The Tax Service of Ukraine has been continuing its audit of Concord Bank for more than a year, finding out possible falsification of the institution's financial results. This lengthy review caused serious controversy and conflicting statements from the bank's shareholders.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) decided to revoke the license of Concord Bank on August 1, 2023, after which the procedure for its liquidation began. According to the legislation, in such cases a tax audit is mandatory, which usually lasts several months. However, in the case of "Concord", the inspection was delayed for more than a year.
In fact, the first inspection, as it should be, lasted three months. Based on its results, the tax officials drew up a certificate for 700 thousand hryvnias. However, according to the co-owner of the Concord bank Olena Sosedka, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev forced to increase the amount of the fine in the act to almost 400 million hryvnias.
We know that according to its results (according to the results of the first tax audit - ed.) an act was drawn up in the amount of 700 thousand hryvnias, to which, on the personal instructions of the head of the tax committee of the Verkhovna Rada Danylo Hetmantsev, illegally deducted, and why not a billion, not 3 or 10 billion?",
Thus, according to the bank's shareholders, the results of the first tax audit were falsified. The bank's liquidator, appointed by the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund, also disagreed with the audit report and filed objections, after which an additional audit was scheduled. This audit is still ongoing, which, according to experts, indicates a deliberate delay of the process by the tax authorities, because there are reasonable terms for conducting the audit.
It is possible that the long delay in the inspection in the case of "Concord" may be related to the fear of tax officials to be prosecuted for falsifying the audit results. After all, they can be held both administratively and criminally liable for violations.
In the event that the court establishes the fact of an unjustified assessment, it can collect court costs, legal aid costs and moral damages from the tax authorities. Disciplinary action may be applied to the employees themselves,
At the same time, lawyer Oleksandr Baidyk noted that tax officials can also be held accountable under the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
If falsification of documents took place, it may be a criminal liability, if it is just a mistake, it is an administrative one. It all depends on the damage caused to the victim. If the tax officials falsified all of this (inspection report - ed.) - this will definitely be criminal responsibility, if they calculated something incorrectly - administrative,
The only way to force the tax authorities to complete the audit, according to lawyers, is to go to court. The court can oblige tax officials to complete the audit within the specified time and ensure the transparency and objectivity of the process. This will not only accelerate the process of bank liquidation, but will also be an important step in restoring confidence in the country's tax system.
There must be a rule of law procedure: there is a procedure prescribed by law, you must follow it. If you do not comply with this order - interested persons whose rights or interests are violated - should apply to the court. Unfortunately, the prosecutor's supervision over the observance of laws under Pyotr Oleksiyovych (Poroshenko-ed.) was canceled, so today there is only one thing: the court. And there, unfortunately, the procedure is such that you have to wait a long time for a court decision, because the courts are overcrowded today, a lot of vacancies are not filled, therefore, of course, the judicial procedure for the protection of rights in Ukraine is unfortunately limited,
Despite the war in Ukraine, the process of withdrawing banks from the market did not stop. Thus, from February 24, 2022, the liquidation was started for 8 banks. In 2023, for the first time in Ukraine, not only bankrupt banks, but also profitable institutions came under liquidation and license revocation - we are talking about the Concord bank. As Olena Sosedka stated, at the time the regulator announced the decision to liquidate the bank, highly liquid assets in the financial institution were enough to make all the necessary payments in 2-3 weeks. But the process of bank liquidation is strictly regulated by law and can last up to three years in general.
Shareholders of "Concord" challenged in court the decision of the National Bank of Ukraine to withdraw the bank from the market. The Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court found the NBU's decision to revoke the license and liquidate Concord Bank to be unlawful and annulled. However, Ukrainian legislation is written in such a way that the process of withdrawing a banking institution from the market, if it has been started, is irreversible.
