The management of Khmelnytskoblenergo (Khmelnytsk region electricity distribution system operator (DSO) stresses that change of heads of state owned energy firms only on the basis of transparent competitions and recognising all legal procedures. This was discussed during an online press conference titled "in the opinion of the company’s management the State Property Fund ("SPF") illegally attempted to change the management of Khmelnytskoblenergo" which was held at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According to Oleg Kozachuk, Acting General Director of Khmelnytskoblenergo (Khmelnytsk region DSO), an improper meeting of the Supervisory Board of Khmelnytskoblenergo was held on April 28, at which an attempt to dismiss him from his position at the Company and appoint V. Gaponova to this post. It should be made clear that this is classed as an attempt to make this switch, because the meeting was attended by 2 people appointed to that Board in violation of the procedure established by the Law "On Joint Stock Companies" – specifically, the appointments were not made publicly and were not the result of an open competition.
Kozachuk said, "the fact is that for my dismissal and appointment of a new head it is necessary that the relevant decision be made by the Supervisory Board of the enterprise. Of the 7 members of the Supervisory Board, 5 are SPF employees and the remaining 2 are representatives of minority shareholders. However, on April 6, 2020 we received retirement applications from 2 Board members, who stated that they no longer wished to be representatives of the SPF on the Supervisory Board and asked to be excluded from membership after a 2 week period, therefore, from April 20, 2020. Information about these exclusions was published by the company only on April 21, 2020. Immediately after this, on April 22 2020, the company received further instructions from the SPF to replace those now “retired” members of the Supervisory Board. We do not have a formal minutes of these decisions of this Supervisory Board. This is how the pressure started, and now we are forced to state that an illegal decision has been made. "
Andrei Pilipenko, Director of Personnel Management and Legal Affairs, expressed his position during the press conference: "We have not seen the minutes of the decision of the Supervisory Board. Two representatives of the SPF on the Board have resigned, out of only 5. Two members of the Board could not physically attend the meeting, meaning the decision to approve these changes was made by only 3 people, and at the same time we have information that there were 5 signatures on the minutes. Therefore we have every reason to believe that the Board did not have the legal right to make these replacements."
According to Andrei Pilipenko, the management of the State Property Fund of Ukraine is responsible for all of these actions, including those that will take place in the future. The lawyer does not rule out that "black registrars" may be involved in the process of illegal change of management to manipulate the state register - in order to surreptitiously enter the name of a new head appointed in violation of normal procedures.
"Changing from one Acting Director to another in a state-owned regional power company is often not only illegal but also illogical," said Dmitry Marunich, co-chairman of the Energy Strategies Fund. "Ukraine needs an effective attitude to state ownership, especially in the energy sector. This cannot be achieved without transparent competitions for management positions combined with having a selection of candidates with relevant work experience who are also able to demonstrate successful cases of development of such enterprises and who do not have problems with the law in the form of criminal cases."
As Oleg Kozachuk noted, currently the SPF does not react in any way and does not respond to Khmelnytskoblenergo's inquiries about the legality of the procedure for changing the management of the enterprise. "In fact, we can state that an unidentified group of people, who have common interests with the SPF, want to gain control over state-owned regional power companies, including Khmelnytskoblenergo. This is despite the fact that our company is demonstrating efficient and successful work" the top manager of Khmelnytskoblenergo emphasized.
It was also announced at the press conference that Khmelnytskoblenergo, despite it being a state-owned enterprise, financed the prognosed investment program in 2017-2019 by 100% (for comparison; Zaporozhyeoblenergo achieved a 28.65% financing rate, Kharkivoblenergo 37.49%, and Nikolayevoblenergo 69.3%). Also worthy of note was that the dynamically growing net profit at Khmelnytskoblenergo (UAH 85.7 million in 2019) exceeds the profit of all state regional power companies combined. The company is also one of the only two regional energy companies which in 2018 (before transition to the new structure) was fully paid up to the state-owned Energy Market.
"We want the high results achieved by the company to not be offset by illegal personnel changes, which demotivate the team of Khmelnytskoblenergo" Oleg Kozachuk in summing this affair up, "I want to emphasize that the management of Khmelnytskoblenergo does not simply want to hold on to their positions. We are ready at any moment to fulfil the will of SPF if it complies with the appropriate legal procedures. We advocate for transparent competitions instead of backroom schemes and tricks to replace a proven and successful team. I am sure that our position corresponds to the course of the new government led by President Zelensky on the transparent role of the state, represented by the SPF, towards state property. Otherwise, we will roll back to the past, to the 90's with their lawlessness and disregard for the law."
