UKRAINE: CONTROL & AUDITING DEPARTMENT ASKS SPF TO REVOKE APPRAISING LICENSE OF ERNST & YOUNG

Dmytro Kuzmin, Ukrainian News Agency, Wednesday, June 18, 2008

KYIV - The Main Control and Auditing Department has asked the State Property Fund to revoke an appraising license of Ernst & Young, a limited liability company in Kyiv. Department chairman Mykola Syvulskyi announced this at a press conference.

He said his department established during an audit of financial and business operations at the State Railway Transport Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) that Ernst & Young appraised the five-storey administrative building of the Prydniprovska Railway Company with a total floor space of 19,600 square meters, situated in Dnipropetrovsk downtown, at UAH 0.4 million.

The residual value of the building is UAH 5.1 million, and in the second half of 2006 the railway administration performed capital repairs in the building that cost it UAH 19.9 million.

"We have sent an official request to the SPF regarding the revocation of the appraising license and asked the Cabinet to call on heads of all state enterprises and concerns not to use services of this company who discredited the famous name," Syvulskyi said.

He noted that the SPF department in Dnipropetrovsk region has qualified the appraising report by Ernst & Young as not corresponding to the requirements of the regulatory acts on property appraisal.

Ernst & Young is among the international leaders in terms of audit, taxation and law, consultative support during business deals and consultations on business management.