Minus UAH 3 mn — Kyivpastrans paid its debts

Complainee: Kyivpastrans Public Utility Company (Kyivpastrans)
Complaint in brief: The Council received a complaint from a vehicle maintenance company. The company complained that its Kyivpastrans contractor had delayed debt payment for car lifts repair works. The complainant cooperated with Kyivpastrans under service agreements for two years. However, the company was dissatisfied with the fact the utility company’s debt was 180 days overdue. Moreover, the debt amount itself reached UAH 3 mn. The company’s CEO reported that he even attracted personal loan funds for timely delivery of services, payment terms of which he himself had to break. The complainant repeatedly appealed to the utility company and asked to repay the debt. However, the situation could not be resolved independently. The company turned to the Business Ombudsman Council for support.
Actions taken: The investigator found the complaint substantiated. The Council recommended that Kyivpastrans pay the complainant a debt of over UAH 3 mn under agreements. The Council found out that according to Kyivpastrans, debt accumulation was caused by strict quarantine measures introduced throughout Ukraine from March 12, 2020 to May 22, 2020. As a result, the number of routes of the capital’s passenger carrier and its proceeds decreased accordingly. The company promised that after resuming of its normal operations it would pay the debt to the complainant in full. However, it should be noted that Kyivpastrans debts to the company had arisen long before quarantine, so the justification for the introduced lockdown was not quite convincing. To speed up the сomplainant’s problem resolving , the Council also raised the subject of complaint at the expert group meeting with the Kyiv City State Administration. 
Result achieved: Thanks to effective communication on the part of the Council, Kyivpastrans followed its recommendations and developed a debt payment schedule to the complainant. On November 25, 2020, the company servicing vehicles confirmed repayment of the debt. The complainant so expressed his impressions of cooperation with the Council: “Our company expresses its gratitude and deep gratitude to the Business Ombudsman Council for the assistance rendered in organizing and taking actions on our complaint. Successful resolution of Kyivpastrans settlement issue with us for performed works would be completely impossible without your participation, because all our attempts to solve this issue on our own did not yield any results. The BOC investigator provided professional support for our relations, owing to which we received full repayment of the debt and this was a vital issue, for us in particular, during difficult times for all Ukrainian business!” The case was successfully closed.