Halushchenko's ministry handed over the state regional power plants to private hands - who will receive billions of dollars?

In December 2023, six regional energy companies, where the main shareholder is the state-owned company "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN), changed the composition of their supervisory boards (SB). Most of the members of the five distribution system operators (DSO) (with the exception of "Mykolayivoblenergo") were elected from the submission of minority shareholders. 

The state majority owner of the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN), under the control of the Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko, voted in all cases for the transfer of power to minorities. We are talking about a considerable piece of the pie — in 2022, the combined income of six state regional energy companies amounted to UAH 14 billion. Only Rinat Akhmetov's group had more — UAH 22 billion. Surkis, Hryhoryshyn, Kolomoiskyi and others earned much less.

Rostyslav Shurma, the energetic deputy head of the office of the President of Ukraine, has already publicly denied that he was involved in this arrangement of Halushchenko. And the market was filled with rumors about the possible beneficiaries of the "reprivatization" of Oblenergo.

The private minorities that seized power in the supervisory boards (SB) of the state regional energy companies are mostly employees of the regional energy companies themselves, who own a small number of shares at the level of 0.00001%. These, most likely, are the shares that were distributed to people during voucher privatization in the 90s of the last century. But these minorities delegated rather interesting candidates.

Thus, an ordinary engineer of "Ternopiloblenergo" proposed to the supervisory board (SB) of her company people who previously represented other shareholders in Mykolaiv and Cherkassy region. The corporate secretary of "Cherkasioblenergo" nominated a representative of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC "Energoatom") to the supervisory board (SB). The clerk of "Khmelnytskoblenergo" proposed to elect two members of the supervisory board (SB) of "Kharkivoblenergo" to the supervisory board (SB) of his enterprise.

What's the point? Now the newly elected supervisory boards (SB) have the full right to appoint the heads of the boards of regional energy companies, who are already in charge of the operational activities of natural monopolists. It depends on them which private structures Oblenergo will work with for customer connections and with whom it will order repairs of power transmission lines worth tens and hundreds of millions of hryvnias (here is an example of how the state distribution system operator (DSO) breaks the records of private Oblenergo). These are the largest cash flows of oblenergo, through which company owners usually withdraw funds. The market player who wants to gain control over the flows of this or that oblenergo must correctly find a decision-making center in which to obtain permission to appoint the desired chairman of the board. That is, to go through the so-called treatment process at the central cash register.

Currently, the state-owned regional energy company is managed by an invisible network of rank-and-file minority workers. They are the ones who should give instructions to their members of the supervisory boards on how to vote for the appointment of the heads of the board. However, their subordinate status as salaried employees gives the impression that they are following external instructions.

Given the composition of the supervisory board (SB) appointed by the minorities, there are reasons to believe that the decision-making center is probably located in the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine under the leadership of Herman Halushchenko. Many of the candidates proposed by the minorities are represented by the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC "Energoatom"), from which Halushchenko came to the ministry. Among them is the former first deputy head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Dmytro Parfenenko, who is now an adviser to the head of Energoatom Petro Kotin from Halushchenko's team. 

Of course, two months after the election of the supervisory boards, the market was filled with rumors about those willing to receive this or that oblenergo. Currently, only the fate of "Kharkivoblenergo" is in doubt. It is attributed to the sphere of influence directly of the Deputy Head of the President's Office Oleg Tatarov, so there is no question of any changes in flows. "Ternopiloblenergo" may be of interest to the Surkis group, "Mykolaiv" and "Zaporizhjiaoblenergo" — Davyd Arahamia's entourage. However, let's emphasize that these are just rumors about the possible interest of certain people who can take over someone else's status on their own.

But what is not a rumor. Rostislav Shurmaa, the deputy head of the President's Office, was the ideologue of the transfer of six state regional energy companies to the management of the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN). However, the other day his advisor told Forbes that Shurma has nothing to do with what Halushchenko's ministry is doing now.

This process was first noticed in 2023 by the well-known energy market expert Oleksandr Vizir. During the time of Poroshenko-Kononenko, he worked in the State Property Fund and the Kyiv City Council. In 2021, information appeared that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, had entrusted the management of the state regional energy company to Energoatom. At that time, Oleksandr Vizir was the assistant to the chairman of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC "Energoatom") and an adviser to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine. However, later Halushchenko changed all the processes and dismissed the already unnecessary adviser in the fall of 2022. Therefore, the Vizier left for free and from December 2022 he works at the NGO "Association of Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving", and from April to December 2023 - at "Cherkasioblenergo". According to him, he was involved in the closing of proceedings in the bankruptcy case of "Cherkasioblenergo" (the bankruptcy was closed).

Oleksandr Vizir sounded the alarm about the "shadow privatization" of Oblenergo in December 2023, publishing information on his Facebook about appointments to supervisory boards. But he received a criminal case for it. For what? Because he got a job, received a salary and spent it at his discretion (see scan).

Direct speech of the whistleblower: "After I published a post on Facebook, I immediately started receiving messages through acquaintances in the industry. Before the New Year, I was even recruited by the head of the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN) Artem Martynyuk and said that he was being forced to write a statement to the prosecutor's office about me in the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, and offered to somehow reconcile with the minister. I said that it was impossible in principle, because I did not quarrel with him, but only highlighted the objective reality.

As a result of this statement, on January 1, 2024, criminal proceedings were opened (so far factual), although at that time I had already resigned from PJSC "Cherkasioblenergo".

