Crafty Strategy

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.