from a former district administration official

Yesterday, the head of the State Council of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin announced to deputies of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan that the fight against corruption in bureaucratic structures has begun. As an example, he said that the Tatarstan prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against the former head of the financial department of the Privolzhsky district of Kazan, Ildar Avzalov, under the articles “Abuse of official powers” and “Illegal participation in business activities.” As Kommersant learned, a report was sent to the head of parliament with information that the head of the financial department of the Privolzhsky district administration, Ildar Avzalov, abused administrative powers for three years, from March 2000 to October 2003. In particular, the head of the Volga region financial department illegally participated in the commercial activities of Stroydesign-L LLC and Intekhkom. These companies, which supplied construction materials and chemicals to the education department of the Volga region, indicated inflated amounts in their invoices. According to Farid Mukhametshin himself, the difference between the indicated and actual amounts went to Mr. Avzalov “into his pocket.” According to the same report, as a result of Ildar Avzalov’s illegal activities, “the district budget suffered damage in the amount of 89 thousand rubles.” In addition, the head of the Volga financial department was found to be in debt - the police established that it was his fault that invoices for the supply of goods from MHD LLC in the amount of 178 thousand rubles remained unpaid.
Investigator of the Privolzhsky District Prosecutor's Office of Kazan Marat Abzalilov confirmed to Kommersant that the criminal case against Ildar Avzalov was transferred to the district prosecutor's office. The investigation into it is being conducted under two articles: Art. 285, part 1 “Abuse of official powers” and Art. 289 “Illegal participation in business activities.” The investigation established that the companies Stroydesign-L and Intekhkom were registered to dummies, behind whom stood the head of the financial department. This contradicts the federal law on civil servants, according to which officials do not have the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The investigator refused to comment on the damage to the district budget, which was discussed in the report for Farid Mukhametshin, explaining that he did not have such information. What is noteworthy is that the report also did not indicate that Ildar Avzalov has not held the post of head of the financial department of the Volga region administration for a year now. It was not possible to find out where Mr. Avzalov works now, but in any case, investigator Abzalilov said, “charges will be brought against him no earlier than in a month.”
Farid Mukhametshin, commenting on the case of Ildar Avzalov, called him “the first sign” in the fight against official corruption. He said that the President of the Republic, Mintimer Shaimiev, set the task for representatives of the republican government to do their best to prevent illegal activities and corruption of officials. “From our side, that is, from the side of parliament, this could be some kind of bill or regulation that can eradicate the causes of corruption. But first, specific facts of abuse must be identified,” the Tatarstan speaker shared with Kommersant his vision of the problem, which, in his opinion, must be solved, “otherwise people will completely lose faith in power.”
EKATERINA VOROBYEVA

Kommersant (Kazan) No. 73 from 04/22/2004, p. 12

The fight against corruption has begun