REUTERS
DTEK received a letter from the National Anti-corruption Bureau with a written notice of suspicion brought against the company's employees.
Ukraine's largest private energy holding DTEK, controlled by businessman Rinat Akhmetov, considers the suspicions brought by detectives from the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) against DTEK employees involved in the introduction of the so-called "Rotterdam Plus" coal pricing formula unfounded.
"DTEK received a letter from the National Anti-corruption Bureau (NABU) with a written notice of suspicion brought against the company's employees. DTEK believes that there is no valid reason for such investigative actions and that there is no legitimate basis for the suspicions set out in the investigation," the company's press service said on August 8.
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According to the press service, the investigating authorities are concerned about the transparent operating rules in the wholesale electricity market, which did not previously exist, and decisions governed by the operating rules, which were previously made by the state bodies in a subjective way.
"The reasoning behind using the principle of import parity and aligning Ukraine's pricing methodology for coal with EU practices was approved by numerous international experts. This should be taken into account. In particular, experts approved pegging prices of coal in Ukraine to European indexes (including logistics expenses, etc.) as being in line with the principle of import parity. Research demonstrated the absence of excess profits in the coal sector and Ukrainian thermal generation more generally," the company said.
It is noted that the application of the import parity principle in price setting for energy products is a requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international creditors of Ukraine.
DTEK operates within the legislative framework of Ukraine and adheres to international standards for ethics and compliance, the press service added.
As reported, DTEK employees provided NABU with all the necessary documents and answered all relevant questions.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 8, NABU detectives, under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), reported suspicion to six persons involved in the implementation of the so-called "Rotterdam Plus" formula. As the result of their actions, the power consumers incurred UAH 18.87 billion (US$745.6 million) in losses.
According to NABU, this refers to the ex-head of Ukraine's National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC), the incumbent CEO of the state-owned Market Operator (who at the time of the "Rotterdam Plus" introduction was a NEURC member), the head of the NEURC department, the head of the NEURC management, the deputy commercial director of one of the Group's private companies – a key operator of Ukraine's heat generation market, and the head of a department at one of the Group's companies.
The actions of all six officials are qualified under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power), while representatives of the private companies are charged with complicity.
As UNIAN reported, in 2017, NABU launched criminal proceedings targeting the former chairman and members of NEURC, who, in the interests of thermal power operators, while forming the wholesale market price, unreasonably included in it a formula that overestimates the cost of thermal coal in electricity tariffs (the "Rotterdam Plus" formula).