Businesses offer to extend existing bookings for the audit period – EBA

Ukrainian business is concerned about the sudden suspension of the electronic booking procedure through the Diia portal and calls on the authorities to extend the current status of critical enterprises. This is stated in a statement by the European Business Association (EBA).

According to the EBA, according to available information, the Ministry of Economy has also suspended the process of issuing booking orders for those companies that applied through the paper version.

In addition, the government has previously decided to conduct a so-called audit of critical enterprises and suspend the issuance of orders to grant the relevant status at least until November 15 this year.

According to the EBA, the business is very concerned about the current state of affairs, in particular the lack of official communication.

“Currently, business, which is the main source of funds for the state’s defense, does not understand how the booking procedure will take place and how to plan further operations. In addition to the destructive impact on business in the country, this situation creates negative signals for our international partners, investors and customers. The sudden increase in taxes for white businesses, and now the “break” in booking employees, undermines the confidence of foreign partners in the ability of Ukrainian businesses to fulfill the terms of the contract, which jeopardizes further orders and cooperation,” the association said in a statement.

In addition, it is noted that questions arise as to the legitimacy of suspending the booking procedure for an audit, since neither the relevant law “On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization” nor the aforementioned government decision provides for it.

As a possible temporary solution, the business proposes to consider automatically extending the validity of existing reservations in the Oberig register for 60 calendar days for all critical employees of companies whose reservations expire during the period of this “audit” +/- 3 days (since Diia reviews applications up to 72 hours), i.e. from October 17 to November 18.

The EBA also hopes to resume a dialogue with the authorities on booking processes and take into account feedback from businesses.

As the association previously noted, Ukrainian business needs a predictable and transparent booking mechanism, as companies are effectively deprived of the possibility of personnel planning.