16:07 03.12.2021

Ex-ECA employees collectively turned to the Prime Minister and asked to respond to problems in the agency

3 min read
Ex-ECA employees collectively turned to the Prime Minister and asked to respond to problems in the agency

KYIV. Dec 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some members of the team of the Export Credit Agency (ECA) protests against the appointment of Ruslan Hashev to the position of acting board chairman of the agency, Hashev was fired from the position on November 3 this year, Deputy ECA Board Chairman Viacheslav Popov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

Popov recalled that the Ministry of Economy terminated Hashev's powers due to the fact that during the year of work in this position, no measures were taken to stimulate Ukrainian exporting enterprises and increase exports. According to the ministry, in the first nine months of this year, ECA entered into four insurance contracts and received income in the amount of UAH 116,000, or 1.8% of the planned indicator, while expenses amounted to UAH 19.5 billion and exceeded the target by 17%.

"There was no result from Mr. Hashev's attempts to introduce the portfolio method of insuring bank loans. During the year, there was no fruitful cooperation with any of the Ukrainian banks. Also, not a single new product was introduced to support exports during the year," he said.

The deputy board chairman also said that seven employees of the agency filed a letter of resignation, disagreeing with the return of the former head.

According to Popov, a letter from former ECA employees will soon be sent to First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko demanding to remove Hashev from office, hold a fair, public and transparent competition for the positions of members of the supervisory board, chairman and board members, and also to limit the direct impact on the agency's economic activities.

As reported, on November 3, 2021, the Ministry of Economy prematurely terminated the powers of all five members of the ECA supervisory board and the board chairman. "The reason for this decision was the extremely unsatisfactory performance of the agency and the lack of response to it from the members of the supervisory board. So, given the state of the financial and economic activities of PJSC Export Credit Agency and the lack of effective measures to improve the relevant indicators, the development strategy of the company, the minister [Oleksiy Liubchenko, who was dismissed on the same day] made a decision to early terminate the powers of board chairman of the agency Ruslan Hashev," the ministry said on the website. Popov, Deputy Chairman of ECA, was appointed Acting Board Chairman.

On November 24, 2021, the Ministry of Economy terminated Popov's powers and on the same day re-appointed Hashev to this position.

ECA has 36 employees. The amount of ECA insured contracts in 2020-2021 is $0.9 million. This is 0.0067% of the export of groups of goods, contracts for which the agency can insure.

AD
AD
AD
AD