An unexpected split occurred in the Odesa regional branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The other day, a group of 95 Odesa businessmen who were at one time members of ORTPP initiated and held a General Meeting of the Chamber, the main purpose of which was to re-elect the current leadership: the president of the Odesa branch, Serhiy Shuvalov, who held this position since 1998, was removed from office, and businessman Mykola Kryklyvy, a former deputy of the Odesa City Council, was appointed the new manager.
Having registered these changes in the state register, the new leadership of the chamber (which, in addition to Kryklyvy, included: Stepan Boglia, Oleg Platonov, Hanna Nesterenko, Serhii Digol and some other entrepreneurs) entered the premises of the organization, thus starting its activities.
However, the situation was perceived extremely negatively by many members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Shuvalov's supporters accused the "new government" of raiding, while their opponents claim that the decision was made within the framework of the law, and the former leadership simply does not want to part with a seat held for almost three decades.
ElitExpert tried to understand the situation after listening to the arguments of all sides of the conflict.
Lawyers' position: the meetings were held illegally
Lawyers who represent the interests of ORTPP and its head, Serhiy Shuvalov, said that according to the Organization's Charter, the president of the Odesa branch of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Council and Presidium of the Chamber of Commerce, are elected every five years. According to lawyer Vitaly Lagovskyi, the legal representative of the Odesa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the powers of the current Presidium of the chamber, its Council and the president ended in January 2024. However, since the order of the Odesa military administration prohibits the holding of mass meetings during martial law, holding re-elections immediately turned out to be impossible.
Therefore, at the meeting of the OTPP Council, which took place at the beginning of the year, "the authority of the management was extended until the election of a new staff, as provided for by the Statute of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, - noted Lagovsky, - especially since in Ukraine even presidential elections are not held for the same reasons of security."
Despite the adopted decision, about a month ago members of the chamber started receiving invitations to hold general meetings.
"But this is impossible without an order from the head of the Chamber, and he did not issue such an order." - said the lawyer. According to him, the meeting was initiated by former members of the Chamber, who in April were excluded from it by the decision of the Presidium of the OTPP.
"Mykola Kryklyvy, Stepan Bohli, Oleg Platonov, Hanna Nesterenko, etc., should first be reinstated as members of the OTPP in a court of law, and only then initiate a general meeting of the Chamber's members. Some of the representatives of the companies listed above appealed to the court on this issue, but at the moment there are no decisions regarding their restoration that have entered into force. Mykola Kryklyvy, as a representative of the AMOS company, withdrew his statement of claim during the review process, and Stepan Bohli, a representative of the Glasspak company, had his statement of claim returned as not meeting the requirements of the Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine. "Plaske" company, in the person of Oleg Platonov, had the status of a third party without independent claims regarding the dispute and independent claims to invalidate the decision of the OTPP Presidium dated April 11, 2024, by which they were all excluded, did not present" Lagovsky emphasized.
He also said that the very next day after the meeting, September 13, the building of the Odesa Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry was occupied by "unknowns" accompanied by one of the security companies.
"They said that a general meeting was held yesterday, where the current management was dismissed and a new one was elected. These people have expelled all the employees from the premises of the chamber and are holding the building, - the lawyer said. - We don't know who exactly was present at this meeting, because neither representatives of the OTPP, nor journalists, nor lawyers were allowed there. As of September 12, 2024, the Odesa Chamber of Commerce and Industry has 208 members. According to the statement of Mykola Kryklyvy, they held a meeting with 95 members of the chamber. And this means that they did not have a quorum for decision-making at the general meeting of the OTPP. At the same time, those present for some reason elected Mykola Kryklyvy as the leader, who, according to the OTPP statute, cannot be the president, because he has not been a member of the chamber for more than 5 years."
According to the lawyer, all decisions made at the meeting on September 12, 2024 are illegal and will be appealed through the Ministry of Justice and the court.
We note an important fact: the Chamber of Commerce and Industry has the exclusive right to issue certificates of product origin. These certificates, in particular, are necessary for receiving customs benefits when trading Ukrainian grain.
Isn't this the reason for today's fierce struggle for the leadership seat?
Position of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine
The reaction of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine did not take long. Already on September 13, the department issued an official comment in which it expressed full support for Serhiy Shuvalov, declaring the change of leadership illegal.
"The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine declares that the meeting of members of the Odesa Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other persons, which took place on September 12, 2024, was convened in violation of the norms of the Chamber's Statute, in particular clause 5.2.4.
Decisions made at the meeting are null and void and not recognized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine.
