The appointment of Yuriy Vitrenko as head of the board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and his subsequent actions dramatically worsened relations with the supervisory board and the board, and also called into question the future of the company and its financial condition, the resignation of independent members of the supervisory board will provide an opportunity to accelerate the solution of this problem, the resigned head of the supervisory board, Clare Spottiswoode (Great Britain), and the members of the supervisory board, Bruno Lescoeur (France) and Ludo Van der Heyden (Belgium), said.
“We are very worried about the future of Naftogaz: we are worried about both the financial condition and the ability to conduct production, since investments are not being made. Yuriy [Vitrenko] does not allow making investments, the company seems to be in a frozen state, and people are afraid,” she described the situation at a briefing.
According to her, after his appointment in the spring there was almost no normal communication with the supervisory board, no documents were received from the head of the board, he did not answer questions from the supervisory board, and talented managers began to leave the company.
“We simply cannot be effective in such circumstances, since we make some decisions, but they are not executed,” the head of the supervisory board said.
“The reason why we resigned is that we cannot make any decision, we do not want to witness what is being done under Vitrenko,” Lescoeur confirmed this position.
According to him, independent members of the supervisory board suggested that the prime minister suspend Vitrenko’s powers pending a court decision on the instructions of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, but they were refused.
Van der Heyden argues that Vitrenko also lacks cooperation with the board formed under his predecessor Andriy Kobolev.
The member of the supervisory board also expressed concern about pressure from the government on the company and its chairman of the board about the persistence of low prices for natural gas in the face of its significant rise in prices on world markets.
“[There is] great concern about what will happen after the heating season, whether there will be enough gas then,” he said.
In his opinion, in the current conditions, Naftogaz needs international support, since in the current conditions the planned issue of eurobonds is impossible.
