I wonder: who, when, and with what success reported to economic ministers Natalia Yaresko or Aivaras Abromavicius the digitalized analysis of how much dividends the state could have received through the Oschadny Bank it founded if, during this difficult period (at least), all cash flows in the form of salaries and current accounts, as well as deposits from budgetary organizations, had not worked for the founders of PrivatBank? Has anyone tried to combine debits and credits and schedule an appointment with the relevant minister with proposals? Apparently, the question remains unanswered.
Then let's formulate it differently.
Who could have calculated such a simple balance sheet but failed to do so due to cowardice, stupidity, or progressive apathy? I'll take the liberty of naming at least three officials who willlessly shied away from their direct treasury duties and avoided participating in strengthening the country's defense capability with impunity.
These are the managers of two (only) state-owned banks: Ukrexim – Oleksandr Hrytsenko and Oschad – Andriy Pyshnyy (Read more about him: Andriy Pyshnyy, Yatsenyuk's godfather and Oschadbank killer), as well as the head of their supervisory boards, Svetlana Voitsekovskaya, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff. And this despite the fact that Pyshnyy and Voitsekovskaya would undoubtedly have been heard not only by ordinary ministers but also by the Prime Minister himself (!), with whom they have maintained a trusting relationship during the creation of one of the current ruling parties, the People's Front!
And even after Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, without any "order from the mountain," ordered the deposits and current accounts of all companies subordinate to the ministry to be transferred to state-owned banks, no one seems to be rushing to make any major moves in this direction, which would be beneficial to the state. I wonder what's lacking more – courage or intelligence? For example, Ukrtransnafta's deposit account, it turns out, holds approximately 2 billion hryvnias, which constitutes the bulk of PrivatBank's funds. Interesting debit-credit?
As far as I know from sources in the government secretariat, Demchyshyn's example has not been contagious, and there has been no initiative or desire to offer comprehensive services to public sector employees at state-owned banks, at least not from Svetlana Voitsehovskaya.
It's probably still a secret to her that the insider information is not exactly a secret: the majority of heads of budget organizations, groomed by PrivatBank managers, receive systematic kickbacks: either from each employee's salary (fixed per capita) or as a percentage, depending on the amount of the budget balance in the account.
These unconventional options for illegal enrichment have cemented the relationship between Privat and public sector employees to such an extent that the destruction of this monolith could plunge the latter's accountants into deep depression and a complete loss of motivation to receive reduced salaries.
Let's assume that Andriy Pyshnyy, among his seven deputies, couldn't find a single professional lawyer to whom he could entrust the drafting of package amendments to the "Law on Remuneration," which would grant preferential treatment to state-owned banks when handling budget funds. But Andriy Grigoryevich himself holds a PhD in law and could, if not personally, then dictate to his assistant the necessary points for a report to Arseniy Petrovich. Bold, and most importantly, useful, decisions never hurt anyone. Moreover, Andriy Grigoryevich wasn't exactly known for his creativity as the head of the Oschadbank behemoth. His brainstorming, which resulted in the simple Oschadbank logo, doesn't count. And the cat appointed to symbolize Oschadbank turned out to be too seborristic, for the times, and lazy, just like the bank's entire PR management, which is stingy with ideas.
If Andrei Grigorievich had shown a little less self-admiration during the numerous photo sessions during VIP sales of war bonds, and a little more field work in the office, and a knowledge of the legal material, perhaps the right amendments to the budget of a country suffering from a lack of funds for social needs would have appeared by the end of 2014.
And now, a short master class on studying the law "On Remuneration," which the roguish lawyers of Privat have taken to using to harass the timid heads of state-owned enterprises.
Article No. 8 – allows for state regulation in the area of wages, in particular, the conditions for providing them to workers.
Article No. 13 directly obliges central government bodies to develop normative legal acts regulating the very same conditions of remuneration.
Hey, Arseniy Petrovich, is it difficult for you to sign the relevant resolution, which, after your own scolding, Svetlana Voitsekovskaya, head of the Cabinet Secretariat and concurrently head of the supervisory boards of state banks, will finally prepare for you?
Article No. 24 – determines, among other things, the place of receipt of wages.
Oddly enough, there's no mention of a Privat ATM being the place to be. The direct ban only applies to payday loans at "nalivaykas" and "gendelykas," but I don't think it'll come to that.
Article No. 29 – requires that employees be notified of the terms of remuneration.
This, in essence, is the entire legislative framework on the above-mentioned conflict issue, and it would not be difficult to make the appropriate adjustments to it.
Compared to the draconian changes to pension legislation and the payment of utility bills, an outright ban (let alone a temporary one) on placing budgetary organizations' accounts in commercial banks for the purpose of filling socially protected budget lines would hardly have a single sane critic, other than those dishonest public sector accountants who lost their guaranteed "paycheck."
Considering that a country at war, constantly patching budget holes, is handing over 50 billion hryvnias in annual wages to commercial banks for 3,5 million public sector and government employees, any other state of affairs seems quite cynical, if not criminal.
How long will VIP managers of state-owned banks continue to slack off, and how long will heads of economic ministries be allowed to ignore the lost profits from placing public sector employees' accounts in state-owned banks? This is far from an idle question.
Every missed day of delay in resolving this issue is another day of shopping and an expansion of the already bulimia-stricken beneficiaries of several commercial banks. Whether the government and Ukrainian lawmakers will encourage this protracted gluttony remains to be seen.
Sergey Nikonov, ORD
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