The first supervisory board of a municipal enterprise in Ukraine has been created in Mykolaiv

For the first time in Ukraine, Mykolaiv has formed a supervisory board of a municipal enterprise in accordance with OECD standards through an open competition. This approach opens up new opportunities to increase transparency and reduce corruption risks in the municipal sector of Mykolaiv and the entire country.

This was reported by the press service of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative.

For the first time in Ukraine, a supervisory board of a utility company was formed in accordance with OECD corporate governance standards. On May 29, deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council approved the composition of the supervisory board of Mykolaivvodokanal. The board includes three independent members selected through a transparent competition, as well as two representatives of the owner.

The Supervisory Board has been given a full range of powers, from selecting the company's management to approving financial plans and major transactions. According to the initiators, the creation of the supervisory board is a key stage in the corporate governance reform initiated by the mayor in partnership with the EUACI project.

The press service also emphasized that for the first time in Ukraine, most members of the supervisory board of a municipal enterprise were elected through an open competition. The competition commission consisted mainly of independent experts, including recruiters, international partners, community representatives, and city council members.

More than 50 candidates applied for the competition, 37 of them passed the initial selection, and 14 participants reached the final round of interviews.

The first members of the Supervisory Board of Mykolaivvodokanal are:

• Bjorn Kaare Hansen - Chief Advisor and Project Manager of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Chairman of the Water4All initiative, member of the Board of Aarhus Water Ltd;
• Andrii Gaidutskyi, independent member of the Board of Cominbank JSC, Doctor of Economics, Master of International Economic Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, MBA in Strategy and Corporate Governance (South Korea);
• Andriy Yefimov - member of the Board of TAScombank JSC, Director of the Financial Operations Control Department of TAS Group;
• Serhiy Shklyar - Founding Partner of Arzinger, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, Attorney at Law, Doctor of Law;
• Anna Montavon, legal advisor to the German Development Bank KfW, founder of the NGO Mykolaiv Water Hub.

The Supervisory Board was formed as part of the implementation of the Roadmap for Corporate Governance Implementation in Mykolaiv City Council, developed with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative and Vasil Kisil & Partners. The Corporate Governance Professional Association (CGPA) acted as a recruiter in the selection process.

Next time, they plan to introduce corporate governance at Mykolaivoblteploenergo and Mykolaivelectrotrans.

In Mykolaiv, the idea of creating independent supervisory boards at municipal enterprises was announced in November last year. The project envisages the formation of an independent body that will control costs and assess the efficiency of resource use.

Анна Бальчінос