Company UNIT, developer of the booking.uz.gov.ua, has proposed several times to implement a free of charge online tickets sale system for the Kyiv – Boryspil Airport express, those appeals were ignored by Ukrzaliznytsya. As a result, the online purchase of tickets for this destination is still unavailable for passengers. This is the topic of the recent official open letter of the developer company to the Head of Ukrazaliznytsya Yevhen Kravtsov. 

The developers have also emphasized on the fact that there is no necessity in the procurement of a new information system, as is being carried out now by the South-West Zaliznytsya (https://prozorro.gov.ua/tender/UA-2018-10-26-001603-c), since the already existing software and hardware, responsible for the system of purchasing online tickets on Ukrzaliznytsya, has all the required features. 

The UNIT company once again appeals to the Ukrzaliznytsya to consider our proposal and informs that it is ready to provide the necessary software, so that Ukrainians and foreigners at last could have a possibility of purchasing tickets on the official Ukrzalizntysya website. 

Here is the original text of the letter:

Dear Mr. Kravtsov!

With this open letter we are informing you that we addressed you and responsible officials at Ukrzalizntytsya branches twice with a proposal to develop and implement a free of charge online tickets sale service for the Kyiv – Boryspil Airport express on the official website of the Ukrzaliznytsya (booking.uz.gov.ua). 

We sent two official letters (#02/121118 as of 12.11.2018 and #04/281118 as of 28.11.2018 – are attached below) to your address with a proposal to improve the software used for online purchasing tickets for the express with no surcharge.

We also emphasized that there is no necessity in procurement of a new specialized passengers’ information system, which is being carried out now by the South-West Zaliznytsya (https://prozorro.gov.ua/tender/UA-2018-10-26-001603-c), since the already existing software and hardware, responsible for the system of purchasing online tickets on Ukrzaliznytsya, has all the required features. 

Both letters were ignored and left without a reply. 

As a result, both Ukrainian and foreign passengers from all over the world, who are travelling via the largest airport of our country are still left without possibility to purchase tickets for the express online.

The company UNIT is once again asking you to consider our proposal. On our part, we confirm that we are ready to provide the necessary software in order to launch the system of online tickets sale for the Kyiv – Boryspil Airport express via the official website of Ukrzaliznytsya – booking.uz.gov.ua. 

PRESS-RELEASE

The developers of the booking.uz.gov.ua website at Unit addressed the Head of Ukrzaliznytsya with an open letter. In an interview with Censor.net, Yevhen Kravtsov claimed that the online system had failed to operate under heavy load during the New Year holidays: “There has been a system failure. It couldn’t sustain the work under heavy load”. 

 “The software was running and is continuing to run properly. The delays with the ticket sale online were caused artificially. First of all, the holiday tickets were made available on the very last moment and secondly, the server equipment, located in the data-center of Ukrzaliznytsya (Main Information and Computing Center) was outdated, leading to bottlenecks.” – the letter said.

The developer company has made several appeals to the management of Ukrzaliznytsya in the form of official letters, emphasizing on the need to update and modernize the hardware systems. However, these appeals have been ignored. The fact of the systems being outdated has been confirmed by the Main Information and Computing Center as well. 

By making such claims, Yevhen Kravtsov is trying to manipulate public opinion on the situation in order to cover up the real state of things at Ukrzaliznytsya and justify the procurement of a new system (a copied version of the old one) and the booking.uz.gov.ua website for a total sum of 21,4 million UAH (https://prozorro.gov.ua/tender/UA-2018-10-26-001603-c).

In turn, UNIT informs that it is doing everything in its power to maintain the stability of the online tickets’ sale system.

Here is the original text of the appeal letter with attachments from the developers: 

Dear Mr. Kravtsov,

On the previous week a new interview (https://bit.ly/2Yxe9Me) was published in the mass media, where you made a claim about “a critical online tickets’ sale and payment system failure”. As developers of the following system at Unit, we would like to address you and the civil society by making a public claim that no such faults were detected. The software was running and is continuing to run properly. The delays with the ticket sale online were caused artificially. First of all, the holiday tickets were made available on the very last moment and secondly, the server equipment, located in the data-center of Ukrzaliznytsya (Main Information and Computing Center (Further on: MICC)) was outdated, leading to bottlenecks. This information can be proved by the letter #36/3930, which we received from MICC as of 10.12.2018 (attached below). 

