At an emergency session on April 24, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has fired the head of customs service Max Nefyodov, his deputies and Ukraine’s tax service chief Serhii Verlanov, both with reputations as honest reformers.
Nefyodov, the former deputy economy minister, was not notified of his dismissal before the session, he told Novoe Vremya. “I don’t know the reason for my dismissal,” Nefyodov said, adding that “Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko refused to talk to me and ran away.”
Nefyodov is also a former deputy economy minister who helped establish ProZorro, a purchasing system that has brought transparency, competition, and savings to state purchases. Ex-Finance Minister Oksana Markarova praised Nefyodov and Verlanov for ” honest and dedicated work…and most importantly for systematic work on the creation of the new tax, customs, and financial control office.”
Besides Verlanov, the deputy head of the fiscal service Dmytro Ventskovsky was fired as well.
Verlanov told the Kyiv Post that “my team delivered a strong performance and kept on the reform track, notwithstanding the virus. It is a bad time to change the teams due to political reasons. The fiscal bloc is exposed to bigger risks now due to artificial turbulence.”
On his Facebook page, Nefyodov wrote that he is happy that his deputies – Robert Zeldi, Denys Shendrik and Serhiy Petukhov were dismissed with him. In the interview with Novoe Vremya, he said he feels “better as a person” after his firing.
Prime Minister Denys Shymgal told the Inter TV channel that the dismissals followed Marchenko’s request.
Later on April 24, Shymgal said that he plans to appoint new effective leaders soon.
Marchenko said on April 24 that he repeatedly emphasized that changes in Ukraine’s customs and tax services are essential.
He said that Nefyodov and Verlanov “have proved unable to perform the tasks assigned to them” and put the financial security of the country at risk. “They lost people’s trust and had to leave,” Marchenko said.
Marchenko assigned Igor Muratov, the head of one of the customs service departments, as the acting chief of Ukraine’s customs and Mykhailo Titarchuk, Verlanov’s deputy head, as the acting chief of Ukraine’s tax service.
Ukraine’s former customs chief Nefyodov has been recently criticized by Shymgal for the failure to meet customs revenue targets.
On March 4, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine opened proceeding into Nefyodov’s involvement in a corruption scheme which reportedly caused damage to the state exceeding $1,63 million.
Nefyodov denied the accusations and called the pretrial probe “black PR.”
The dismissed head of customs service Maxym Nefyodov wears a t-shirt saying “Dobby is a free elf.” After his dismissal, Nefyodov said he feels better as a person. (Max Nefyodov/Facebook)
Nefyodov became the head of the State Customs Service on June 26, 2019. Verlanov headed the tax service since May 8, 2019.
