On November 23, 2018, the Corporate Governance Professional Association (CGPA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) held a round table on “Reforming the Corporate Governance System in Ukrainian State Companies: New Challenges and Tasks”.

Taking into account the new tasks and challenges facing the corporate governance reform agenda today, three issues were considered: the experience of establishing supervisory boards in Ukrainian public and private companies; liability insurance of corporate directors; modern requirements for a professional director and opportunities for professional development of members of supervisory boards.

MEDT State Secretary Oleksiy Perevezentsev paid attention of the participants to the state of compliance with the legislation on the establishment and functioning of supervisory boards in companies of the state sector of the economy, giving an example of the experience of creating and operating a supervisory board of the State Enterprise “Polygraphic Combine “Ukraine”. In addition, O.Perevezentsev noted that the MEDT planned to begin the process of establishing supervisory boards in such enterprises as SE “Ukrmetstandard” and SE “NNC “Titan”, which are unitary in nature and the creation of supervisory boards is not a mandatory requirement of the law, and to announce the contests for the positions of independent members of these supervisory boards.

Chairman of the CGPA Management Board Oleksandr Okuniev spoke about the initiatives of the CGPA on improving the activities of the governing bodies of the business companies, in particular, he focused on the modern requirements for the position of the professional directors, their professional training and excellence. He also once again stressed the reasons for the introduction of the National Registry of Corporate Directors and the urgent need of such specialists.

The question of liability insurance of managers and members of supervisory boards in state-owned companies arose much attention and interest of the participants, about the introduction of which and the adoption of the resolution told the Director of the MEDT Department of State Property Management Roman Kropyvnytsky. A review of the directors’ insurance market in Ukraine was made by BritMark Partner Vitaliy Lebedovsky. He also conducted a comparison of Ukrainian realities with international standards of liability insurance of directors. The peculiarity of liability insurance of directors of a company (including independent members of the supervisory boards) is that not a person, but a post, is insured.

The meeting was attended by representatives of ministries and state institutions responsible for implementing the system of proper corporate governance in Ukrainian companies with a state-owned share, in particular: the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing, the State Commission for Securities and Stock Market, the State Space Agency, the State Reserve Agency, the State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone, the State Agency for Motorways, and the State Agency for Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine. Also at the event were representatives of the state-owned enterprises, namely: PJSC “Diprozvyazok”, State Concern “Ukroboronprom”, PJSC “Ukrzaliznytsya”, NJSC” Naftogaz Ukrainy “, State Enterprise “Polygraphic combine “Ukraine”, PJSC “Ukrhydroenergo”,  NEK “Ukrenergo”, PJSC “Ukrposhta”.