Cabinet amends Naftogaz charter to comply with IMF commitments
30 October 2020
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Minister amended on Oct. 26 the
charter document of Naftogaz (NAFTO) to bring it closer to OECD principles of
corporate governance of the state-owned companies, Naftogaz reported on Oct.
29. Such an amendment was among nine structural benchmarks of the Ukraine-IMF
memorandum approved in June 2020 as part of a new USD 5.5 bln SBA program.
The key change in the charter was the return of power to
the company’s supervisory board in the process of appointing and dismissing the
company’s CEO. Namely, the updated charter stipulates that it’s in the
authority of the supervisory board to appoint and dismiss executive board
members, as well as dismiss the CEO and recommend a new CEO candidate to the
shareholders (i.e. the cabinet). Recall, the supervisory board had such power
before March 2019, when the cabinet led by PM Volodymyr Groysman changed the charter to gain the exclusive rightto appoint and dismiss the Naftogaz CEO.
Alexander Paraschiy: No doubt, the decision illustrates the good will of Ukraine’s cabinet
to implement the commitment given to the IMF and other Ukraine’s Western
partners. However, the future of the Ukraine-IMF deal depends mostly on
Ukraine’s progress in other areas, including the recovery of the
anti-corruption infrastructure that has been damaged in recent months.
