Market value of Russian federal property tops 100 trln rubles - Belousov
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The market value of Russian federal property exceeds 100 trillion rubles, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said during a government meeting dedicated to the state program Management of Federal Property.
"What is something to be managed? Only [as regards federal state property fund] Rosimuschestvo, it is 2,325 stock companies with state involvement, 66 of which are included on the so-called 'special list,' it is 1,795 federal state unitary enterprises, more than 20,000 institutions, almost 250,000 treasury properties, 238,000 pieces of land with total area of more than 553 million hectares," Belousov said.
The minister said that a preliminary valuation by the Economic Development Ministry puts the total nominal value of all the properties on the federal property register as of today at 12 trillion rubles. "But that figure is certainly lower by a magnitude, since according to preliminary valuations the market value of these assets exceeds 100 trillion rubles, and maybe even more," he said.
Belousov said property management lacked efficiency and it was "no secret" that Rosimuschestvo officials had committed violations in this area: criminal cases have been opened against the heads and deputy heads of 10 of the agency's 83 regional divisions in the last two years. Property had been lost due to the actions of third parties and state officials, and Rosimuschestvo had to try and claw this back through the courts.
Belousov said he was in favor of transparent, computer-aided control at all states of the property management process and at all levels, and of putting data in the public domain. "The plan is to finish an inventory of federal property this year and this should form a basis for establishing complete and accurate data about property under management and, which is important, highlight the gray zones of registering federal property, including failure to submit property for registration or distorting data," he said.
Rosimuschestvo employees will have areas of personal responsibility. Also, the agency should gain a special internal controls service, which will act as an in-house security service.
The federal budget will allocate 3 billion rubles for the state program in the period 2013-2018, 6 billion rubles of this in the period to 2015. Additional financing if the federal budget is able to accommodate this is will total 19 billion rubles, 9.4 billion rubles of it in 2013-2015.
"The main activities that require additional funding are eradicating particularly dangerous treasury properties and funding the upkeep of treasury properties. This would cost 6 billion rubles and 6.9 billion rubles, respectively, in 2013-2015. It involves processing the technical inventory paperwork and registering property rights and cadastral registration of land. This will cost 891 million rubles in 2013-2015, roughly half of it in 2013-2015. Without this money we will not be able to turn federal state unitary enterprises into joint stock companies simply because the relevant rights have not been duly registered," Belousov said.
