An investor who bought a state-owned enterprise says corrupt officials are trying to disrupt legal privatization.
In recent days in Ukraine, media attention has been focused on the situation regarding the privatization of the VOLYNTORF state enterprise. The state enterprise bought AGROBIOSTANDART LLC in an open auction of the State Property Fund through Prozorro. However, as soon as the investor paid UAH 254 million with taxes to the state budget, it turned out that the SBI opened criminal proceedings, moreover, the next day, VOLYNTORF was seized by the Pechersky District Court of Kiev.
According to the investor, the main accusation of the law enforcement officers is the sale of the company at a cheap price. At the same time, the State Property Fund and the Prozorro.Sales system, as the administrator of the state electronic trading system, published official statements stating the absence of any violations of this privatization.
Who wants to interfere with this process?
The company that acquired VOLYNTORF believes that criminal proceedings were illegally opened. And this is blamed on local corrupt “kings” who really want to buy this business for next to nothing. AGROBIOSTANDART LLC has appealed to the President of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General, the National Security and Defense Council and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and requested an inspection.
“There is honest, transparent competition and struggle, there is the Prozorro system that cannot be overcome. I believe that the tools created by the state are enough to carry out transparent, honest privatization. And the remains of corrupt officials on the ground , the so-called “owners of Volyn”, “owners” of the areas, one way or another, they will leave, like the authorities since the 90s. The state just needs ” beat them by the wrist,” said AGROBIOSTANDART shareholder Konstantin Brovchenko.
And he added: “If we take our criminal case, I can’t find the words. The criminal case is two pages long, there are copies of newspapers in which a mechanic in the fifth class in VOLYNTORF said that privatization is bad . A representative of some local council states that it is bad, and the representative of the people announced on his Facebook that there is a decision to stop privatization. But there is no such statement in official sources. In other words, the object is sewn with “white threads .”
In addition, the company promises to follow this case to the end to show other investors in Ukraine how to fight corruption schemes.
According to the company’s investor, the struggle here is not for solving an individual situation, but for justice. So that the Law prevails, so that companies that modernize and strive to support Ukraine can flourish.
“These businesses were not bought to cut and sell them. But they were bought to develop them, modernize them, increase the number of jobs, pay fair wages and higher taxes. Therefore , we want to show through our own example that you have to believe in success, to believe in the president, to believe that the investor is always protected in our state,” said Brovchenko.
How did privatization happen?
As reported by AGROBIOSTANDART LLC, in September of this year the company took part in an auction on the Prozorro platform for the purchase of the VOLYNTORF State Property Fund from the State Property Fund of Ukraine. On October 6, the company became the winner of the auction at the rate of UAH 212,221,200.00.
On November 1, AGROBIOSTANDARD paid the cost of sales in the amount of UAH 254.7 million, including VAT. Within five days, a purchase and sale agreement was concluded between the company and the Regional Branch of the State Property Fund for Lviv, Transcarpathian and Volyn regions.
However, after that it turned out that the State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings, and the next day the business was taken over by the Pechersky District Court of Kiev. In particular, the SBI and the capital prosecutor accused AGRBIOSTANDART and the State Property Fund of privatizing VOLYNTORF at a price reduced by UAH 100 million.
In this regard, the State Property Fund issued an official statement that the privatization of the business took place within the framework of the current law and there were no violations.
“At the time of the auction, the enterprise was included in the list of small privatization items. The draft decision of the government to stop the privatization of the state enterprise VOLYNTORF and transfer it to the management of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine was not adopted and did not enter into force. There are no other legal grounds for canceling the auction and stopping the privatization “, the Foundation noted.
In addition, they added that the starting price of small privatization items sold at auction is determined at the level of the book value of the asset. Conducting an independent assessment to determine the starting price of a privatization object in the presence of book value is not provided by law. The starting price of SE VOLYNTORF is set at the level of book value reflected in the enterprise’s financial statements.
The Fund also recalls that the law provides for the holding of auctions even if only one participant is registered to participate in the auction.
As mentioned, the auction data was in the public domain for more than three weeks, AGRBIOSTANDART became the only company interested in the lot, and the price at which VOLYNTORF was purchased was more than 10% higher than the starting price.
Interesting details
According to NABU, the former director of the State Enterprise VOLYNTORF is accused in a criminal case. At the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, he entered into agreements to buy securities using company funds and resold these securities to a private company, thereby causing damage to the state in the amount of UAH 5.6 million.
“This is a clear fact of corruption and the development of gray schemes based on state properties,” believes the State Property Fund.
Also, according to the Fund, the net income of the business for the first half of 2023 amounted to only UAH 6.2 million, for the previous 2022 – UAH 10.6 million, and 2020 and 2021 were generally unprofitable. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the business can provide revenues to the state budget of more than UAH 200 million only for 20 years, the Fund said.
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Source: korrespondent
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.