Asset Recovery and Management Agency has decided on who is going to be the new interim manager of one of their best-known assets – Novoyavorivska and Novorozdilnytska thermal power stations. Private limited company ALTERNATYVA – T-XXI will distribute the electrical power within two cities of the Lviv region, and private company Harant Enerho-M, which has been managing the assets for almost a year, will produce both electric and thermal energy.
9 companies decided to take part in the tender. Most of them bid for the distribution of energy, since it is the most lucrative option considering finances and resources.
Among the volunteers, most notably, were the firms which own these thermal power stations and have appeared in criminal proceedings of NABU and SAPO concerning alleged embezzlement of natural gas worth of UAH 1.4 bln. The public utility company of Novyi Rozdil and the firm which managed the thermal power stations during 2018-2019 also took part in the tender.
Thermal power stations have been quite toxic assets from the very beginning. The staff went on a strike, hardware was dismantled by the owners, technical documents were damaged, and the owners were constantly trying to regain control over the assets through legal action. As a result, more than 60 thousand people risked being left without heating in winter.
The team of Transparency International Ukraine has been following the case and understands the difficulty which the ARMA and the manager may face while preparing for the 2019-2020heating season.
It seems like the ARMA has made the process of choosing a manager quite simple. The mayors of Novoyavorivsk and Novyi Rozdil, the representatives of the Lviv oblast administration, media and public representatives joined the session of the tender committee which was broadcast on Facebook. At the same time, Harant Enerho-M, which has been managing the thermal power stations this year, was compelled to perform the range of terms, which also means they account for arrangements concerning the heat season and pay the arrears in salaries.
“Thermal power stations are a sensitive and sophisticated facility with a history of scandals. Effective management is hard. Therefore, Transparency International Ukraine urges the ARMA to control the manager in the appropriate way, while the organization will continue to keep track of the situation,” said Kateryna Ryzhenko, TI Ukraine’s Head of Legal.
It is worth reminding that the validity period of the contract between the ARMA and Harant Enerho-M, which has been managing both thermal power stations for almost a year, is about to terminate this September. These two thermal power stations were frozen and committed to ARMA within the case of alleged embezzlement worth of UAH 1.4 bln. According to the registers, Bohdan and Yaroslav Dubnevych, members of parliament, are the beneficiary owners of both enterprises.
This publication has been prepared with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Transparency International Ukraine works with the National Agency within the project Enhancing the Role of Civil Society in Public Finance Oversight, financed by the European Union. The project aims at empowering civil society and journalists with effective anti-corruption, asset recovery and anti-money laundering tools to perform the public finance oversight, support the launch of Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) and to update the list of Politically Exposed Persons. Find out more at https://goo.gl/Jgr9ic
Thermal power stations are a sensitive and sophisticated facility with a history of scandals. Effective management is hard. Therefore, Transparency International Ukraine urges the ARMA to control the manager in the appropriate way, while the organization will continue to keep track of the situation.
Kateryna Ryzhenko, Head of Legal, TI Ukraine
