US reconstruction expert on rebuilding Ukraine, and how to avoid corruption – interview

11 May 2023, 12:26 AM

Exclusive

The Ukrainian government has estimated the cost of rebuilding the country after the devastation of Russian aggression at an astronomical $750 billion. Kyiv will most likely receive significantly less than this from its Western partners, but the post-war reconstruction will nevertheless be the largest national project in Ukraine’s modern history.

David Mazzuca is a Lead Instructor at Columbia University's National Disaster Preparedness Center and a fellow at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University in Japan. Mazzuca recently made a virtual "visit" to Ukraine under the auspices of the International Republican Institute, holding online meetings with local government officials across the country, discussing effective and transparent reconstruction of their communities.

Afterwards, he spoke with NV, outlining his vision for Ukraine’s recovery and key approaches that should guide the implementation of these projects across the country.

NV: How will Ukraine’s urban spaces, infrastructure, and residential areas change as a result of post-war reconstruction? What will these reconstruction projects include?

Mazzuca: Reconstruction projects must be citizen-focused. The objective should be to recreate communities which encourage those who have been displaced to return. It’s important, first and foremost, to focus on building the vital physical structures that encourage people to come back – like schools, hospitals, and housing. You want to create circumstances in which the amenities of urban living are restored, allowing families to return. Once families return, businesses will also naturally return. Projects cannot occur in a vacuum, but must, as I said, be citizen-focused, with the idea being to restore a community. The infrastructure, which enables families to live there, must rebuilt first of all. It is necessary to create conditions for people to come home. And then the business will return.

I would say that the first thing that’s needed are schools, depending on the population makeup of the community. Rebuilding schools allows families to feel comfortable to return back home.

Additionally, the government should be in a position to support the rebuilding of water, sewage, electricity, and road infrastructure – all these help a community rebuild.

When it comes to restoring any community that has been affected by a disaster, be it war, or be it a hurricane, it’s about making the community a vital component and engaging with the public.

Reconstruction is not a one-size-fits-all approach. You need to understand what the needs are in an individual community when you’re rebuilding.

NV: In what cases should the focus be on restoring what existed pre-war, and when should we focus on building something fundamentally new? How do we decide what to do with all the villages destroyed in the war?

Mazzuca: This is a question that communities across the world grapple with, regardless of the type of hazard they are experiencing. It is important to ask, was the population of the village declining before the war, and was there enough economic activity to keep young people from migrating before the war?

If the answer is that the population was declining, and the level of economic activity was low, then it is likely that the population of the village will continue to decline, even if it was rebuilt today. Thus, it might be beneficial to merge several villages together so that they can be more economically vibrant. 

Furthermore, from a government standpoint, this would bring savings in municipal services, including combining schools and other public infrastructure. It is not simply a matter of rebuilding a physical community just to rebuild it. The objective should be creating a vibrant community of people. That may mean a different physical makeup or location.

NV: Are there any other countries whose experience with community rejuvenation could be useful for Ukraine?

Mazzuca: As I said earlier, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to reconstruction. I think it is important to be looking more at the ingredients that go into a successful reconstruction. One of those key ingredients is community engagement, receiving feedback from those who are to return on what they want out of a restored community.

The most recent example of this would be Japan, following the tsunami in 2011. It’s an example where the government and those who were displaced engaged to discuss what they wanted to rebuild. For example, where housing should be rebuilt, about which areas should be left as memorials and nature reserves.

Recovery and reconstruction are usually easier in communities which have strong social bonds. Even when people are displaced, these social bonds are important so that people talk, and so that they then want to return to the community that was impacted.

NV: What else needs to be taken into account for there to be an efficient reconstruction process?

Mazzuca: One thing we haven’t hit on yet is transparency in the process. We have already discussed the importance of community involvement in recovery. It is important to have community engagement to discuss what to rebuild, but it is equally important for the public to have insight into where money is being spent. That insight will allow communities to feel like they are a stakeholder, which they are. It will thus be looked upon historically as successful reconstruction. The stories of communities which are looked upon as failed reconstruction are those in which money was poorly spent. Thus, transparency is key.

NV: Ukraine inherited a legacy of very deep corruption from its Soviet days. How can we avoid the risks of corruption in this reconstruction process?

