This Bill (Reg.No.0954) was adopted as a basis for further elaboration on 17 May 2007, and submitted for further Registration, due to a change in The Verkhovna Rada Membership. During the preparation for the Second Reading, 65 proposals were received from People´s Deputies, all of which were taken into account during finalisation of the Bill. The original version of the Bill has in fact been altered by 80 percent.
It was noted at the Committee Meeting that the most important aspect of the revised Bill is the accent placed on the institution of The Unified State Monitoring System for Production, Supply, Transportation, Consumption and Payment for Fuel and Energy Resources and Housing and Utility Services (hereinafter referred to as USMS), being a multilevel, territorially distributed integrated complex of unified organisational, engineering, communication, information and software facilities and methods for formation of the Consolidated State Energy Balance and its indicators using common standards.
Excluded from the Bill was a provision on The National Commission as a body to control the launching, operation, and improvement of the System. Instead a provision on the Authorised Body was added, this Body being a Central Executive Authority set up to approve USMS procedures, forms and standards, and provide control over its launching, operation and improvement.
Taking account of these significant provisions, the Committee suggests that the name of the Bill is changed to read: ‘On the Principles for Operation of The Unified State Monitoring System for Production, Supply, Transportation, Consumption and Payment for Fuel and Energy Resources and Housing and Utility Services'.
Committee Members also upheld a proposal to add a new Chapter to the Bill, 'Putting USMS into Operation. Functional Structure. Financing', providing a detailed description of the methodological fundamentals of the System, the organisational mechanism for putting it into operation, and its functional structure with a list of sub-systems and possible financing sources.
People's Deputies also supported another proposal by The People's Deputy, Yaroslav Sukhyi, on a revised version of Clause 14. It reads: 'The Authorised Body is a body operating in complete independence from State Authorities, Local Governments together with their Officials, and other business entities. No intrusion of State Authorities, Local Governments, business entities, together with their officials, is allowed in the operation of the Authorised Body. Any influence exerted on an employee of the Authorised Body, with the purpose of preventing him/her from exercising his/her duties, is subject to administrative and criminal liability.
During deliberations, Committee Members emphasised that the launching of USMS will enable the actual consumption and calculation parameters for users of heat energy, water, hot water, gas, electric energy, and housing and utility services to be ascertained, thus ‘bringing out of the shadows´ any criminal schemes resulting in vast profits, and will trace the actual level of discrepancies in putting together the Consolidated Energy Balance, to be used in preparing a predicted Energy Balance for future years; and determine the level of economic, social, energy and environmental safety of the State.
The Committee resolved to forward the draft revised version of the Bill to The Ministries of Housing and Communal Services; Fuel and Power-Engineering; and Finances, to gauge their opinions. The proposals received will be used in the repeated deliberations on this matter in the first half of this February.