Non-arithmetic approach

According to Sergei Stepashin, only 21 million rubles were stolen in Chechnya

The head of the Accounts Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, announced on Friday the results of an audit that his agency had just completed in Chechnya. The results were not as catastrophic as was expected from this audit in the winter - it began against the backdrop of a scandal with the dismissal of the Minister of Finance and the resignation of Mikhail Babich from the post of Chechen Prime Minister. Violations of financial discipline amounting to 366 million rubles were revealed, but, according to Mr. Stepashin, this does not mean that all the money was stolen. The head of the chamber did not specify what exactly was hidden behind this soft formulation, but he said that an “arithmetic approach” is absolutely unacceptable in Chechnya.

Then Mr. Stepashin gave quite clear arithmetic: 21 million rubles were stolen in the republic, and the Accounts Chamber has already prepared submissions to the Prosecutor General’s Office about this. Another 78 million were spent on the wrong things. True, only 13 million was wasted from the federal budget; the rest of the losses affected the republican budget. The Accounts Chamber was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that 95% of the funds allocated for restoration were spent, but only a third of the planned facilities were actually restored. But this circumstance, apparently, can also be attributed to Chechen characteristics.

Compared to 2001, when more than 700 million rubles went missing in Chechnya, the current results really look like a big victory for strict accounting and control methods. But the head of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, does not want to “stop there.” On Friday, he announced that he intends to achieve a review of the scheme for financing the restoration of the Chechen economy and ask the federal center to completely transfer the money allocated for this to the disposal of the republican authorities. “If there is a single customer, it will become known who is stealing funds from the federal target program,” Mr. Kadyrov said. “In the current situation, when 28 customers are responsible for this, it is unclear whether the money comes to Chechnya or remains in Moscow.”

In fact, the current system of transferring federal money to Chechnya, although complex, at least allows us to minimize losses. But the order in the republican finances, which are growing from year to year, on the contrary, clearly leaves much to be desired. But the Chechen administration wants to be independent - especially after the adopted constitution gave it a more clear legal status. The Chechen authorities have something to fight for: according to the calculations of the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, investments in the republic in the coming years will have to amount to about 100 billion rubles. Of course, the republic would like to develop this volume itself. “If there is a government in Chechnya that we trust, then we need to trust it in everything and ask for results, otherwise nothing will work,” says Akhmat Kadyrov. Sergei Stepashin, in his own words, is impressed by this position of the head of the republic.

Apparently, Mr. Kadyrov’s independent position also appeals to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Boris Gryzlov. On Friday, he agreed to appoint Colonel Alu Alkhanov, who until now headed the Chechen linear air traffic control department for transport, as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya. The former Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, Ruslan Tsakaev, resigned in early April. Mr. Tsakaev, who was sent to Chechnya from the Prosecutor General's Office, was appointed minister against the wishes of the head of the republic. In his own words, he never agreed with the head of Chechnya on the legalization of former militants and stubbornly did not want them to work in his department. On the very first day of his work, Mr. Alkhanov noted that “for those who confess, the road to the police is not closed.” Mr. Alkhanov worked in the Chechen police back in the 80s, during the first war he fought against Dudayev, and in 1996 he removed employees of the internal affairs department from Grozny, which was blockaded by militants. He can hardly be called “Kadyrov’s man,” but his candidacy was proposed to Moscow among those acceptable by the head of the republic, who eventually managed to once again get rid of the inconvenient figure imposed on him.

Ivan SUKHOV, Igor BURAKOV, Rostov-on-Don