The Verkhovna Rada on Thursday adopted an updated law on privatization (No. 7451), which will transfer large privatization to Prozorro auctions without advisers, speed up small privatization and remove a number of problematic issues.
233 deputies voted “for” with the required minimum of 226, according to information on the parliament’s website.
“Regarding large privatization. The main thing that has changed is that we are transferring all large privatization to Prozorro. All procedures have been prescribed as it is in small privatization,” one of the main innovations was named earlier in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine and. about. Head of the State Property Fund Olga Batova.
According to her, large-scale privatization, in the form in which it was and in which it is now, has shown the inefficiency of advisers. Among the claims against them, the head of the Fund singled out the lengthy preparation of the object for privatization; duplication of transactions with potential buyers, in particular on audit; potential corruption risks of engagement by one of the potential buyers.
“The draft law proposes that the Foundation will make a virtual folder (data room) with all the information about the enterprise: all valid contracts, court cases, financial statements – we fully set out and give each potential buyer three months to do an audit on their own,” she described the proposed new procedure, the head of the SPF.
With regard to small-scale privatization, she pointed out that the law further simplifies procedures, for example, introduces an online signature of the auction protocol, shortens the entire process from the moment the auction is announced to the signing of the contract to two months, introduces the possibility in some cases to do without the AMCU, cancels the requirement to publish in newspaper “Vedomosti Privatization”.
“In addition, we have provided for a very important change that will always be in effect: so that payment for the object is made before the signing of the contract – after the auction and the signing of the protocol, but before the signing of the contract,” the head of the SPF stressed. According to her, there are several cases, especially in the auctions held at the end of February, that buyers do not want to pay, arguing that it was force majeure.
Another important norm, she called the possibility of selling objects with arrests, which will allow creditors to finally receive their funds. “We propose to re-register the ownership of the winner of Prozorro, but all arrests will remain until the new owner repays the debt,” she explained.
“The list for privatization today includes a little more than 115 enterprises. There are many more objects,” Batova said.
