The Yulia Tymoshenko bloc said a new privatization bill sponsored by Viktor Yanukovych and his coalition will provide a lot of opportunities for corrupt officials to cash in on shady deals handing over state-controlled assets to private businesses.
As many as 595 firms are slated for privatization under the draft in 2007, with the selloff expected to fetch an estimated 10 billion hryvnas ($2 billion).
In a statement following the controversial bill's passage through parliament in its first reading, the Tymoshenko bloc said, "By including an unprecedented number of companies in one bill, the Yanukovych-led coalition has consciously taken a path toward crime, with the mega-list containing broad loopholes for the opaque transfer of property from state ownership [into private hands]."
Lawmakers who voted for the bill should be held responsible for a potentially "criminal" privatization campaign it envisages, the statement said.
Tymoshenko, the key ally of President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 "Orange" revolution, served as prime minister until September 2005. During her time in office, she tried to reverse some of the dubious privatization deals struck under her predecessor, Yanukovych. The most high-profile of the renationalized assets, the metals giant Kryvorizhstal, was subsequently resold to Mittal Steel Germany GmbH for about $4.8 billion.
