Photo: UP
The Supervisory Board (SB) of Naftogaz Group sent a letter to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. It says that the SB members, who took part in the extraordinary meeting on April 30, submitted written notices on the early termination of their powers. In accordance with the company's Charter, the termination of powers will take effect on 14 May.
In this letter, the SB members considered it necessary to respond to the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of April 28, No. 370 indicating a number of "failures" of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board of Naftogaz.
The gist of the answer: the letter authors disagree with such assessments and explain why. They provide figures, report on management decisions and unfavorable market conditions.
The letter also states that the company's Executive Board has made it clear that it will not necessarily remain at Naftogaz if Vitrenko, "who does not seem to be familiar with the current transformation program, the course of which he plans to change," heads it.
"We have no doubts about the power of a shareholder to terminate our powers, even early," the letter says. However, the change of the Executive Board Chairperson by a shareholder is a violation of corporate governance standards, especially considering that, in agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the President, the term of office of the Executive Board Chairperson was recently extended to four years.
"We cannot support the Soviet methods, by which the Supervisory Board is deprived of competence only for a short period of time in order to change the Executive Board Chairperson," the SB members write.
"This is just a mockery of fundamental corporate governance practices," such a conclusion is made in the letter.
Additionally. "I cannot trust the plans already developed in the company, because at the end of the year they promise profits, but they get an increase in losses," said Yuriy Vitrenko, the new Executive Board Chairperson of Naftogaz, when asked what his first steps in office would be. He said that he needs to carefully analyze and check everything, and then come out with draft solutions.