Analysis of the AMCU Report for 2024: changes are needed in approaches to reporting, calculating economic effects, and collecting fines
The Accounting Chamber analyzed the report of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) for 2024 in the part related to the execution of the state budget and adopted the corresponding report at the meeting on July 22.
Although the document mainly meets the requirements for the structure and deadlines for submission, its content does not provide a complete picture of the real results of the AMCU's activities, the status of the institution's performance of individual functions. This was stated by the member of the Accounting Chamber responsible for the analysis, Hennadiy Plis, when presenting the report.
«Information on the Committee's participation in the formation and implementation of competition policy is partially reflected in the Report. In particular, its role in achieving the strategic goal of creating a unified system for promoting the development of competition, defined by the National Economic Strategy, is not highlighted. The Committee did not approve activity plans for 2024 and for the medium term. And some of its activity priorities remained unfulfilled without specifying the reasons» - noted Hennadiy Plis.
In the report, the auditors indicate that the AMCU did not provide proper justification and confirmation of the economic effect of its activities (UAH 6.3 billion). According to internal regulatory documents, the AMCU determines this amount by applying a fixed coefficient of 5% of the volume of the relevant market. This approach is not enshrined in international documents, but is an internal regulatory approach of the Committee, and does not have a proper economic or scientific justification.
Among the individual sources of the Committee's budget are: administrative fines and sanctions. However, the AMCU Report does not contain systematic information on the imposition and collection of the aforementioned fines - there is no data on unpaid fines, reasons for their non-collection or cancellation.
In addition, comparing reporting indicators for previous periods, the Accounting Chamber noted a decrease in the level of revenues to the state budget from fines and penalties imposed by the AMCU in 2024. In 2024, the Committee imposed fines for a total of UAH 1.02 billion, but only UAH 59.2 million was actually paid - less than 6%.
In total, at the end of the year, the amount of unpaid fines amounted to UAH 15.1 billion, of which UAH 8.1 billion - for decisions appealed in the courts. It should be noted that the reason for this is the current legal norm, which provides for the automatic suspension of the execution of the AMCU decision upon its appeal.
Based on the results of the analysis of the AMCU report, the Accounting Chamber provided a number of recommendations, in particular:
- in order to prevent evasion of the execution of the final decision of the Committee, develop and implement a system of preventive measures aimed at ensuring the actual execution of the decisions of the Committee on violations of the legislation on the protection of economic competition and the imposition of fines, which are appealed in court;
- improve the procedure for calculating, substantiating and clarifying the assessment of the economic effect of the AMCU's activities;
- improve the structure of the annual report — provide sections dedicated to promoting the development of competition, the impact of the Committee's activities on the implementation of the state budget, the completeness of information on the implementation of the budget program, information on problematic issues of the AMCU's activities.
The head of the AMCU staff, Olexandr Gladsky, who was present at the meeting, thanked the Accounting Chamber for the objective conduct of the audit and noted that the identified shortcomings will help the Committee improve its activities.
The report and decisions based on the analysis results will be published on the official website of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine and sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
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