The government is not satisfied with the work of Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy, and has decided to reduce his influence on the State Tax Service by dismissing people under his control. The next candidate for dismissal is Acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Yevhen Sokur, who is called the MP's "right hand man." This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the head of the #SaveFOP movement, Serhiy Dorotych.
Context
The State Tax Service continues to carry out personnel purges aimed at reducing Hetmantsev's influence. After the resignation of Tetyana Hrechana, director of the State Tax Service's Department for Taxation of Legal Entities, who is called the MP's man, the next candidate for dismissal is Yevhen Sokur, acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Hetmantsev's right-hand man in the tax service.
"It is no secret that the clouds are gathering over Hetmantsev. The information has already come out from the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada. I don't know what they (the authorities - ed.) didn't share, but I think that Hetmantsev probably failed to fulfill his obligations as to how the tax authorities and other structures should work. I don't think they set all the dogs on him, but they wagged their finger at him and decided to clean up his ranks (in the tax service - ed.)," Dorotych said.
He does not rule out that Yevhen Sokur will be the next person to leave Hetmantsev's post.
The expert predicts that instead of Sokur, a completely new person may be appointed acting deputy head of the State Tax Service. "This will not be a full-fledged appointment, it will be a stretch, because if a person is appointed according to all the procedures, he or she is already protected by law. And an acting person is a person who can be multiplied by zero very quickly. I don't think it will be someone who is currently in the halo, I think it will be a new person, but time will tell," Dorotych said.
At the same time, he said, the personnel purges at the tax office are a "yellow card" to Hetmantsev, as the authorities are not satisfied with his work.
He added that the chairman of the Tax Committee is currently trying to rectify the situation and strictly follows the instructions of the authorities, in particular, he supports the initiatives of the National Bank and the government, although he used to try to "insert his 5 cents" into every bill.
"It seems that he knows somewhere that he has a snout in the gun, that dogs have been set on him, and he is showing that he is completely his own man, in order to prevent the situation from getting worse," Dorotych explained.
Recall
These dismissals come amid constant talk about the need to reformat the Cabinet of Ministers and reform the tax and customs services. Even the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that there will be personnel changes in the government in the near future. After all, according to him, there are many acting officials who cannot cover all the issues. It is possible that this will eventually apply to the State Tax Service, where the leadership has been working in the status of "acting" for several years.
Add
UNN previously reported that the State Bureau of Investigation is investigating criminal proceedings on the fact of abuse of office by acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Yevhen Sokur, who on October 26, 2022, issued an order to revoke the license of PJSC Ukrtatnafta for fuel production. Such actions of the official, according to the investigation, caused serious consequences for the company and the state in the form of the inability to fulfill the mobilization tasks of the Ministry of Defense for the production and supply of petroleum products for the needs of defense and defense capability of the state.
In addition, it turned out that Sokur did not indicate his cohabitant in the declaration , for which he could be held administratively and criminally liable. During the investigation into the alleged assassination attempt, Sokur told law enforcement officers that since 2016 he had been living with a girl named Alina in an apartment at 6-D Lobanovskoho Avenue