Last year fiscal control. Part 2

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Sergei Stepashin expects that the law on the Accounts Chamber, in fact - its new edition, will be adopted in the final version. “The first reading was passed unanimously, nobody was against this law. This law gives us a totally different opportunity in our work. Along with the internal control activities, with the facts that I quoted, we establish the audit of efficiency and the strategic audit, and in fact we move to the analysis of the effectiveness of the various ministries and the entire government in terms of economic, industrial and fiscal policies. This, incidentally, corresponds to world standards, and in this regard, if the law is passed, the Russian Accounts Chamber will be one of the best in Europe according to the quality of legislation. Our goal is to be able to enforce this law. Our team is ready to do this - it is important not to interfere with this initiative. I hope that it will not be interfered with, as it has not been until today.”

Stepashin mentioned checking in the sphere of land and forest use. “We are now checking the Moscow region. Sergei Shoigu asked us about it when he was still the governor of the Moscow region. Everybody knows what is going on with the precious lands in the Moscow region. We also revealed problems in the Leningrad region.  When the Forest Code was adopted, the Audit Champer sharply criticized the project because of its loopholes for criminal use. But now, "thanks" to this code, the green and forested area of the Leningrad region decreased 36 times! Now 97% of the forests in the Leningrad region are in private hands. This is not only woods where one can hike, but also the lungs of the city. Neither the tsar, no the Bolsheviks touched it.  We sent materials to the investigation and the General prosecutor. The former governor with the famous surname of Valery Serdyukov said that Stepashin is wrong and that everything was done according to the law. I hope that we will put an end to this and return it to the court. I am meeting the governor of the Leningrad region tomorrow to discuss these questions. I informed Vladimir Putin about it as well. He asked me to pay special attention to what is going on in the woods of the Leningrad region.”

Another interesting check is still ongoing - it is housing and the realization of the funds for the renovation of houses in emergency conditions. “This fund is generally a working fund and according to the decision of the Ministry of Economy it will work until 2015. We signed an agreement with the fund, it is a good example of preventive cooperation. We held checks in three regions - Lipetsk, Voronezh and Ivanovo. We found violations of 10 billion rubles,” Stepashin said.

In addition, the Chamber checks the Universiade. “This is one of the successful projects. Already 90% of the facilities for the Universiade in Kazan are working. Unlike in Sochi, there is no question of how they will be used and who will pay for them. In March, although with delay, a new stadium will be opened. It costs 14 billion rubles. The stadium holding 60,000 meets all the FIFA requirements. In St. Petersburg they have already spent 14 billion, but the facility is only 30% ready,” the head of the Audit Chamber stated.

As for future plans, Stepashin mentioned checking in "RUSNANO" and the analysis of the implementation of orders issued by presidential decree dated May 7, what the President promised in his campaign. “The amount in question is 300 billion rubles. We are extremely concerned about how the entities of the Russian Federation can execute orders of the President. They have been given instructions, responsibility and authority, but they almost do not have financial resources. Intergovernmental relations in our country are one of the most sensitive issues.”

“Due to the fact that many questions were sounded on "Rosagroleasing" about our checking, we decided to conduct an independent audit, because I have connected several audit areas to this. My deputy will lead this checking, we will invite independent experts and analyse the activity of "Rosagroleasing" for 10 years, both with Skrynnik and today, and we will compare, count and understand everything,” Stepashin promises.

“A very interesting check associated with satellites, flying, non-flying and falling, is about the effectiveness of the Federal Space Program,” Stepashin thinks. “Dmitry Rogozin gave us interesting materials, we have them now, and they can be attached to our review. This is a serious comprehensive inspection. We engage not only our own auditors when such checks are carried out, we engage independent experts - we have such a right under the law - who really understands all the nuances and subtleties of the space industry.”

“We have looked at "Aeroflot". Georgi told me that he wanted to fly to sunny Abkhazia for 308,000 rubles, can you imagine this? An "Aeroflot" flight to Sochi costs 308 thousand. Are they completely crazy? Who will relax at these resorts? Therefore, we have planned to not just check "Aeroflot", but also to examine the issue of pricing. Let's see a competitive environment - why don't we let international companies that want to enter our market, major international aviation companies, do it? They should not deceive our people. I think a major inspection will allow our fellow citizens and the country's leaders to carefully analyze the policy of value, including the largest and generally a good company. But they should consider the concept of "price - quality".

We monitor the activity of LLC "RusHydro", and there will be a comprehensive check of "Rosatom". Naturally, we will check all the North Caucasian republics - we examine them every year. For the first time we have planned a comprehensive review of 30 regions and entities, and an especially big check will take place in the Chelyabinsk region. We are quite a transparent organization. I just wanted the leadership of the Chelyabinsk region, which in recent times caused many different kinds of questions to it, to be up to date. We will view all the activities in the field of competence of the Chamber. We will work together with the employees of the FSB. In addition, there are the planned 16 events with international Accounting Chambers on various fronts. We have in our view South Ossetia – we have just ended our work in Abkhazia, and they have finally created a Court of Auditors,” Stepashin stated.

To be continued