№2(13)(2013)

We continue our series entitled "Acquaintance with the unknown. Official sources use to obtain information on contractors".

Majority of entrepreneurs are convinced upon their experience that risk accompanies them throughout business almost from the very beginning of business idea. Therefore, successful entrepreneur is challenged with the risk of early warning and detection, in addition to such basic issues as reducing total costs and increasing profits.

In articles published in two previous issues (№№ 11, 12), we have focused our attention on risk of losses due to fraud. This was emphasized for a reason, since entrepreneur can incur very large financial losses through relations with dubious counterparties.

Also in previous article we have acquainted the reader with some official databases of the State Registration Service of Ukraine and the State Tax Service of Ukraine. December 24, 2012 these services were reorganized into the Ministry of income and taxes in Ukraine, but all databases on which we made clarifications are working now.

We remind that despite existence of different ways of getting information, we describe only legitimate sources of information about our partner. In this article we consider possibility of predicting risks by checking if our future partner has a valid license for activities subjected with licensing.

Currently, according to special laws and the Law "On licensing for certain types of activities", about 58 different types of business activities are subjected with licensing in Ukraine, starting with banking and construction and finishing with security. Main types of economic activities subjected to licensing can be found in Art. 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On licensing for certain types of activities".

Given large number and variety of licensed business, when deciding whether to sign an agreement with contractor, one should verify information on his current license existence, if such should be present.

Single license registry - a system of data storage for license registries, maintained by licensing authorities in accordance with received licenses by licensees – is a database, which contains all information about licenses availability at the entity.

According to CMU Resolution "On approval of Order for forming, maintenance and use of information from licensing register and submitting them to the Single license registry» № 1658 from 08.11.2000, the State Enterprise "Information Resource Centre" (hereinafter – SE "IRC") is a Single license registry administrator and responsible for data storage and protection from unauthorized access. Therefore, one should visit the web-site of SE "IRC" in order to find information on contractor’s valid license.

Searching database "Single license registry" (hereinafter - DB "SLR") allows checking availability of valid license for certain type of business activity and licensing authority which issued license.

Terms of use for DB "SLR" are quite similar to those for database "SGR" (was discussed in previous issue).

So, first we need to go to the "Search at SLR" on the Web site of SE "IRC". Then you need to click on the empty "box" in front of the words "I agree with terms of search at SLR". Interesting is that at the moment these "conditions" are absent on the web resource of SE "IRC".

Searches can be done on following criteria:

- By entity - with SGREOI code or name;

- By individuals-entrepreneurs – with TIN code or name of entrepreneur;

- By series and number of license.

When we click on the "box", thus putting an agreement mark, there appear three lines of searching criteria:

"Individual"

"Legal entity"

"Series and license number".

You must choose one of them to start.

Under criteria there is a box titled "Search Request". After selecting one criteria and clicking on empty field of search request there comes a tooltip, which should help to fill in this field.

Since search results with first and second criteria are the same (system gives a list of all existing licenses of entity), we consider only two options for searching.

The first option is criterion of "legal entity".

To start, we should mark information in a blank field of search request that will allow system choosing necessary information. Tooltip of SE "IRC" resource will notify:

"To search with entity type enter in field "Search Request":

SGREOI code, for example: 12345678

OR

The name of enterprise or part of it, for example: Information-Resource Center, partnership".

To get the most accurate results we recommend using query with SGREOI code. When searching valid licenses for individual-entrepreneur the best is to use TIN code (tax identification number).

To start the search, we need to click on "Search" then system will require entering security code. And here we have what we were looking for. If entity has valid license, SLR will show information as follows:

Note that system automatically issues list of all valid licenses on request for individual-entrepreneur or legal entity. If entity has no valid licenses or information in field of search query was entered incorrectly, system will respond: "Unfortunately, nothing was found at your request. Try changing your search criteria".

Now let’s consider second way of searching for information: we will check authenticity and validity of a specific license for type of economic activity. You must know series and license number.

Search is done in the same manner as for individual-entrepreneur or legal entity. First, choose criterion of "Series and license number". Now the search query field consists of two parts - the "Series" and "Number". When you click on any of the above the tooltip appears again, but with new suggestions:

"To search with license series and number, enter:

In field "Series":

License series (two letters of Ukrainian alphabet)

For example: AB, AB, CO

In field "Number":

License number (6 digits)

For example: 123456, 324325".

After filling required fields, we do the same manner as in first case. If there is no valid license with specified series and number in search query, system will alert about it. If license is valid, then system will give similar results as in the first case. The difference is that SLR provides information only about one valid license number and series which was entered in search.

Now all the information about our future partner should be analyzed in order to estimate risks of cooperation with him.

To use the described database one should visit official website of the State Enterprise "Information Resource Centre" at: http:// irc.gov.ua

Direct link for the database "Search at SLR»:  http://irc.gov.ua/ua/Poshuk-v-YeLR.html