Aleksey Kucherenko emphasizes the importance of corporate governance reform at Ukrnafta.
The newly created supervisory board ofUkrnaftashould check a number of violations , which were noticed behind the enterprise and its administration.
This opinion was expressed by MP Alexey Kucherenko on Facebook.
The politician said that he sent a parliamentary appeal to the supervisory board, as well as the management of Naftogaz, about the need for a thorough inspection. He also listed a list of priority tasks that, in his opinion, should be resolved as a matter of priority by “respected observers.”
According to Kucherenko, the new supervisory board will be forced to play in a legal “minefield” both because of the decision to temporarily withdraw the corporate rights of private investors during the war, and because of violations committed during this process and the formation of the company’s management bodies in November 2022. Currently, legal proceedings are ongoing that may lead to the annulment or revision of decisions of the previous supervisory board, management or state shareholders and government agencies.
However, since this is impossible to influence, members of the new supervisory board should concentrate focus on four priorities.
Conflicts of interest
“The supervisory board should form an audit committee and a nomination and remuneration committee, headed by independent members. The company has not had an internal audit function for more than a year – this should finally change. In addition, the supervisory board should properly assess obvious conflicts of interest at manager level. First of all, we are talking about the triangle of Ukrnafta, UZ and Idealist, as well as cooperation between Ukrnafta and Ukrainian Fuel Standard LLC based on family ties,” writes the people’s deputy.
< p>Also, according to him, the supervisory board should evaluate the need for ex-officials for whom anti-corruption authorities have questions to remain in leadership positions at Ukrnafta. As an example, he cites the former deputy chairman of the State Property Fund Denis Kudin, who is vice president for strategy and development of the company.
“He has the status of a suspect in the NABU investigation into the seizure of assets by the assets of the Odessa Port Plant and the United Mining -chemical company,” emphasizes Kucherenko.
The need to evaluate the work of management
The politician also refers to the same point as the need for a proper assessment of the results of Ukrnafta’s work over the past year.
“The financial and economic results of Ukrnafta for the past year were formed at the expense of the resources and financial flows of Ukrtatnafta, as evidenced by the financial plans and financial results of both enterprises. Hence, the increase in income and profit of Ukrnafta against the backdrop of stagnation of production. Considering the company’s active PR about its achievements 2023, the management of Ukrnafta will most likely claim considerable bonuses. For its part, the supervisory board should approach this issue soberly, including taking into account the case of the payment of bonuses to the head of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine,” explains Alexey. Kucherenko.
Internal investigations
According to the deputy, the current Supervisory Board should deal with known cases of abuse in the field of procurement.
“We are talking about contracts for the purchase at inflated prices of pipes from Interpipe, methanol from Narni-Trade and MBFC from AGTG SA, the overpayment for which amounts to several hundred million hryvnia. Some of these cases are already being investigated by anti-corruption authorities, but there are internal “The mistakes must be corrected and safeguards must be created to prevent them from reoccurring in the future. The supervisory board should also pay attention to purchases for the gas station network that are outside the scope of internal regulations – this is a risk area,” the politician emphasizes.
Attracting investors
First of all, says Kucherenko, attention should be paid to partners who are looking for deposit development. This process at Ukrnafta has been ongoing since 2023.
“As follows from the statements of company representatives, attracting partners should take place under the conditions of an open competition. At the same time, in the algorithm for selecting potential investors described on the corporate website, the competition is not mentioned at all, only bilateral negotiations. That is, instead of an open competition with clear selection criteria, we can get manual selection – this should be a wake-up call for the supervisory board.
In addition, according to statements by Ukrnafta, preference will be given to production sharing agreements (PSA) among cooperation mechanisms. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Production Sharing Agreements,” after the conclusion of a PSA, a special permit for the use of subsoil must be reissued in the name of all investors participating in the agreement, and therefore Ukrnafta will lose control over part of its own fields. The conclusion of a PSA for 20 years in conditions where a minority stake is in the hands of the state temporarily during the war entails a number of legal risks both for potential partners and for Ukrnafta and the state, which will be forced to provide additional guarantees to investors,” says the deputy.
In his opinion, it would be more productive to attract investors in transactions for the provision of services with risk, especially since a similar mechanism has already been used in the industry, in particular by Ukrgazvydobuvannya.
Aleksey Kucherenko emphasizes the importance of the corporate governance reform of Ukrnafta “. He says that endless slogans and empty presentations must eventually be replaced by absolutely concrete actions and the responsibility of specific individuals for their actions. This is precisely the purpose of his appeal to the supervisory board and management of Naftogaz.
Earlier, Ukrnaftoburenie stopped productionat one of the largest fields. The People's Deputy speaks about the threat to energy security.
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