MykVisti wins in lawsuit over access to data on Mykolaiv TPP management salaries

Mykolaiv-based online media outlet MykVisti won in court against the state-owned Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP), demanding they provide public data on the salaries and bonuses paid to the management and members of the company's supervisory board in 2023.

Chief editor Kateryna Sereda told the Institute of Mass Information that on February 17, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court fully granted MykVisti's claim against Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant.

Over a year ago, on January 24, 2024, Kateryna Sereda submitted an information query to the company, asking for data on the salaries and bonuses received by the management of Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant in 2023. The letter also included a request for information on rewards, expense compensations, and additional benefits provided to members of the supervisory board of the private joint-stock company Mykolaiv TPP.

However, the media outlet received no reply from the state-owned company. While preparing for the hearing, representatives of the Mykolaiv TPP responded to the jorunalists' claim by arguing that data on salaries, bonuses, material assistance, any other payments received by employees of a non-governmental body not from the state or local budget may be classified and that they were under no obligation to respond to the request. The PJSC also noted that the requested information about the employees of a private enterprise is considered confidential and can only be disclosed with the consent of the persons who have restricted the access to this information.

In May 2024, the media outlet sued the TPP to make them release data on the salaries.

According to Clause 5-1 Part 4 of Art. 21 of the Law of Ukraine "On Information", classified information cannot include data on the work of state-owned and communal unitary companies or business associations if over 50% of the shares in their authorized capital belong to the state or a territorial community, or of business associations 50% or more of whose shares belong to a company that 100% belongs to the state or a territorial community, if such data must be public according to the law.

Having tried the case, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court ruled that since 100% of the shares of the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant belong to Naftogaz Ukraine, the TPP is the administrator of public information about the structure, formation principles, and amounts of the salaries of the head, deputy head, and any permanent or temporary executive body member or member of the supervisory board, and thus is obliged to provide this information upon request.

“Response was not provided within the specified period, and no notification on the extension of the query processing period was given; in view of the facts established by the court, the Defendant committed unlawful inaction, namely by failing to provide a response to the query,” the court’s ruling of February 17 states.

The court added that Decree No. 273 (dated 07/19/23), which the TPP refers to, is groundless and contains confidential or commercial information about salaries and bonuses paid to the company's management.

“The court discovered unlawful inaction on the part of the defendant and the absence of obstacles to providing a response to the query for public information, therefore, the appropriate way to restore the Plaintiff's violated rights will be to declare as unlawful the inaction of the information administrator, the Private Joint-Stock Company Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant, namely not providing Kateryna Sereda with a response to the query for public information dated 01/24/2024,” the court's ruling states.

The court ordered PJSC Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant to respond to the information query by MykVisti and provide the data on the salaries of the management and supervisory board members of the enterprise.

Kateryna Sereda's interests were represented in court by Oksana Maksymeniuk, a lawyer and head of the legal department at the Institute for Regional Press Development. The court's ruling has not yet entered into force, and the case will be tried by the Administrative Court of Appeal No. 5 following the complaint by the Mykolaiv TPP.

Earlier, the Mykolaiv police closed the previously initiated proceedings on denial of access to the Mykolaiv City Council building to journalists.