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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Mykolayiv Alumina Plant: Calm Before the Storm?

27 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Vitaly KNIAZHANSKY, The Day

The date of the meeting of Mykolayiv Alumina Plant (MAP) shareholders,
which will either confirm the present position of the plant manager Mykola
Naboka or decide to reinstate former general manager Vitaly Mieshyn, has
not yet been set, reported Chairman of the National State Corporate Rights
Agency Oleh Taranov.

Mr. Taranov says the agency, which controls the state-owned shares at
the MAP (55% of the authorized capital), will recommend the meeting support
the candidature of Mr. Naboka, provided he "does a good job." Mr. Mieshyn
is being backed by the MAP Work Collective Ltd., which he heads and owns
a 26.4% stake at the plant. "According to unofficial information, Mieshyn
personally controls about 40% of MAP shares," Mr. Taranov told Ukrayinski
Novyny. The Friday before last he stood up for Mr. Naboka in Parliament,
so Verkhovna Rada failed to pass a resolution on the violation of law and
rights of citizens at the MAP.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Law and Order Committee Yuri Karmazin,
who made a report on the issue, blamed the Ministry of Industrial Policy
and agency mentioned for taking no actions to fulfill the legislature's
resolution of July 2 about putting the MAP in order. Mr. Karmazin called
on the Deputies not to allow people, who serve anybody except the Ukrainian
state, to manage the plant. Mr. Karmazin suggested that privatization of
strategic enterprises be suspended (at least before the election), for
they, in his words, are being dumped for pennies.

Inna Bohoslovska made a compromise proposal: to debar from managing
the plant both Mieshyn (during the inquiry) and Naboka, whom she thinks
was appointed illegally. She also suggested that the Internal Affairs Ministry,
Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, and Prosecutor General's
Office inquire into the activities of Trans World Group in Russia and Kazakhstan,
as this company has now in fact seized the MAP without privatizing it or
paying a cent.

However, either Mr. Taranov spoke very convincingly in the session hall,
or the largest parliamentary factions were interested in precisely this
turn of events, but the draft resolution, which envisioned the suspension
of Mr. Naboka and dismissal of Messrs. Hureyev and Taranov, failed to pass.

(For more see page Economy/Finance)

 

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