“We will appeal the absurd results of the SASU audit in court,” Chairman of Ukrenergo Vladimir Kudrytsky

Head of NEC Ukrenergo Vladimir Kudrytsky said that the audit carried out by GASU is not real and worthy of trust, and the company is already proving through the court that all accusations of the company and management of “inefficiency” are groundless.

At the end of September, the Office of the Prosecutor General came to the office of the Ukrenergo company with a search, during which law enforcement officers sought to obtain documents based on the results of an inspection by the State Audit Service (SASU), which issued a report on violations of the company in the amount of UAH 68 billion. In a recent interview with the publication “CENSOR”, the chairman of the board of Ukrenergo, Vladimir Kudrytsky, explained that the accusations from the State Administration of Ukraine are completely unfounded.

“The figure announced by the State Administration of Ukraine is 68 billion hryvnia for any inefficiencies, violations, and so on. Of these, 36 billion - I’m not joking now - the name of the line in the balance sheet of our international reporting, it seemed wrong to them. There is a line in the balance sheet called the corporatization effect. This is an effect that we reflect on the balance sheet, because when we corporatized, the state did not transfer all the property to us. Backbone networks are not subject to transfer of ownership by law. And it is listed on our balance sheet and taken into account. Therefore, in the active part of the balance sheet we show it as an asset; in the passive part of equity capital, we also need to show something. We have reduced this to the effect of corporatization,” – says Vladimir Kudritsky.

He emphasized that for three years international auditors confirmed everything for the company, and the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. “But SASU knows better. And they said that this name is wrong. It does not meet Ukrainian accounting standards. And we changed it. But they still wrote 36 billion hryvnia of some phantom violations. And this essentially discredits their entire report.” - Kudritsky explained.

According to him, among other alleged violations of the company accrued by the State Antimonopoly Service, 12 billion is what the company owes to Garpok. Another about 15 billion is debt to participants in the balancing market. “That is, according to GASU, our “violation” is that we are owed 27 billion, and because of this we will owe 15 billion. The conclusion made by the State Administration of Ukraine in the report: “Ukrenergo” is ineffective,” says Vladimir Kudritsky.

He explained: the SASU audit did not resemble a real audit. “I say this as a chartered auditor from the British Institute of Auditors ACCA, as well as a certified auditor from the US Institute of Internal Auditors CIA. This has nothing to do with an audit; it looks more like either some kind of profanation or some kind of attack. Precisely because we consider the conclusions of the State Audit Office to be unfounded, unprofessional and sometimes absurd, we did what the head of the State Audit Office, Mrs. Basalaeva, recommends: we will appeal the audit results in court,” – said the head of Ukrenergo.

According to him, the Kiev District Administrative Court on October 10 satisfied part of Ukrenergo’s claims. “That is, the court recognized that at least part of the claims of the SASU auditors against us are unfounded. It is clear that we will go to appeal and will prove the unfoundedness of the remaining requirements of GASU, for which there are also no grounds. But this court decision confirms that the SASU auditors performed their work in relation to Ukrenergo, at least poorly,” – stated Vladimir Kudritsky.

He is convinced that the GAS audit harms the country’s defense during war, while the energy grid is one of the key targets of Russian attacks. “Therefore, we would still like to spend our efforts not on explaining obvious things and refuting absurd accusations, but on restoring energy facilities and strengthening their protection,” - says Vladimir Kudritsky.

Let us remind you that on September 20, employees of the Office of the Prosecutor General carried out a search at the head office of Ukrenergo. The reason is the seizure of thousands of pages of tender documentation and contracts with dozens of companies for 2019-2023 on the basis of criminal proceedings dated March 16, 2023. The press service of Ukrenergo reported that the company would have provided investigators voluntarily with all the necessary documents without conducting a search. But the company did not receive such a request from law enforcement officers.