We would like to draw your attention to the letters from 04.10.2016 #04/101016, 21.06.2018 #05/210618, 16.07.2018 #02/160718, 03.10.2018 #03/031018 and 06.12.2018 #03/061218 (attached), in which we officially appealed to the Ukrzaliznytsya and emphasized on the importance of updating the hardware (server) systems. However, these letters were ignored with no further reaction on the part of Ukrzaliznytsya. 

Regarding your claim, that “the electronic system of online tickets sale needs to be thoroughly reworked and enhanced”, allegedly in order to avoid speculations – we would like to inform that we had sent the technical requirements for this project to Ukrzaliznytsya a year before. The mentioned requirements had been decided on and approved by the respective structures inside of Ukrzaliznytsya. However, no further action has been taken to implement this project to this day!  

Thus, the information you shared on the interview regarding the work of the online tickets sale does not correspond to reality and resembles an attempt to manipulate public opinion in order to cover up the real state of things at Ukrzaliznytsya as well as to justify the procurement of a new system (a copied version of the old one) and the website booking.uz.gov.ua (https://bit.ly/2ZNEFO6). 

On our part, the team of experts at UNIT is doing its best to maintain the stable work of the system. We kindly ask you to stop the manipulations and the disinformation campaign on the ‘problems’ with the electronic tickets at Ukrzaliznytsya. 

Two weeks ago, a project investor, UNIT, wrote an open letter to the mayor, expressing its astonishment, which was caused by an unexpected and unjustified unilateral decision to close the largest social project of the capital and the country in general, with over 1,5 million active users in Kyiv, which had been made without the investor’s consent. Unfortunately, the letter was ignored. 

Due to the actions of the city authorities, 1.5 million people – the Kyiv City Card (KCC) users, may find themselves left without the possibility to receive municipal services: in transport, when receiving discounts, subsidies, one-time and regular payments, with the monetization of benefits and in other cases as well.

The team at UNIT decided to act instead of just ignoring the issue. They wrote a second open letter to the mayor Vitaliy Klytschko, where they claimed to have been doing everything in their power to ensure, that the Kyiv City Card (KCC) users had access to all the services the KCC provided.  

Here is the original text of the appeal letter:

Open letter

To the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration

Vitaliy Klytschko

Dear Mr. Klytschko,

Two weeks ago, after learning from the media about the KCSA’s decision to close the Kyiv City Card (KCC) project, our company addressed you with an urgent open letter, asking to personally intervene in the situation revolving around the project. Unfortunately, we did not receive any response from you. 

Moreover, we have officially been asked to uninstall the ITC Kyiv City Card (KCC) software, which meant killing the project! This means that KCSA allegedly wants us to take this service from 1.5 million of Kyiv City Card (KCC) users, including those living in Kyiv and those, eligible for the respective city services and subsidies, all available for them thanks to the service. 

Dear mayor, with all due respect, we would like to abstain from taking part in this nonsense. As a socially responsible company, we will continue to support the service by all means necessary as well as to defend the interests of people in Kyiv. 

We can assure that the Kyiv City Card (KCC) will continue to work with transport, with receiving discounts, subsidies, regular and single-time payments as well as with the monetization of benefits and other municipal services. 

We are sure that such actions not only pose a threat to your reputation as a European mayor, but also to the image of the whole city. Such relations are indicative of the way you really treat the investors, as opposed to the image in the media.  

Respectfully,

UNIT Team

PRESS-RELEASE

The Kyiv City Card Investor wrote an appeal letter to Vitaliy Klytschko regarding the potential closing of the project.

On December 12, 2018, the media shared some information on the closing of the Kyiv City Card project, which was scheduled for January 1, 2019 due to the termination of the agreement with the investor. 

The project investor, UNIT, wrote an open letter to the mayor, expressing its astonishment, which was caused by an unexpected and unjustified unilateral decision to close the largest social project of the capital and the country in general, with over 1,5 million active users in Kyiv, which had been made without the investor’s consent. 

