminal in the heart of Odessa. View from the seaside boulevard.
11. "Pavlyuk Ruins ." The ruined foundry, forge, and shipyard buildings between Primorskaya Street and Marinesko Slope, no doubt aided by Pavlyuk's deep maritime knowledge, have become a haven for homeless people, drug addicts, and extreme sports enthusiasts.
One of the collapsed buildings of the ship repair yard
12. Improving social standards is one of the top priorities. N. Pavlyuk paid millions of hryvnias from the state-owned enterprise to the private company Into-Sana for the provision of so-called insurance-based medical care to port workers. However, when fatalities occurred at the port or when workers injured at work urgently needed medical attention, Into-Sana refused not only to provide assistance but even to travel to the scene to transport the injured to the hospital. N. Pavlyuk was also always concerned about the port's kindergartens, which he transferred from the port's balance sheet to "improve economic indicators."
13. Negotiating is an important skill in the maritime industry. Nikolai Pavlyuk helped reduce the fine for an environmental disaster involving a massive oil spill in the waters of the Odessa oil terminal. The initial damages that the owner of the tanker "Athenian Face," which released approximately 40 tons of oil into the sea during ballast removal, were willing to pay were approximately $20 million. However, Pavlyuk agreed to a settlement, reducing the fine to $3,7 million.
14. Effective international maritime cooperation . N. Pavlyuk, virtually without a competitive bidding, appointed Hamburg Port Consult (HPC), a company he had lobbied for, to the vacant position of operator of the Odessa Container Terminal. At the time, the company had no experience in intermodal global container shipping, was not involved in stevedoring operations of this type, lacked the capacity to attract new container cargo flows, and had no authority in the container business. Previously, the container terminal was operated by the world-renowned American stevedoring and logistics company Ceres Terminal. The Americans brought order to the port and trained its staff to use new, cutting-edge technologies. However, Pavlyuk decided that the Americans were underpaying them and, in violation of contractual obligations, demanded all sorts of concessions from them. A local conflict escalated into an international scandal. Even former US Secretary of State Marlene Albright raised this issue at the interstate level. The scandal culminated in the Americans' decision to terminate their cooperation agreement with the Odesa port and withdraw from the Ukrainian market, citing their unwillingness to be implicated in corruption and smuggling schemes. Pavlyuk's decision elevated the port's investment appeal to a whole new level.
An image film as a gift for Nikolai Pavlyuk's 75th birthday
15. In the mid-90s, Pavlyuk announced a tender for the right to build a ballast water treatment plant (BWTP) at the port's oil terminal. The tender was conducted in accordance with the regulations. Bids were submitted by foreign companies specializing in the production of this type of equipment. The world-renowned Italian firm, Service Ecolodzi, emerged victorious. Pavlyuk pompously congratulated the winning company and invited its management to a banquet. It soon emerged that Pavlyuk had long since made a deal with the notorious Sintez-Oil company, which handled oil transshipment at the Odessa oil terminal. As a result, a less-than-modern BWTP was built.
16. Ability to plan years in advance . In 2009, Pavlyuk began construction of Pier 1-3 on the Androsovsky Mole and promised to complete it within four years. However, the pier has still not been completed, the construction estimate has doubled, and its commissioning date has been pushed back to 2018.
17. Business connections are a unique resource for a leader, helping to solve a wide range of complex tactical and strategic problems. When researching Pavlyuk's business connections, the very first link returned the following message: "Razumny ('Zyuma'), Angert ('Angel') , Rosengolts, Dolinsky, Zhukov, Pavlyuk, and Bodelan have created a mess at the state level! ... Pavlyuk is a puppet in the hands of bandit 'businessmen.' Odessans remember the strong alliance of Bodelan-Zhukov-Angert-Trukhanov-Pavlyuk-Grigorenko-Grinevetsky... Pavlyuk is dragging Gennady Trukhanov , who is the representative of A. Angert ('Angel') in Odessa, into the vacant seat on the city council." After this, the search was abandoned.
Conclusions
Only 17 facts about the vigorous management of N. Pavlyuk, a "luminary of the transport industry" based on the criteria of "education" and "work experience," are cited. In reality, there are many more such facts—for example, it's worth looking at the Program for the Development of the Odessa Sea Trade Port through 2015, developed by Pavlyuk and approved by the Ministry in 2009. Of the 11 projects presented there for developing the port's capacity and four programs that were supposed to ensure the port's environmental safety, energy conservation, and the renewal of the port fleet and crane facilities, virtually none have been implemented. Nor have the promised "more than 1,400 jobs directly at the port" been created.
The study ignored numerous references to N. Pavlyuk related to corruption, financial fraud, and illegal disposal of state property – after all, for the purposes of the study, we are only interested in the professionalism in making management decisions of the ideal leader of the maritime industry.
Ultimately, the study revealed that the name of "transport industry luminary" Mykola Pavlyuk is inextricably linked to the most high-profile failures at the Odesa port. It also revealed the ineffectiveness of the market model created by this "outstanding leader," in which all port warehouses, berths, terminals, cranes, auxiliary transport, etc., are leased to private stevedoring companies, leaving the port fleet as the only business in the port that generates real income.
Some might argue that Pavlyuk hasn't been in charge at the port in recent years, and so the image of the ideal maritime manager is somewhat distorted. However, it's impossible to distinguish between Pavlyuk's "management" in recent years, his successor Vaskov's, and the two of them together, as before Pavlyuk's dismissal in 2011, Vaskov served for several years as his first deputy and the de facto implementer of all his failed plans. The same applies to the head of the Odessa Port Administration, Mikhail Sokolov: his shadow boss is none other than N. Pavlyuk, who occupies the best office in the Sea Ports Administration and receives a salary.
Nikolai Pavlyuk
After all, if the president receives a salary, he must earn it. However, experts argue that Pavlyuk's office and position were intended not so much for his management functions and specific organizational tasks, but rather for overseeing a secret set of contractual terms, known only to him, under which he leased port facilities for decades.
Therefore, the statements about the indispensability of the transport industry luminary Nikolai Pavlyuk are absolutely true.
However, examples of his management activities at the Odessa port indicate that, in order to take the port to a qualitatively new level of competitiveness, specialized education and knowledge of the specifics of the maritime industry are unnecessary and even harmful.
Igor Degulis, for SKELET-info
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