Andriy Petryshyn: Mayor Sadovyi illegally raises fares in Lviv

Andriy Petryshyn, head of the public benefit project Audit Lviv, told Lvivski Novyny journalists about the illegality of the decision of the executive committee of the Lviv City Council to raise public transportation fares.

Mr. Andriy, we now have information that starting June 1, 2024, the Lviv authorities were to raise public transportation fares to 25 hryvnias. But, according to Espresso-West, she did not risk doing so. And this decision was postponed to September 1, 2024. What are your thoughts on this?

You see, the whole paradox is that the executive committee of the Lviv City Council decided to raise fares from June 1, 2024, back in 2021. Just imagine, in 2021, they already allegedly knew how much fuel and lubricants, spare parts, and what passenger traffic and wages would cost in 2024. And in 2021, they already set a fixed price for 2024. Well, not the executive committee, but the Vangs. And the head of this vangok is the main Wang, the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, because all the documents bear his signature.

Mr. Sadovyi, for some reason, the executive committee and the mayor of the city, Andriy Sadovyi, did not dare to implement this decision on June 1, 2024?

Within the framework of the Lviv Audit project, which I founded and lead, a group of my like-minded people, mostly professionals, and I have comprehensively studied this issue. And in the course of our monitoring, we uncovered blatant violations: facts of document forgery, official abuse, unreasonable pricing, and violations of Ukrainian legislation in the field of regulatory policy. This is what my team and I faced, and we were quite impressed. And I emphasize that these are people with vast life and practical experience. What we saw can be characterized in the popular parlance as follows: the Lviv authorities ride on violations, and they are pushing violations further.

Yes. I see. But what were your actions?

Based on our investigation, I filed an administrative lawsuit with the Lviv District Administrative Court, suing the executive committee and the mayor of Sadovyi, demanding that the decision of the executive committee and the mayor to raise transportation prices from June 1, 2024, be canceled. And on April 18 this year, the court started the trial, the first preparatory hearing in the case took place.

At what stage is the process now?

Three court hearings have already taken place and we are now moving to the stage of consideration of the case on the merits. We demand evidence. We supplement the claims. We involve witnesses.

So, what do you think made Andriy Sadovyi postpone the increase in transportation prices?

Andriy Sadovyi is well aware that specialists (lawyers, economists) have taken over the case, and since we will bring the case to its logical conclusion, i.e. to the court verdict, he is trying to buy time to try to get out of it once again.

And what, will he get away with it again?

I assure you, we will not give him this chance!

Thank you, Mr. Andriy, for the conversation. See you soon.

For reference:

Andriy Petryshyn is a Lviv resident, a well-known lawyer and human rights activist in Ukraine, an active participant in the Revolution of Dignity and a public figure. The socially useful project Audit Lviv started its activities in 2018 to protect the rights of Lviv residents in preventing the construction of a waste processing plant in residential areas of the city, returning illegally alienated land to municipal ownership, and more.