The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has drawn up a report on administrative offenses against Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, for violating the requirements for preventing and resolving conflicts of interest.
Thus, in 2022, Rostyslav Shurma organized the Electricity Committee (hereinafter - the Committee) at the Presidential Office, which met under his leadership. Key institutions involved in the electricity sector were involved in the Committee's meetings: The Ministry of Energy, the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission , NPC Ukrenergo, SE Market Operator, SE Guaranteed Buyer.
Having a private interest in this area, Rostyslav Shurma failed to report the conflict of interest in the manner prescribed by law and, acting in the context of a real conflict of interest, participated in the discussion and adoption of decisions at the Committee's meetings that concerned his private interest.
The NACP found that Rostyslav Shurma's brother Oleh is the ultimate beneficial owner of seven companies that produce electricity from alternative sources.
From 2019 to 2021, Rostyslav Shurma himself was a member of the Supervisory Board of Helios Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund, which is a co-founder of three of the above companies.
As of July 2022, when the first meeting of the Committee was held under the chairmanship of Rostyslav Shurma, SE Guaranteed Buyer had significant debts for payments for electricity generated from alternative sources purchased from Oleg Shurma's companies. The amount of debt to the latter amounted to almost UAH 254 million.
The source for settlements with these companies may be the funds of PJSC NPC Ukrenergo, which are received by SE Guaranteed Buyer as payment for the service to ensure an increase in the share of electricity production from alternative sources.
In an effort to provide SE Guaranteed Buyer with an additional source of funding and facilitate the repayment of debts to his brother's companies, Rostyslav Shurma, at the Committee's meetings on August 23 and September 7, 2022, encouraged NPC Ukrenergo and SE Guaranteed Buyer to sign and approve the acceptance certificates for the services provided to ensure an increase in the share of electricity production from alternative sources for January, May, July, October 2021 and February-June 2022.
Thus, the decisions made at the Committee's meetings had an impact on satisfying Rostyslav Shurma's private interest, namely, creating conditions for the success of his brother's business by making the necessary decisions by government agencies and companies involved in the electricity market.
The protocol drawn up by the NACP under Art. 1, 2 of Art. 172-7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of requirements for preventing and resolving conflicts of interest), the report on Rostyslav Shurma's actions was sent to court. If he is found guilty, the court may impose a fine, and the official's data will be entered into the Unified State Register of Persons Who Committed Corruption or Corruption-Related Offenses.
