Chamber News
Business and civil society demand the reform of AMCU
Reform of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is expected to be based on the registered in Parliament Draft Act No.2431. This Draft envisages adopting a clear methodology of calculating fines for violating economic competition laws.
Taras Kachka, Chamber acting president said: “In Ukrainian reality excessive freedom of actions given to the Antimonopoly Committee turns into a significant corruption risk. We have already encountered paradoxical situations, when a company was fined UAH 50 million for a minor mistake in labelling, whereas another company was simply recommended to correct a similar mistake”. Mr. Kachka explained that as far back as in 2008 the OECD recommended Ukraine develop and adopt a comprehensive methodology of fining as well as introduce a procedure for publishing the AMCU’s decisions. Later on this provision was included in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. “We do not have any transition period on this provision, thus it shall be implemented by the day the Agreement comes into effect”, pointed out Taras Kachka.
According to the managing partner of Arzinger law firm Timur Bondaryev, the authors used the best European practices when developing the Draft Act: “We borrowed many good things from one of the most progressive world practices — Hungarian law practice. And it is important to understand, we do not advocate lower fines. 10% of annual turnover is an acceptable fine for a significant violation. What we are aiming for is a transparent and objective approach to penalties for similar offenses”.
Victoria Ptashyk, MP of Samopomich Union, drew public attention to the fact that the Draft Act was signed by MPs representing all the political parties of the Coalition Agreement. The methodology of calculating fines has already been developed but has still to be adopted as a by-law once Draft Act No.2431 has come into force. The Draft Act is supported by the American Chamber of Commerce, NGO “Anticorruption Action Center”, information campaign “Stronger Together” and a number of MPs.
Ministry of Infrastructure considers investments in seaport sector
About USD 2 billion worth of investments in developing state-owned seaport infrastructure would be possible in case of implementation of a set of measures proposed by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and business community regarding the seaport industry’s functioning in Ukraine. This was stated by Yuriy Vaskov, deputy minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine during the meeting with business community at the ACC in Ukraine. The Ministry is currently developing a strategy for the seaport industry’s development, that is in line with all achievements made in cooperation with market players.
The main and most important problem in the seaport sector is the imperfect legislation that regulates investments in seaport infrastructure and does not create favorable conditions for additional private investment. Mr. Vaskov pointed out that for a comprehensive solution of this problem, it is necessary to make amendments to a number of legislative provisions, including the On the List of State-owned Property not Subject to Privatization Act of Ukraine, On Concessions Act, On Sea Ports Act, On Management of State Property Objects Act, On Regulation of Urban Development Act of Ukraine. It should also adopt the order of compensation for investments in strategic infrastructural objects, that had to be adopted in 2013, restore the special economic zones in the seaports of Odessa and Reni and ratify the relevant laws which provide gradually the status of special zones for all sea and river ports in Ukraine
The speaker also stated that the depreciation of seaport infrastructure in Ukraine is 90%, therefore all forms of public-private partnerships aimed at industry development should be available, both in terms of lease and concession as well as privatization of seaport infrastructure of no strategic value.
Necessary, amendments to the On Public Procurement Act were also discussed during the meeting in order to provide state enterprises with the possibility to buy services from each other under the simplified procedure. Special attention was put to the necessary amendments to CMU Resolution No.899 to allow entities to operate conventional under provisions of the last year’s financial plan before the new financial plan is approved. These measures will have a particular outcome in the form of renewable assets and reduction of loss-making enterprises.
Serhiy Vovk, the head of the Chamber Sea Ports Development Working Group, noted that the business community is very interested in accelerating the process of approval of financial plans of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority for 2015 and not to repeat the situation of previous years when entities actually operated with no financial plans, something which had an adverse effect on the results of their work.
