The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine will audit all permits for subsoil use since 1994 and return them to the people in case of violation of the conditions. This was announced at the meeting by NSDC Secretary Alexei Danilov.
“It was decided within a short period of time to audit all permits without exception, which were issued since 1994,” he said after the meeting of the NSDC, at which the report of the head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine was presented. Initial inspections showed that most of the permits were obtained by companies controlled by offshore companies.
"If violations are found during the fulfillment of the licensing conditions of these permits, such permits will be legally returned to the people of Ukraine," Danilov added.
“According to the Constitution, the subsoil belongs to the Ukrainian people. To our great regret, at the first even approximate audit it turned out that the Ukrainian people do not have very many permits there. Mostly these are the people who live on the Virgin Islands or other islands and in states that are not entirely directly related to Ukraine, "the NSDC Secretary noted.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is an international standard designed to improve the transparency of government revenue management from natural resource extraction.
In 2013, Ukraine joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and, since 2015, has been publishing annual reports showing how many companies operate in the extractive industries, how much taxes they paid to the state, which companies are ready and which are not ready to show results their work.
“The purpose of data disclosure is to provide access to complete and objective information on the volumes of mining, payments of business entities operating in the region, as well as their social and environmental obligations. This allows the authorities, society and potential investors to clearly understand the situation in the mining sector of the country, and also creates the prerequisites for responsible use of mineral resources, "- said Roman Opimakh, head of the State Geological Survey.
