Foreign officials and directors are becoming rare in Ukraine’s government and in its state sector, but, bucking the trend, a big state company has taken on another Polish executive.
Just a couple of weeks after Wojciech Balczun stepped down as a CEO of Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, Pawel Jozef Stanczak was appointed as the president of Ukrtransgaz, the Ukrainian gas transmission system operator, the company’s press service reported on Aug. 22.
The decision came after Stanczak’s candidacy was unanimously approved by the supervisory board of Naftogaz, the state gas and oil company that owns Ukrtransgaz, on Aug. 8.
Stanczak, 54, has more than 25 years of experience in the gas industry, his bio on Naftogaz’s website reads.
In Poland he worked as a technical director and member of the board of Polish gas company PGNiG Technologie S.A. In 2003-2004 he was in charge of the establishment of Gaz-System S.A, a private gas transmission system operator.
Ukrtransgaz’s former president, Ihor Prokopiv, was fired in March 2017 amid fraud allegations. Naftogaz claimed that an internal audit revealed there were suspicious transactions and violations in Ukrtransgaz’s procurement deals.
Later, Prokopiv was appointed as a deputy minister for the energy and coal industry.