This happened despite the numerous claims made by the mayor, where he had emphasized on the importance of the Kyiv City Card for the capital and called it a key part of the Smart City. The Kyiv City Card was also named the most innovative project on the world Smart City Expo World Congress (Barcelona, 2017) and Innovative City (Cannes, 2018) conferences. This, however, did not affect the city’s decision to close the project. 

Here is the original text of the appeal letter: 

Open letter

To the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration 

 Vitaliy Klytschko

 Dear Mr. Klytschko,

Our company has learned from the media that the Kyiv City Card Project was being closed, which we found astonishing and confusing to a great extent!

We made numerous attempts to come in contact with you in order to negotiate the terms of future cooperation and project development, however unsuccessfully, since all of our appeals have been ignored. We heard numerous claims about the social significance of the Kyiv City Card for the city and promises of support and cooperation on the project. We have been reassured that the project was interesting and important to maintain on the meetings with the KCSA departments, involved in the cause. Additionally, in your public speeches you have emphasized on the importance of the Kyiv City Card for the capital and called it a key part of the Smart City! 

As a socially responsible company, we have been investing into this project for over 7 years and it has become iconic for the whole country, not just Kyiv. We presented the Kyiv City Card on the world Smart City Expo World Congress conference in Barcelona in 2017, where it earned the title of the most innovative project of the year. This year, we presented the mobile application of the Kyiv City Card, granting unlimited possibilities for the Kyiv City Card’s further development!  The KCC information telecommunication system has become a powerful instrument to battle corruption in Kyiv!

Based on the above, we respectfully ask you, dear Mr. Klytschko, to immediately personally interfere in the situation revolving around the Kyiv City Card as a guarantor and bodyguard of all the investors in Kyiv! 

On behalf of our team, we can assure that UNIT is ready to take any action necessary to resolve the situation with the Kyiv City Card!

Respectfully,

UNIT LLC

UNIT has released the official mobile application for the Kyiv City Card service, now available for Android and iOS.

The application has 7 modules: Transport, Medicine, Education, Communal Services as well as Payments for the Services and the News section. The main novelty of the application, however, lies in the ability to communicate with the authorities. The built-in messenger allows the cardholders to directly contact the city administration representatives, such as the mayor, officials, deputies or the local building utilities administrator offices (also known as ZhEK). 

“It is a direct communication channel with the city administration for the Kyiv City Cardholders. Thanks to the fact, that each cardholder is identified in the system, the messenger allows the user to send messages to the city authorities directly, at the same time ensuring that they have been sent by real citizens. It is a messenger of sorts, which operates by the following principle: for example, you send a message to the Kyiv City Council (KyivRada) and suggest a quality of life improvements in your district of the city. This is a fine example of direct democracy in action, allowing the citizens to participate in the life of their city completely bureaucracy- and hassle-free.” – said the Kyiv City Card project manager, Alina Maksymenko. 

After the system of e-tickets sale is implemented in the capital, the Kyiv City Card users will be able to buy public transport tickets in the form of a QR-code as well as track their travel history and receive discounts on the fares. 

The Medical module allows the user to literally make an appointment with a doctor in two clicks. The system identifies the person and a form will be automatically fill in right after. 

The Education module allows the parents to track when the child enters and leaves school and follow its transport route to and from home. To enable this feature, the parents just need to create a ‘Pupil’s card’ and link it with their Kyiv City Card. 

The Communal Services Module gathers information on your household bills and sends you a push-notification, reminding that the bills are ready, and await payment. You can pay all of them with a single click on your smartphone. 

The Payments for the Services Module allows the user to refill the phone, pay the bills for the Internet, television etc. 

“According to the studies and world practices, no other mobile application can boast of such a range of services in one place. There are only certain medical and transportation applications, which have been launched in Moscow, Dubai and other cities in the world” – said the Kyiv City Card project manager, Alina Maksymenko.

The Kyiv City Card allows the city authorities to directly communicate with the citizens, learn about their problems, needs and react in a prompt fashion, at the same time making it possible to engage the civic society in the city-building process. 

The Kyiv City Card is an instrument for gathering statistical and analytical data, which will allow to improve the work of the communal, administrative, medical and educational institutions in the city. Apart from that, the application helps to correctly plan the transportation needs by using a respective module and make the necessary administrative decisions, utilizing the data, gathered from the Kyiv City Card user base.

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