There are /// bodies in focus of our committee scan today:

 

Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy

The Committee held a roundtable on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the first local audit law: "Audit in Ukraine: Prospects and Challenges".

The event was attended by parliamentarians, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, other government bodies, the World Bank, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the Audit Chamber of Ukraine, the Federation of Professional Accountants and Auditors of Ukraine and other non-governmental organizations.

Opening the meeting, the head of the committee Nina Yuzhanina reminded that exactly 25 years ago the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine "On Auditing Activities in Ukraine". She also said that the joint authors of the law were taking part in the round table.

Later on, the committee head read out the recently amended presidential enactment granting thereby their professional holiday to Ukrainian accountants and auditors.

Participants of the roundtable were greeted by Johannes Baur, the First Counsellor, the Head of Operations Section 3 "Economic cooperation, energy, infrastructure and environment" under the European Union Delegation to Ukraine, Klavdiia Maksymenko, Senior Country Officer at the World Bank Ukraine, Yevhen Kapinus, the State Secretary of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance.

Then there were delivered a range of panoramic reports on auditing in Ukraine since 1993 until 2018, with its updated visions and prospects in the light of the newly passed law.

It was also noted it has been for the first time within the recent 25 years that the audit services market be regulated by the adopted audit law solely, with “no strings attached”.

The round table participants observed that Ukraine is still halfway to the implementation of the European Union audit activity requirements, in as much as the requirements of the Directive 2006/43/EC only have so far been implemented into the Ukrainian legislation, while the core point continues to be done as yet - to implement the European standards in such a way so as to create cleared conditions for development of the domestic audit.

Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety

The committee held a round table on the concept of introducing   competitive pricing mechanisms for renewable source electricity (RSE).

The committee deputy head Oleksandr Dombrovskyi made a welcoming speech and called on the participants to engage in a constructive dialogue and professional discussion.

He drew attention to the urgent issues in the generation of electricity.  He noted that the acutest problem of these days is choosing which technological and economic model the further development of generation and the national legislation should follow, because today’s critical state of certain types of generation, their levels of technical wearing out are approaching to the breaking point of 90 percent. Disregard of these challenges does multiply for Ukraine the risks of facing the same negative experience of the "green" generation as acquired in some European countries.

In the context of the discussion, the head of the subcommittee on electric energy and energy transportation Lev Pidlisetskyi tabled a number of proposals to the Concept of competitive RSE pricing and its updated version with the above-mentioned proposals taken into account.

The participants of the round table exchanged their thoughts on the updated Concept and presented additional proposals.

Despite the slight share of renewables in Ukraine compared to the worldwide installed capacity, Ukraine was said to remain one of the leaders among the CIS countries for implementation of renewable sources of energy.

Among the negative factors of the current system of stimulation of renewable energy sources they have lack of investor confidence, the short-term prospects, a significant financial burden on consumers, disbalances within the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), the imperfect regulatory policies and the risks associated with investments in renewables, the need to modernize such policies and to introduce an auction system capable of implementing projects of significant capacity.

As a result of the discussion, the updated concept of legislative changes in the realm of renewable energy was proposed.

Committee on Social Policy, Employment and Pension Provision

The deputy committee head Serhii Kaplin in combination with   representatives of the “Counselor for IDP issues” programme conducted wide discussions over pension payments to Ukrainian citizens residing in the temporarily occupied and uncontrolled territories of the country.

The delegation included Program and Executive Directors of "Stabilization Support Services" Dermot Hamilton and Olha Ivanova, the Program Coordinator for the “Counselor for IDP issues” programme Valeriia Vershynina as well as representatives of the British Embassy - programme managers of the Embassy Fiona Coughlan and Nataliia Vasyliuk and Rachel Williams,  Communications and Engagement Officer.

During the meeting, there was  an ample debate on assisting Ukraine in providing support for internally displaced persons and Ukrainian citizens residing in the temporarily uncontrolled area, and, in particular, restoration of pension payments to citizens in the conflict zone.

Serhii Kaplin emphasized the need to work out a new strategy for paying pensions to our citizens in those lands of uncertainty, involving establishments of the Oschadbank, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, the OSCE, etc.

Dermot Hamilton supported the Committee's efforts and said that the draft law providing for making tools of pension payments to those citizens, is currently under consideration at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council  of Europe, which has worked out appropriate recommendations.

Participants of the meeting agreed to continue the joint work on the matter together with parliamentarians, representatives of human rights organizations, public and executive bodies.


Worthy of note


Stabilization Support Services (SSS) is a Canadian Federally Incorporated Non-Profit Organization. It utilizes the skills and expertise of key personnel in specialized areas including systems design, financial implementation, international logistics and operations, and cross sectoral programming capabilities.

The purpose of SSS is to seek institutional grants from large donor bodies and governments in order to provide support and services to help stabilize countries in crisis.
These services include the following:

  • Procuring medical equipment to be used to help nations during times of conflict and post-conflict;
  • Providing medical support such as access to primary health care, and augmenting hospital facilities through the delivery and installation of portable field hospitals;
  • Providing medical training support services such as pre-hospital and trauma life-support training, training members of humanitarian mine clearance programs, and specialty advanced medical courses;
  • Providing equipment and training to assist with domestic security and counter-terrorism services including the provision of technology and training to deal with IEDs and EOD removal;
  • Post conflict support to humanitarian mine action interventions dealing with landmines and the explosive remnants of war (ERW);
  • Providing technical solutions and encrypted communication support; and
  • Mentoring, training, and other forms of capacity-building support.
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