Considerable attention in it was paid to the issues of transparency and openness of doing business in modern conditions, for which the report received a symbolic name – «Transparent Business». The presentation of the document to the expert community took place in early November as part of the «Surely Sustainability marathon».
«We believe that honesty in relations with the state, society, and our employees are attributes without which it is impossible to achieve a European standard of living and a quality corporate culture, – comments the sustainable development manager of «Concern Galnaftogaz» Anna Tikhovskaya. – Our company strives to prove by its own example that it is possible to work honestly and at the same time be successful».
In particular, the «OKKO» chain fully pays all necessary taxes, pays official salaries to all employees, sells fuel at its filling stations that has been officially imported into the territory of Ukraine and is of exclusively high quality standards, and consistently invests funds in creating new jobs and socially significant projects in Ukraine. Over the 17 years that the company has been operating in fuel retail, it has invested more than 1 billion USD in the Ukrainian economy. In 2015 alone, the company paid 6.1 billion hryvnias consolidated to budgets of all levels, which amounts to more than 1% of budget revenues for Ukraine as a whole.
Last year, the company made considerable efforts to prevent low-quality and counterfeit products from entering the market at the systemic level across the state, initiating improvements to tax legislation. As a result, in December 2015, the practice of electronic excise invoices for operations on trading petroleum products was introduced in Ukraine. This mechanism minimized ways to evade excise duties and is already yielding a financial effect for the state. For the first quarter of 2016, budget revenues from the base excise duty on petroleum products grew by approximately 50% compared to the figure for the same period in 2015.
As follows from the non-financial report, in 2015 «Concern Galnaftogaz» remained an active initiator and participant in projects that are not directly related to business but have great public significance. In particular, the company transferred more than 1.7 million hryvnias to help medical institutions and volunteers who assist Ukrainians affected by the events in the East. In addition, the «OKKO» chain established close cooperation with public organizations in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Lviv that collect items for internally displaced persons and the needy. More than 100 tons of such items have already been collected in specially installed containers at «OKKO» filling stations. The company continued implementing the project «I beg you, live! Road safety», the goal of which is to promote responsible behavior of all road users on Ukrainian highways. For example, during the Safety Day, which took place in December 2015 at the busiest filling stations of the network, informational and interactive events covered more than 10,000 «OKKO» customers.
Environmental and resource-saving practices were also implemented no less actively in the company. Last year, the «OKKO» chain completely switched to using plastic bags in its stores that quickly decompose in the natural environment. At 378 filling stations (more than 90% of the total), collection of recyclable materials (waste paper, polyethylene) is organized for further processing and reuse. At 9 out of 10 oil depots of the company, gas balancing systems have already been installed that prevent petroleum product vapors from entering the atmosphere (at the last depot, such work continues in 2016).
More details about these and other achievements of «Concern Galnaftogaz» can be found in the full version of the non-financial report published on the company's official website – https://www.okko.ua/uploads2016/img/page/sustainability_new/zvitnist/report/sustainability_report_2015.pdf
The report was prepared according to the international standard «Global Reporting Initiative» (GRI).
