Translated material
Deputy Burmatov decided to check MISiS, where Minister Livanov previously worked
United Russia deputy Vladimir Burmatov proposes to check the activities of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS), which was previously headed by Education Minister Dmitry Livanov. The parliamentarian has already announced a collection of signatures for this appeal in the State Duma, Kommersant FM reports.
Burmatov told the radio station that he sent parliamentary inquiries to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation regarding possible facts of fraud at MISiS. According to him, we are talking about the illegal transfer of 57 million budget rubles. A criminal case had previously been opened against the management, the parliamentarian said, but “they somehow managed to hush it up very technically and quickly.”
Having sent requests, Burmatov, in his words, “began to look into this issue more seriously,” “look closely at what was there at MISiS when it was led by the current Minister of Education Dmitry Livanov,” and discovered other violations. Thus, in his opinion, MISiS illegally received the status of a National Research University.
Then the deputy decided to initiate an audit of the university by the Accounts Chamber. “I fully admit that the Accounts Chamber will find a lot of interesting things there,” he told Kommersant FM.
“That’s why I took the initiative to my colleagues to collect 90 signatures - there is a certain procedure, we can’t just turn to the Accounts Chamber and ask to carry out an audit at our request, but we need to collect at least 90 signatures. I think we will collect them at this and next week. After that, I think that at the end of next week we will submit our appeal to conduct a comprehensive audit of the National Research Technological University MISiS for the period from 2007 to 2012,” Burmatov said.
United Russia is confident that its appeal will be signed not only by fellow party members, but also by colleagues from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia factions.
“Livanov has no right to work as minister of education, because he is a man who, in the short time he has been minister, has destroyed everything that was left to be destroyed, and everything that could have been destroyed there,” Burmatov said, referring to the reform higher education.
“He (Livanov) needs to be removed from the ministers before he completely ruins our education,” the United Russia member said. “This has already practically happened,” he added.
In addition, he noted that in addition to Livanov, there are “several other interesting figures” in the Ministry of Education and Science who should also leave their posts. These are Livanov’s deputies, Burmatov explained: Natalya Tretyak, Igor Fedyukin, Alexander Klimov, as well as a number of department heads who “are clearly in the wrong place and are involved in a variety of scandals.” According to the deputy, they should leave the ministry “and not disgrace our education system.”
Dmitry Livanov headed the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation in May 2012. Before that, he was the rector of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys for 5 years (2007-2012).
In September, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, reprimanded three ministers , including Livanov. The head of the Ministry of Education was accused of improperly fulfilling the instructions of the head of state regarding the salaries of scientists and university teachers.
In December, United Russia deputy Olga Batalina accused the education minister of incompetence after Livanov criticized the initiative of parliamentarians to ban the adoption of Russian children in the United States.
In January 2013, the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, proposed putting an end to “Lebanonism.” The Social Revolutionary Party called the activities of the Ministry of Education under the leadership of Livanov “real sabotage.”