The international company Henkel (headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany) has published its sustainability report for 2023. The corresponding press release was published on the official website of Henkel in Ukraine.
The press release, in particular, states that in 2023, Henkel globally was able to achieve a 61% reduction in CO2 emissions in its production processes, the share of purchased electricity from renewable sources increased to 89%, and the share of recycled plastic increased to 19 % worldwide.
Among the Ukrainian top managers of Henkel, ex-CEO of Henkel in Ukraine Nina Dombrovskaya paid a lot of attention to the issues of sustainable development and, in particular, energy efficiency and plastic recycling. At least this is the impression one gets if one analyzes publications on this topic over the past few years.
However, in the professional environment, Dombrovskaya was often reproached for the fact that behind a large number of “green” initiatives, sustainable development programs and various trainings, while holding the position of General Director of Henkel Ukraine LLC, she tried to hide numerous manipulations with financial reporting, opaque salary schemes for line managers personnel and tax evasion.
In 2021, “Contracts” wrote that the general director of Henkel in Ukraine, Nina Dombrovskaya, suddenly left her position after more than three years of work in the company. After Dombrovskaya left, the position was temporarily occupied by the then HR director Elena Efremova-Kursik (she still holds the position).
Oddly enough, neither the dismissal of Dombrovskaya nor the appointment of Efremova-Kursik was officially announced at that time, which may indicate the desire of the company’s founders not to attract public and media attention to Dombrovskaya’s controversial personality.
Sources then reported that Dombrovskaya’s dismissal was accompanied by a scandal related to tax evasion, “double accounting” and manipulation of reporting to the founders. According to employee reviews, after her appointment, problems began in the company: salaries of line personnel decreased, and attitudes towards employees worsened. There were also reports of unaccounted cash charges from staff and manipulation of the sale of products of unknown (counterfeit) origin.
According to a source in auditing circles, Dombrovskaya's dismissal was caused by manipulations with the annual reports, as a result of which the company's operating profit was artificially inflated. Based on the results of 2019, as follows from the annual report, the company unexpectedly increased operating profit and total income almost three times compared to the previous year (from 158.6 to 449.1 million UAH and from 164.8 to 474.4 million). UAH respectively).
One of the reasons for this “financial breakthrough” was the company’s management’s attempts to avoid taxation: the fact is that in 2019 the minimum wage, the cost of living, the unified social allowance changed significantly, and there were other changes in taxation standards.
According to the mentioned source, the fraud could be associated with the sale of part of the products without tax accounting and with violations in the employment of personnel.
These events attracted the attention of the tax authorities and led to the initiation of administrative proceedings (No. 640/10117/19) against Henkel Ukraine LLC.
“A source in the consulting and analytical company Pro-Consulting reported that on the one hand, in the summer of 2019 there was a sharp jump in demand for household chemicals in the entire Ukrainian market (general market trend); At the same time, many domestic manufacturers sharply reduced production volumes of household chemicals (especially liquid), and this niche was partially filled by Henkel products. But even with the listed components, the increase in operating profit is almost threefold difficult to believe and, as a source at Henkel Ukraine delicately reports, it is a sign of “irregular operations and one-time events that affected the financial results” (meaning the departure of the accounting department “to the shadows” with the subsequent transfer of unaccounted financial flows to operating profit). At the same time, on the direct instructions of Nina Dombrovskaya, manipulations were carried out to write off and sell some assets. And the increase in sales and distribution costs while reducing administrative expenses was nothing more than the result of manipulations in order to influence profitability indicators. “In addition, the following year, net sales profit increased, while gross and operating profits decreased, which may once again indicate fraud in reporting for 2019.”
The scandal reached such proportions that Henkel Ukraine LLC even changed its auditor - until 2019 it was KPMG (which, as insiders in auditing circles say, falsified annual reports), and since 2020 it has become PWC.
From that moment on, clouds began to gather over General Director Dombrovskaya.
It is interesting that in 2020, when in Ukraine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the demand for all household chemical products increased even more, Henkel Ukraine LLC was unable to improve its financial performance: the company’s net profit decreased from UAH 395.4 million in 2019. m to UAH 278.2 million in 2020, which only confirmed the inability of top management to effectively manage the company.
