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Surrogate Privatization Will Go On

01 December, 00:00

"It's a good song. Let's sing it again." This is about what we can say about the next turn in the privatization saga - to sell enterprises for domestic bonds, instead of money. Recall that such a peculiar use of "unpromising" domestic bonds was suggested by the government, which owes Hr 3 billion to domestic and converted domestic bondholders. This measure was also included in the list of anti-crisis measures. Then, the SPF chairman, the major supporter of the monetary privatization, Oleksandr Bondar, declared that in principle he is ready to carry out special privatization auctions from January 1, 1999, where the enterprises' stock will be sold for domestic bonds instead of money, but only if the legislative basis is regulated and corresponding changes in the privatization program for 1999 (and the long-suffering draft budget for 1999 -author) are made. The program has not yet passed.

"These are interesting authorities we have," Parliamentary Privatization Commission Chairman Oleksandr Riabchenko told The Day. "First they promise to gather solid sums by monetary sale of objects, but then they try to introduce another kind of payment, which looks like compensation certificates." The actual reason for this innovation is, Riabchenko believes, "there are a lot of domestic bonds in some rich hands, and something has to be done with them." Moreover, the commission chairman believes that specialized auctions will be carried out according to the voucher auction scheme, in other words, "a narrow circle of people will know the purchaser before the auction is announced." Riabchenko links Bondar's assent to pressure from the Presidential Administration. As a result, the SPF chairman was forced to pretend he is obedient, though, according to Riabchenko, he is quite sure the Parliament will not let them sell enterprises for paper. Incidentally, Riabchenko is certain the government's intent here is not serious, because there was not even a single government session behind closed doors, where this problem could be discussed.

In other words, after failing with domestic bonds, the government suspects bond conversion is not enough for stabilization, but is still has no clue of what to do. In this context the Bondar's comment is interesting: "The SPF solves more and more of the state's financial problems." Recall that Bondar also said a few weeks ago, "I think we will live to the time, that the SPF will be responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine." What is it? A joke? A slip of the tongue? A premonition?

Newspaper output №:

№43, (1998)

Section

Economy