Watchdog chief sees new law improving transparency of govt procurements
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - The new law on government procurements that went into effect in Russia on January 1, 2014 has increased the transparency of procurements, the chairman of the Audit Chamber, Tatyana Golikova said.
"Transparency has increased, the share of public tenders has risen from 17.6% to 21.5%. True, the share of auctions declared void is still high - 60% of announced bidding processes," the head of Russia's fiscal watchdog said in an interview with business daily Vedomosti published on Wednesday.
However, she said there were few procurements under the new law in the first quarter of 2014.
"In the first quarter, the amount of procurements worth more than 1 billion rubles decreased by half year-on-year, [and procurements] worth 500,000 to 1 billion rubles [decreased] by two thirds," Golikova said.
She said that another problem is contributions to the equity of joint-stock companies.
"Budget funds are transferred for projects for which there is no design and estimate documentation yet, [and] issues of documentation of land plots for construction are not resolved. As a result, the transferred funds are placed in deposits at banks, the interest from which is received by the companies," Golikova said.
She said this problem could be resolved by planning and transferring budget funds only once the required documents are ready.
"The prime minister has instructed the Economic Development Ministry and Federal Property Agency, with our participation, to formulate proposals to modernize this mechanism. The deadline is June," Golikova said.
Commenting on audits of state companies, Golikova said that there would be about 500 this year.
"We don't have such a large inspection staff. We're now trying not to chase after the number of audits, but achieve a better quality result," Golikova said.
The Audit Chamber has also been mandated to carry out a comprehensive review this year of the privatization program for 2010-2014.
"When we go into comprehensive audits we see problem areas that go beyond the bounds of a given audit. And then we can decide at a board meeting to take on a given subject additionally," Golikova said.