The chamber supports the current, legally elected composition of the governing bodies of the Odesa Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by Serhii Yevhenovich Shuvalov."
The position of the newly elected leadership
Of course, we turned to the new (according to the entry in the Register) head of the Odesa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ex-deputy of the Odesa City Council Mykola Kryklyvy for comments.
In a conversation with ElitExpert, he explained in detail his vision of the situation that happened.
According to him, there are 179 member enterprises in the Odesa Chamber, and all of them, according to Ukrainian legislation, are the founders of the regional branch.
"The highest governing body of the Chamber is the General Meeting, as specified in the Charter. The meeting elects the Council, the Presidium and the president. However, the authority of the previous leadership of the chamber has ended." - said Kryklyvy, referring to the decision of the Commercial Court, which allegedly clearly states that the powers of the President, the Presidium and the Audit Commission of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have expired.
Mykola Kryklyvy claims that over the past five years, the previous leadership of the chamber did not hold any reporting and election meetings, although this is his direct duty, according to the Statute of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Serhii Shuvalov, who held the position of head since 1998, For 27 years, in fact, she turned the Chamber Council into her personal fiefdom.
"The vice-president of the chamber is his own daughter, a member of the Council is his son-in-law. The other members of the Council are friends and godfathers who now depend on her through their positions and support her in everything.” - emphasized Screaming.
In addition, the entrepreneur reported that over the last year, about 30 enterprises were excluded from the Odesa branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The reason for the exclusion, allegedly, was their position, which did not coincide with the position of the management: "These businesses were expelled because their managers dared to express a different opinion from the management."
At the same time, Kryklyvy emphasized that the Statute of the chamber allows the members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to initiate the general meeting themselves, if the management does not take the necessary actions.
"According to Clause 5.4 of the Statute, if the Council, the Audit Commission or the president do not convene meetings, they can be initiated by the members of the chamber themselves, if they gather at least 1/3 of the total number of participants." he explained.
Therefore, in April 2024, more than a third of the members of the chamber exercised their right and organized a meeting. It was decided to hold new leadership elections, which actually happened.
"At the general meeting on September 12, 95 members of the chamber were present, which was more than half of the total number of 179 business members. This number – 179 – was received by us in an official response from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine, - said Kryklyvy. — As a result of the vote, a new Presidium was elected, the Council, whose number of participants was reduced from 21 to 18 people, and then the Council elected a new president."
After that, the decision of the general meeting was successfully notarized, registered with the state registrar and entered in the Register of legal and natural persons of entrepreneurs and public organizations.
However, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine disconnected the Odesa Chamber from the "Electronic Chamber" - as a result, the Chamber's work stopped, and the issuance of any documents became impossible.
The commission will sort it out
On September 17, a special meeting of the Presidium dedicated to the Odesa conflict took place at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine in Kyiv. President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine Hennadiy Chyzhikov commented on it as follows:
"In connection with the dangerous situation in Odesa, I, as the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine, issued an order for a special commission to go from Kyiv to Odesa. Her task is to communicate with the members of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, both with the former and with the new management, as well as to analyze the legal composition of meetings and changes in management." - said the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At the same time, he assured that the situation with exports, in a region important for the country, will not be affected, and no company will be affected by the conflict.
Chizhikov said that the commission should complete its work by September 19 and submit its report with an analysis of the events that took place.
"We have numerous appeals from both sides. I don't want to take sides. I am for the truth, which we must establish in the coming days. I emphasize that there must be a clear legal position in the resolution of the conflict so that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry can successfully move forward." - emphasized the head of the Chamber of Commerce.
At the meeting in Kyiv, a preliminary legal analysis of the situation was presented, including consideration of documents received from both sides of the conflict.
In particular, data were announced at the meeting, according to which, at the time of the meeting, on September 12, the Odesa Chamber of Commerce and Industry had 208 enterprises, not 179. From this, the lawyers concluded that the 95 participants who attended the meeting did not constituted a quorum, thus their decision to change the leadership was illegal because at least 105 members were required for a quorum.
In addition, the Chamber of Commerce publicly stated that the September 12 meeting was attended by members who were allegedly expelled from the chamber back in April 2024, which also calls into question the legality of their participation, including the participation of Mykola Kryklyvy himself, who became the new head of the Odessa branch TPP
As a result, it was decided that a special commission in Odessa will conduct its investigation and try to put an end to this conflict.
The work of independent specialists in this direction has already begun. ElitExpert will continue to monitor the situation. However, it is safe to say that the only possible way out of such an acute conflict is fair and open re-election of the governing bodies of the organization for all TPP members without exception.
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