In the early days of 2024, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine began spreading the news about the fact that I was evading military service, and that due to this fact, inspections were being conducted and a criminal case had been opened. As you can see from the text of the statement about the commission of the crime, it does not refer to "evasion", but rather to my "improper" work.

On February 27, 2024, I was already summoned for questioning in this case. I do not believe in its prospects, at least because I completed all the necessary work tasks, and transferred the received funds to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and all this was done before the corresponding statement of the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN). In my opinion, the main purpose of these "events" is to intimidate me. Due to my position regarding the need to change the management of JSC "Kharkivoblenergo" due to the terrible results of the financial activities of this company (now under the control of Oleh Tatarov), on August 16, 2022, the State Bureau of Investigation investigators searched my apartment. In addition, it should be noted that the search warrant was issued by the Lychakiv District Court of the city of Lviv, and I live and am registered in Vyshgorod. Computer equipment, phone, documents and money were taken from me. After that, the State Bureau of Investigation never summoned me and did not take any action against me.

On 05/09/2023, I canceled the arrest imposed on my property, but on 06/15/2023, the State Bureau of Investigation through the Pecherskyi District Court of the city of Kyiv re-imposed an arrest on my property.

On March 6, 2024, I again canceled the arrest and applied to the State Bureau of Investigation for the return of my property. In January 2024, I also submitted a statement to the European Court of Human Rights regarding the violation of my rights regarding the disposal of my property."

So, the conclusions are as follows.

Herman Halushchenko's group, in cooperation with Oleh Tatarov's law enforcement vertical, is conducting another operation to redistribute the energy market. Last year, they already tried to remove the state-owned Ukrenergo from international financial aid streams. And now they arranged a not very elegant privatization of the state regional energy.

Observing the reaction of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, we will understand whether this was "partisan intelligence", which is not tolerated in the Office of the President of Ukraine under any circumstances, or a coordinated operation.

Also, this story once again proves the ineffectiveness of the best and most effective Western practices in our latitudes. Without effective and inevitable punishment of the corrupt, all these years-tested Western practices here are easily transformed into schemes.

It is important to note that on March 5, 2024, the President of Ukraine signed the draft Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving the Corporate Governance of Legal Entities whose Shareholder (Founder, Participant) is the State" No. 5593-d. This project unlocked Ukraine's receipt of 1.5 billion euros of macro-financial assistance from the World Bank. The norms of this law are precisely the strengthening of corporate governance in state-owned companies and the expansion of the powers of supervisory boards. It does not really correlate with the fact that the state actually allows the presence of supervisory boards (SB) in state-owned companies that do not correspond to any best practices of transparency and accountability.

Below, for readers who are interested in this issue, we publish the lists of members of supervisory boards, elected in a suspicious manner at the end of 2023, and minorities who nominated these members to the composition of supervisory boards.

The supervisory board (SB) of "Ternopiloblenergo" was seized by representatives of Hryhoryshyn and an ordinary worker from Oblenergo

The state shareholder "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" received one of the seven members of the supervisory board (SB), having 51% of the shares. Offshore Bikontia enterprises limited from the Hrygoryshyn group with 25% of the shares received three members. And also three members were received by the engineer of this oblastenergo, Galina Naumyk, who owns 0.000001% of the shares. The majority shareholder, namely the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN), voted for this decision. 

Horstka's minority took over of the supervisory board (SB) of "Cherkasioblenergo".

Vasyl Horstka, the owner of 0.00006% of shares, also known as the corporate secretary of Cherkasioblenergo, received four of the seven members of the supervisory board (SB). The Hryhoryshyn group with 24% of the shares received two more members. And only one can be called a representative of the state, which in general controls 71% of the shares of Oblenergo. However, it is noteworthy that virtually all the members proposed by Horstka are in one way or another related to the public sector.

The Supervisory Board (SB) of "Kharkivoblenergo" was captured by minority lawyers with 0.0000...%

Of the seven members of the supervisory board, only three represent the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN) with 65% of the shares. The rest are nominated by minorities who own only a few shares of Oblenergo. Three - from Yaroslav Nechiporenko (the name matches the data of the owner of the law firm "Yuridichna domozoma", Kyiv) and one - from Anna Kvitsinska (a lawyer with the same name represents "Kharkivoblenergo" in court).

The supervisory board (SB) of "Zaporizhjiaoblenergo" was taken over by the head of the labor protection service

Vasyl Fedoronchak, head of labor protection service "Zaporizhjiaoblenergo" with 0.001% of shares, received four out of seven seats in the National People's Republic. Another two were acquired by offshore private shareholders. The state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN) voted for such a schedule with 60% of the shares, which received only one representative.

The supervisory board (SB) of "Khmelnytskoblenergo" was captured by the clerk of Oblenergo itself with 0.00026% of shares

Four of the seven members of the Supervisory Board (SB) were proposed by the honored energy expert of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Boris Kravets with 0.00026% of the shares, who works in the office of Oblenergo. Yevhenii Sytnychenko, a minority member with 0.2355% of the shares, who nominated himself, became another member. And the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN) agreed to such a schedule, which received only two representatives for its 70% of shares.

The supervisory board (SB) of "Mykolaivoblenergo" was acquired by the state

Against the background of the rest of the oblenergo, the Mykolaiv one stood out in particular. Here, five out of seven members represent the state JSC "Ukrainian Distribution Networks" (UDN). Two more are representatives of the minority owner of AMC "Renome-2008", which was previously associated with the Russian executors of the Ukrainian oblastenergo VSE Babakov-Voevodina-Ginera.

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.