The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food will perform a coordinating function in the anti-corruption audit of the State Land Cadastre, and the obtained data on land fraud will be transferred to law enforcement agencies, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to him, relevant agreements have already been signed on conducting an independent anti-corruption audit with the involvement of international organizations, which will include data from the Ukrainian side and independent expertise. This information will be published on the open data portal, and information about land scammers will be provided for consideration by law enforcement agencies and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC).
“The relevant data will be formed for all land scammers and a collegial decision of the National Security and Defense Council will be made in accordance with the current legislation,” the minister said.
Leshchenko said that the tracking of all schemes for the consolidation of assets and their beneficiaries will not end quickly, since all processes will be worked out systematically, without the use of selective measures. As an example, the minister cited a “network” formed on the basis of powers of attorney signed by 5,000 citizens, who authorized one person to execute registration and transfer of land plots.
“We are talking about land plots with the legal title of private farms, consolidated on the balance sheet of legal entities, including those with the beneficiaries, close to one or another vertical of power over the past 30 years of our statehood,” Leshchenko said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has announced an investigation into the lawfulness of privatization of strategic enterprises and subsoil deposits in the country by individuals.
“Those, who believed that a controlling stake in strategic defense enterprises, in particular Motor Sich, may end up with not the state, but in private hands, and land and subsoil deposits that belong to the people of Ukraine may also be seized, should also receive a fair and legitimate reaction from Ukraine. How did this happen? Again it is a rhetorical question. But the answers will be found by law enforcement agencies, together with the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources,” Zelensky said in a video message posted on his Facebook page on Friday evening.
“Citizens should know: how and on what conditions a number of people in Ukraine received certain resources. Those who did it legally have nothing to fear. And to establish this, a most detailed audit will be carried out, the results of which will be presented to society. I am sure that these answers should not be rhetorical, but concrete, exhaustive and well-reasoned – both for citizens and for possible future court cases,” the head of the Ukrainian state said.
The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has initiated an unscheduled internal audit of the state enterprise Ukrliktravy, the ministry reported on its website on Monday, October 26.
“On the basis of an official investigation, information about the unsatisfactory financial and economic condition of the enterprise, as well as in connection with the improper performance of his official duties, head of the state enterprise Ukrliktravy Andriy Vlasenko was dismissed,” the report says.
The total tax debt of the enterprise exceeds UAH 12 million, all accounts are blocked, the ministry added.
“As of October 26, 2020, the company has not submitted reports to the tax authorities for VAT and single social security tax,” the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture said.
The state enterprise did not submit financial plans for 2020 and 2021, which is a gross violation. In addition, there is no reporting for the second quarter and the first half of this year, the ministry said.
“Also, during the inspections, it was revealed that the company is not actually located at the legal address. There is no staff (there is no legal, financial, personnel and other services). Along with this, there is the urgent problem of harvesting maize and soybeans, which due to weather conditions remain unharvest and carrying out a complex of autumn field work,” the ministry added.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will conduct an audit of the financial statements of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko has said.
He posted a photocopy of a government resolution on his Facebook page that says that at its meeting on Wednesday, the Cabinet approved the appointment of Deloitte & Touche Ukrainian Services Company (USC) as a subject of auditing activities to provide services of the mandatory audit of financial reporting.
Baker Tilly Ukraine LLC from the Baker Tilly international audit network, has won a tender to select an auditor of consolidated statements of the Ukroboronprom state concern.
According to the ProZorro platform, where the auction was held on Thursday, Baker Tilly initially offered UAH 29.988 million for its services, while Ernst & Young LLC, its only rival, offered UAH 32.5 million, which corresponded to the starting price, and the total price amounted to UAH 29.336 million.
“This will be the first consolidated audit of the concern in the entire history of its existence,” the Ukroboronprom said in a statement.
The state concern said that earlier international audits were carried out only at individual enterprises –members of the concern. In particular, Baker Tilly Ukraine has already conducted an independent financial audit of the state-owned company for the export and import of military and special-purpose products and services Ukrspecexport, which is the largest Ukrainian special exporter and part of the Ukroboronprom group of companies.
Ukroboronprom recalled that the search for an auditor has been ongoing since 2017 and was unlocked in the summer of 2019, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reshuffled the concern’s supervisory board.
Some 66 enterprises have been selected to participate in the Energy Efficiency Project of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) and Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine. “A total of 66 enterprises have already been selected, which will receive technical support to identify and implement pilot energy efficiency projects,” First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov wrote.
According to him, among them 19 enterprises of the baking industry, 15 – from the dairy sector, 19 – machine building, as well as 11 enterprises for the production of nonmetallic building materials and two enterprises from other industries.
The list includes, among others, Kyivkhlib, Kyivsky BKK, Kupiansk Canned Milk Factory, Kaniv branch of the Cheese Club, Starokostiantynivsky Dairy Plant, Zhytomyr Butter Plant, EthnoProduct, JV Vitmark-Ukraine, Galca Ltd, Dnipropolymermash, Corum Druzhkivka Machine-Building Plant, Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant FED, IC Pozhmashina, Umanfermmash and OLIS.
In addition, the Kharkiv Tile Factory, Kerameya, the Kyiv Combine of the Construction Industry, the two branches of the SBK, the Tavriya Construction Company, the Temp Plant and the Zhytomyr Roofing and Insulating Materials Plant were selected.
Chairman of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhiy Savchuk said, commenting on the project on the agency’s website, that as part of the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU, one of the articles of which foreseen energy efficiency audit for large enterprises once in four years or the switch to the energy efficiency management, a bill on energy efficiency has been drawn up.
According to a posting on the website of GIZ, the project to advice enterprises in the energy efficiency sphere was started in 2017 and will last until 2021. GIZ said that the energy efficiency potential, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises, is 30-50%.