Mazzuca: It is not about how you stop corruption, but rather how you mitigate it. It is important to make fraud and corruption too costly for the perpetrators. Right now, before the reconstruction process even begins, it is time for reforms at the local or national government level to be considered. As an example, Ukraine could create an online portal for all construction vendors to register their companies and to submit the names and biometric data for all their employees. This, as an example, would prevent fraudulent individuals from establishing new companies under new names. You would further make sure that only those companies which are registered in this system are eligible to take part in the reconstruction process.

The other example of a measure I’ll mention is having strict auditing and reporting requirements. That would make sense for larger companies in Ukraine. The objective is to make it too costly and too hard for corruption to occur. Other people may have other ideas about how to prevent and mitigate corruption, but the important thing is that this is a conversation that needs to be happening now, before the reconstruction process even begins. If you're doing it when you have shovels in the ground, it is already too late.

NV: Are there some examples of how other countries have successfully mitigated corruption?

Mazzuca: There are different types of fraud, globally. In the U.S. context, we had issues where contractors would seek cash payments from individuals before work began. We mitigated that by requiring people not to use cash. By moving away from cash and instead using electronic payments, it is easier to track. The key is to remove anonymity and the ability of vendors to disappear.

Another example would be to ensure that different databases communicate with each other. In reference to that contractor registry I spoke of earlier, it’s important for that to be a national registry, so that people do not simply jump around (between regions).

When dealing with large corporations, whether domestic or multinational, having stringent auditing requirements will force them to be responsible stewards of how they’re spending public money. The reports they submit need to be publicly available, keeping the companies honest.

One of the ways to ensure that reconstruction is done reliably is the use of construction bonds, which serve essentially as insurance policies against project failures. Companies would be required to buy these bonds, and should they fail to complete their project as required, the bond issuer would pay out the bond to the government to finance the completion of the project.

The last thing I’ll mention is procurement – ensuring the procurement process is transparent.

NV: What are the sources of money that the Ukraine reconstruction effort could draw upon?

Mazzuca: There will undoubtedly be a number of financial instruments that will be coming into Ukraine. The question becomes how do you set up the government systems and infrastructure to manage it. This infrastructure will need to be in place both within the central government, as well as at smaller municipal levels. The importance of having these systems is to ensure that money is being used in ways that serve the people rather than the needs of the donor.

It doesn’t matter so much what the money sources are, but rather how the money is spent.

NV: What should the distribution of responsibilities be between the central and local authorities, and how should they interact?

Mazzuca: Local authorities should be at the heart of the conversation, engaging communities about what reconstruction should be. That said, to manage the programs and funding, it is likely necessary that the reconstruction process will have to be managed at a higher, national level.

Cooperation between different levels of government requires communication and coordination, and coordination requires that all entities involved understand their roles and responsibilities. The central government should consider what the strengths of local government are, in addition to being in a position to solicit public feedback. For example, local governments may be in the best position to manage the health and safety inspections of newly-constructed properties.

NV: The eastern regions of Ukraine have sustained the most damage in this war. They are also the most industrialized. How will the structure of Ukraine’s economy be ultimately altered by all this devastation?

Mazzuca: The question is: what are the needs of a future Ukraine? Were these industrial areas vital to the national economy of the future?

For example, given the anticipated post-war housing needs, should resources be devoted to building manufactured housing in factories?

The state needs to be deciding what the future industries are that Ukraine will need. Do they have the ability to produce more things domestically?

NV: Are there any other lessons or ideas that Ukraine needs to pay attention to in its reconstruction?

Mazzuca: One thing we haven’t really discussed yet is prioritization. Even with the large amounts of money that will be coming into Ukraine, there will still be limited resources, which means you will have to prioritize projects. That’s why it’s important to understand what is needed to restore communities, and to focus on those needs first. This is a challenge that is not unique to Ukraine, and is applicable to any area of the world that has suffered damage or destruction.

The other thing which we haven’t discussed is forming partnerships between international and domestic companies. For large national infrastructure projects, the government may wish to require international and domestic partnerships. You would do this to limit international companies from using only their staff to carry out projects, excluding local workers. 

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