The funds allocated to Russian Railways for capital construction in 2016 could have been used “ineffectively,” the Accounts Chamber concluded / A. Gordeyev / Vedomosti

The Federal Agency for Railway Transport (Roszheldor, part of the Ministry of Transport) planned contributions to the capital of Russian Railways without taking into account the company's needs, the Accounts Chamber found out after checking the execution of the 2016 budget. More than 4.2 billion rubles could have been used "ineffectively."

According to the Accounts Chamber, when planning, Roszheldor took into account only Russian Railways' proposals, and not the progress of investment projects and unused balances from previous years. Their size "due to long-term poor planning of budget allocations and the low pace of implementation of Russian Railways' investment projects for 2011-2016 amounted to 55.7 billion rubles." Compared to 2015, the balance has decreased by 5.6 billion rubles.

Russian Railways also failed to achieve the "established indicators for the use of budget investments" due to violations of the terms of the agreements concluded in 2016 on the transfer of shares to the state. The monopoly failed to commission the facilities on time and did not use the budget funds provided to it as payment for the shares, a representative of the Accounts Chamber clarified. Despite this, Roszheldor did not collect a fine from Russian Railways in the amount of 5% of the contract amount. In 2016, Russian Railways did not complete three facilities (total investments - 4 billion rubles) and did not commission 14 railway checkpoints (233.4 million rubles). Among the projects are the construction of a combined bridge crossing over the Lena River near Yakutsk (238 million rubles) and the Polunochnoye - Obskaya - Salekhard line for the Ural Industrial - Ural Polar project (3.8 billion rubles). Overall, expenses controlled by the agency amounted to 138.7 billion rubles, or 99.3% of the plan. Roszheldor ensured the transfer of 981.3 million rubles, 3.3% more than the forecast.

The state auditor sent the results of the audit to the Federation Council and the State Duma. The representative of Roszheldor did not respond to the request. His colleagues from Russian Railways and the Ministry of Transport declined to comment.

Roszheldor can present objections and counterarguments if it believes that there are no violations in its actions, says Kirill Dozmarov, a lawyer and head of the Art de Lex law firm. The law does not provide for liability for the "ineffectiveness" of the use of budget funds. But based on the practice of the Accounts Chamber, the concept can be interpreted as a violation of the terms of providing budget investments or as improper use. In the first case, according to the expert, administrative liability for Roszheldor officials can reach two years of disqualification, for Russian Railways - a fine of up to 12% of the amount of the received budget investment (about 500 million rubles). In the second case, for officials - up to three years of disqualification, for Russian Railways - a fine of up to 25% of the investment amount (almost 1.05 billion rubles).

Roszheldor used money for Russian Railways ineffectively