by liamac » Sat Jan 01, 2005 2:29 pm
just been looking over the net for confirmation of the thread i started and here it is.....................
Audit Chamber Declares Chukotka Region Bankrupt
by Marina Pustilnik mosnews.com
Billionaire Roman Abramovich, whose chief claim to fame is his recent purchase of Chelsea, appears to have run into trouble
Russia's northern Chukotka region, governed by business tycoon Roman Abramovich, is essentially bankrupt. This conclusion was reached by Audit Chamber inspectors after a thorough examination of the region's budgetary performance in the 2003 fiscal year.
Sergei Ryabukhin, the Chamber's auditor responsible for the inquiry, told reporters that by January 1 the region's sovereign debt stood at 9.3 billion rubles ($320 million). This figure is 2.5 times higher than the region's earnings, which in 2003 amounted to 3.9 billion rubles ($134 million).
In addition to that the Audit Chamber's investigation uncovered "large-scale violations of financial discipline and tax legislation in carrying out the regional budget."
The Chamber estimated the total volume of financial violations at 1.5 billion rubles ($52 million), Inter-fax agency reported. It is unclear at this point, however, what kind of violations were discovered and how serious the consequences may be for governor Abramovich. For example, the Vedomosti business daily, which on May 17 reported that the Audit Chamber had found no serious violations of budgetary discipline, claimed that misuse of budgetary funds amounted to a mere 200 million rubles ($6.9 million). Only the inspectors know where the other $45 million came from, and how it was misused.
The auditors also accused Chukotka of being an internal off-shore zone. Over the last year Chukotka provided 13.7 billion rubles ($472 million) in tax benefits. Not surprisingly, the main benefactor of the region's tax regime was the Sibneft oil company owned by the region's governor Roman Abramovich.
Ryabukhin said that the Chamber would send the investigation results to the government, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Finance Ministry, the Federation Council and the State Duma. When asked by a reporter whether Roman Abramovich can now "sleep soundly," the auditor replied: "I think that a final decision on this question has to be made by the Prosecutor's office."
As MosNews has written earlier, Sergei Stepashin, head of the Audit Chamber, has on many occasions expressed his doubt as to Abramovich's proficiency in governing the region. In particular Stepashin was worried by the misuse of budgetary funds and promised that the Chamber's examination would pinpoint all the violations in the region.
I think this says it all fellas, the bloke has had his hands caught well and trully in the till !!!
