A new commission for the old question
On September 16 the first meeting of the renewed Interdepartmental Anti-Raiding Commission took place
The meeting was led by the first vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhii Arbuzov. We remind our readers that earlier the analog of the renewed commission was headed by the current secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, the then vice Prime Minister Andrii Kliuiev. When he was honorably exiled to the National Security and Defense Council, Serhii Arbuzov inherited this right.
As expected, during the first meeting of the old new commission not any resonant facts of raider attacks were revealed. The agenda provided for examining questions concerning conflicts with the participation of several companies: Swissport International, Porsche Immobilien Ukraine, McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, CJSC Radosyn, sanatorium Prolisok and recreation camp Ivushka.
According to Arbuzov, since the time the commission started its work, they have received about 70 applications with the total loss from 500 thousand hryvnias up to 300 million hryvnias. “Unfortunately, this phenomenon has become a fact in Ukraine,” Arbuzov remarked.
He claimed that over the past years in Ukraine the number of raiding schemes has grown. In particular, they resort to buying actions, additional issue, and court judgments. “Today raiders are practically using corruptive relations which is one of the conditions for the development of raiding schemes.”
Arbuzov said that the newly created commission will be divided into two parts: one of them will bring out legislative initiatives to fight this phenomenon and the other will be dealing with burning issues. In particular, he specified that in the nearest time they are going to define what raiding is, how it should be penalized and the corresponding changes will be made to the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Also, the Governmental Anti-Raiding Program will be developed in the near future.
Andrii SEMYDIDKO, director, Anti-Raiding Union of Entrepreneurs of Ukraine:
“It will turn into another eye service. When it comes to personal or corporate interests, the government works well. The creation or resumption of the Interdepartmental Commission is a signal that law-enforcement bodies cannot cope with modern challenges such as raiding. It means that the problem should be resolved separately.
In 2007-09 cheap speculative money flooded Ukraine and everything and everyone was bought. After that there was a down time in 2011. The financial crisis provoked the capital drain and cheap speculative money left the country. The year after the elections was marked by the mass property redistribution and schemes simplified. Today raiding is growing in retails, markets, recreation zones, sanatoriums, river banks and sea shore, everywhere ready cash comes from. Big business has been mostly redistributed. Now raiders are mainly attacking small- and medium-scale businesses.”
