The Head of Volyn Regional Council, a member of the Presidium of the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” Ihor Palytsya proposes to create a working group in order to solve the problem of the state enterprise Volyntorf. He stated this at the meeting of the 15th session of the seventh convocation of Volyn Regional Council.
As it is known, blocking of the work of the state-owned enterprise has already been lasting for several years. Volyntorf specializes in production of peat briquettes and provides fuel for public institutions and private households in several regions. And now the company may stop its work, and half of the staff will lose their income due to non-providing of the land needed for the extraction of raw materials. The Head of the Regional State Administration Volodymyr Hunchyk refuses to approve the allocation of land plots. On September 7, the staff of Volyntorf came to the session of the Regional Council to seek for the deputies’ support. The explanations of the Head of the Regional State Administration that he cannot approve the documents due to a legislative conflict were met by the representatives of the enterprise with the shouts “Shame”.
According to Ihor Palytsya, the working group should include the representatives of the enterprise, the Regional State Administration and the Regional Council. Next week they will have already to give their suggestions on how to resolve the situation. The deputies of the Regional Council have supported this decision.
Ihor Palytsya has also assured the employees of the enterprise that they will not allow the closure or privatization of Volyntorf. Moreover, he has stressed that he is ready to defend the interests of the enterprise by himself in Kyiv, if the situation with allocation of land would not be resolved positively.
The representative of UKROP has also emphasized that the problem of Volyntorf is not only the regional one, as the company pays significant sums of taxes that go to the needs of the army. “Our president states that Russia is preparing for a full-scale war. And how will we defend if the budget does not have any money to increase expenditures on the army? And here the officials do not let the company work. The prosecutor’s office is protesting against the governor’s desire to sign a permit for the field development in order to receive additional money. Why the prosecutor’s office does not allow a state-owned enterprise to work? Perhaps this is done in the interests of those who want to privatize it,” said the politician.
Earlier, the MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych has already stated that Volyntorf may stop its work due to the fact that the regional executive authorities do not agree on the land plots for the extraction of fossil fuels. In the opinion of the MP, this situation is conditioned by the fact that some people have set sights on this successful, lucrative enterprise, which provides decent wages and social benefits for 407 employees.
