Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 34 2019

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM
Ex-head of Ukraine energy watchdog becomes first political exile under Zelenskiy
UKRAINE
Vovk is among eight suspects named in the case relating to coal and electricity costs.
DMYTRO Vovk, a former head of the Ukraine’s energy regulator the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regula- tion (NCER), is not going to return to the coun- try from abroad for questioning in the so-called Rotterdam Plus energy formula investigation due to his lack of trust in national judicial and law enforcement systems.
Vovk headed the NCER in 2016, when it adopted the Rotterdam Plus formula for elec- tricity pricing, which law enforcement author- ities allege was a corrupt scheme that illegally bene tted, among others, Ukraine’s leading coal and power holding DTEK, at the expense of the public.
According to a new methodology for cal- culating the tariffs for electricity supplied by Ukrainian coal-fired thermal power plants (TPPs), the price of electricity sold by TPPs will cover in full the coal costs, calculated according to the API2 coal index (the CIF price of coal in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp), plus the costs of coal delivery from Rotterdam to Ukrain- ian TPPs.
Vovk is among eight suspects named in the criminal case being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). Two of the suspects are con rmed to be abroad, bureau head Artem Sytnyk said on August 16, and will be placed on international search.
On August 19, Vovk wrote on his Facebook page that he is “not ready to return” to Ukraine while the head of the presidential sta Andriy Bohdan, a close associate of a controversial oli- garch Ihor Kolomoisky, “runs the NABU, SAPO [Specialised Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s
O ce] and the judicial system”.
“I don’t have my own Bohdan or [NABU
head Artem] Sytnyk. erefore, I prefer to stay in a country where law and justice are not empty words. I would love to come to court, but I am not ready to participate in mock justice,” Vovk added.
On August 8, the NABU accused a group of o cials from the country’s energy regulator of abusing o ce during the introduction of the new pricing model for thermal power plants in 2016.
“ ey are suspected of committing actions that resulted in UAH18.87bn ($750mn) of losses to electricity consumers,” the NABU added in the statement. “ e representatives of the group of private heat generating companies in 2015 began to put pressure on the NCER top managers to include expenses that were not actually spent in the tari for electricity produced by TPPs of this group, namely, delivery and trans-shipment costs for steam coal to Ukraine from ports in Europe.”
e NABU also believes that while the Rot- terdam Plus formula in icted UAH18.9bn in losses on Ukrainian consumers of electricity in 2016-2017, DTEK, controlled by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, gained UAH14.3bn.
DTEK said in response that this claim is groundless, stressing that Rotterdam Plus brought more transparency to Ukraine’s elec- tricity market. e formula was also endorsed by “multiple international experts”, the press service said, adding that DTEK promised it will use all legal means at its disposal to protect its employees. ™
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