By KYIV. May 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine may approve a bill for joining Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy (MGU) to the GTS Operator of Ukraine, MP of Ukraine Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on the Telegram channel.
At the same time, former head of GTSOU Serhiy Makogon believes that such a merger is not a necessary procedure for corporate reform.
“The Ministry of Energy is actively pushing its bill to preserve Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy and members of its supervisory board due to the unnecessary procedure for joining MGU to GTSOU, referring to the fact that this is the only way to fulfill the IMF beacon. I hope that the government and MPs will not succumb to this manipulation and make an informed decision which will not destroy corporate governance in state-owned enterprises,” he wrote on Facebook.
In his opinion, it is necessary to adopt a new GTSOU charter agreed with the Energy Community Secretariat, which provides for the creation of a supervisory board consisting of the operator itself, and immediately begin the process of selecting new members, which will take two to three months. At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers will be able to determine how to liquidate Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy correctly.
As reported, when creating Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy it was assumed that this company would become the operator of the gas transmission system of Ukraine. At the same time, in the process of unbundling, NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy created the GTS Operator of Ukraine, to which the functions of Ukrtransgaz for managing the GTS were transferred. In turn, GTSOU was transferred to the ownership of Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy.
Back in October 2021, the Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Janez Kopacz, said that MGU had fulfilled its function and could be disbanded. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities delayed the resolution of this issue.
In the memorandum between the International Monetary Fund and Ukraine, approved in April 2023, the task is to transfer the shares of GTSOU from MGU directly to the Ministry of Energy by the end of July with a corresponding change in the charter.
