| Investigators were sent to the Yaroslavl governor The list of influential governors against whom law enforcement agencies are complaining is growing. As the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case into misuse of budget funds by the administration of the Yaroslavl region. A group of investigators has already arrived in this region the other day. According to the newspaper, for now law enforcement agencies are only interested in issuing several loans guaranteed by the administration. But, given that in the near future the Accounts Chamber (CA) will begin checking the area, new episodes may appear in the investigation. The head of the region, Anatoly Lisitsyn, sees this as the machinations of his ill-wishers.
Vladimir Putin expressed dissatisfaction with the spending of budget funds in the Yaroslavl region at the State Council held on June 1. “We have transferred to you some other taxes and a 1.5% income tax,” the president noted. “So, Anatoly Ivanovich, your specialists decided to spend the money not on roads, but on something else.” Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin also spoke about the wrong financial policy of the regional administration at the same time. After this, Anatoly Lisitsyn immediately convened a press conference at which he called all the reproaches against him “undeserved.” Then events developed rapidly. On June 11, the State Duma decided to instruct the Accounts Chamber to “check the targeted use by the administration of the Yaroslavl region of funds allocated from the federal budget in 2001-2004” and present the results by October 1. A few days later, the joint venture board included an inspection of the region in its work plan.
As it turned out, at the same time, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case regarding the misuse of funds by the regional administration. Moreover, three investigators arrived in Yaroslavl from Moscow to investigate it. According to our information, they have already talked with the head of the finance department of the regional administration, Anatoly Fedorov. And although this fact, albeit unofficially, is confirmed both in the prosecutor’s office of the Yaroslavl region and in the regional administration, no one wants to talk about the details of the case. The Vremya Novostey newspaper learned that the credit policy of local authorities attracted the attention of investigators. Back in 1994, the regional administration decided to build a baby food plant capable of producing 10 tons of products per shift. For this project in Germany, a loan of almost 20 million marks was taken out, the repayment of which was guaranteed by the regional administration. All work was supposed to be carried out by the Yarkhimpromstroy enterprise, but it constantly suspended the construction of the facility due to lack of funds. Gradually, the deadline for repayment of the debt approached, but local authorities were in no hurry to do this. As a result, the Ministry of Finance and Vnesheconombank had to go to the arbitration court, which ruled that the regional administration still had to return 12 million marks. The payment period expired on June 30, 2003. Another episode that attracted the attention of the Prosecutor General’s Office concerns the story of Yarkhimpromstroy receiving a large loan, the repayment of which was again guarantored by the regional administration. Together with penalties, the amount of debt exceeded 20 million rubles. And although local officials said the matter has been resolved, investigators continue to work.
It is noteworthy that soon after representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office appeared in Yaroslavl, Anatoly Lisitsyn went to the administration of the President of Russia. On Monday, the governor told local television some details of this meeting: “The presidential administration was alarmed by my harsh speech regarding benefit reform. They suspected that I had started playing some kind of game of my own related to future elections. This alarmed them and they took precautionary steps to stop or understand. Yesterday we clarified all the issues, so this problem has been removed from the agenda. The second part of the problem is that regarding the audit of the Accounts Chamber, this was initiated by one of my ill-wishers. But since the decision of the Accounts Chamber has been made, we are not afraid and are ready to accept the auditors of the Accounts Chamber so that they can check the expenditure of federal funds.” Alexander SHVAREV |
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