Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has proposed to check the activity of Ukrainian homeowner associations so to determine if they are effective.
"If we take the example of the creation of Ukrainian homeowner associations: 15,000 [associations] has been created in the state. We should check on how they’re working," he said at a full meeting of the government on Wednesday.
He said that there were positive and negative examples of the associations’ work. He said that not all associations are fulfilling deregulation and decentralization functions in the utility economy sphere, but are fighting monopolies such as the local building-utilities administrator offices, known as ZhEKs.
Yanukovych ordered the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to intervene in the operations of the monopolists.
"Monopolists dictate conditions, and you, Vasyl [Tsushko, head of the Antimonopoly Committee] and the Antimonopoly Committee should intervene in the issue, and propose possible approaches on how to demonopolize the utility economy and housing system, as the word ZhEK today arouses a negative reaction – as they say, society is allergic to them," he said.
