Official intrigues surround Ukrtelekom privatization
By Yana MOISEYENKOVA, The Day
It is quite possible that as soon as July the independent international
Price Waterhouse Coopers Company will complete its audit of the financial
activity of the state-run telecommunications enterprise, Ukrtelekom general
manager Leonid Netudykhata told Infobank.
This will be one of the main steps toward denationalizing the enterprise.
In theory. The other question is whether the long-awaited sensation of
selling this strategic facility so much advertised by the executive branch
will materialize. Of course, last year's promises by Deputy Premier Serhiy
Tyhypko (he forecast the price of the controlling block of shares at UAH
3 billion) and Premier Valery Pustovoitenko (that this very tidy sum could
and should be used to repay pension and pay arrears) can only be treated
today as a campaign ploy aimed at a naive electorate that is in debt. It
is absolutely clear that selling Ukrtelekom lawfully and in so short a
time is impossible. First, there is no law on the privatization of Ukrtelekom
(according to Oleksandr Riabchenko, chairman of the parliamentary Privatization
Oversight Commission, it makes no sense to bring the bill up this year).
And, secondly, it is alarming that those most interested in the privatization
of Ukrtelekom are those closest the levers of influence on privatization.
A competent source in private conversation told The Day's corespondent,
"Already all too obvious is the tendency of Mr. Taranov (chairman of the
National Agency for Management of State-Owned Corporate Rights - Author),
who has been authorized to run the state property, to appropriate the rights
of Mr. Bondar (head of the State Property Fund - Author) as the
person in charge of facilities to be privatized. Lately, Mr. Taranov, who
has bolstered his position by means of the November government resolution
On Management of Corporate Rights, has acquired many good enterprises already
being privatized. For example, the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant was recently
handed over by the National Agency to the Mykolayiv Oblast State Administration
(true, the Cabinet of Ministers later seized the plant - Author).
And is there any guarantee that Mr. Taranov, not by himself, of course,
will not approach Ukrtelekom and hand it over to someone to manage? There
are no such guarantees!"
Mr. Riabchenko himself confirmed to The Day that the National
Agency indeed is trying to take over State Property Fund functions. "I
even wrote letters to Taranov, Bondar, and the Cabinet of Ministers. For
they are breaking the law On Large-Scale Privatization. Taranov and Bondar
replied they saw no reason why some Cabinet decisions should not be complied
with, while the Cabinet remains silent as if nobody had written. I do not
rule out a written application to the Prosecutor-General's Office," Mr.
Riabchenko noted.
In other words, an auditor's report on the financial activities and
even the intended adoption of international standards of accountability
do not at all mean that Ukrtelekom will be put up for sale. However, there
is word circulating in privatization circles that German and Italian telecommunication
dealers, as well as US firms, seem quite willing to buy a piece of Ukrtelekom.






