OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2010. The Senior Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Andriy Klyuyev criticized the leadership of a number of areas for poor payments for energy, primarily for the consumed natural gas.

"You must realize that you are personally responsible to the people for heat and light in their dwellings, the stable operation of enterprises, which provide the vitality of settlements and the country as a whole. One of the main challenges facing you is the liquidation of arrears and timely payment by consumers of all levels for the energy used. You must change the "algorithm" with debtors" Andrey Klyuyev - said in Kiev on a conference call.

According to him, as of November 1, 2010 "Naftogaz Ukraine" has sold 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas at 52 billion UAH and only about 45 billion UAH were paid. "Total arrears for gas makes 14 billion UAH, including for the current year - 6.5 billion UAH" - Andrey Klyuyev said.
He stressed that in some regions the arrears have not decreased but even increased. As a result of 10 months of 2010 the debt for gas this year has increased in Donetsk - 1.06 billion UAH, Lugansk - 862 million UAH, Odessa - 702 million UAH, Kharkov - 539 million UAH and Kyiv - 723 million UAH. Managers of these regions are requested by December 1, to reduce significantly the existing debt.

"It seems that the solution of payments for gas on the ground should be found only by the central government, not local officials. We warned about personal responsibility for the situation" – the Senior Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine said. He said that in some regions for improper fulfilment of government orders 12 teplocomunenerho managers were dismissed, three managers are under criminal cases, five managers are reprimanded and other disciplinary action are taken.

Andriy Klyuyev stressed that "for every increase percent in the debt the managers of all levels will respond in person to the Cabinet."

"The greatest concern is the status of payments for gas by heat supply enterprises. The level of their current payments as of November 1 is 70%. Thus at the beginning of heating season, these companies paid 73%. In 2010 in general the thermal power companies had 3.4 billion UAH debt. The worst level of payments for gas is in Zakarpatskiy region - 32%, Lugansk - 33 Zhytomyr - 45, Kirovohrad – 48, Donetsk - 49, Khmelnitsky region - 55, Sevastopol - 45%. Total debt of these companies for the gas consumed during 1999-2010 reaches 7.3 billion UAH."- The Senior Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine said.