MOSCOW, October 13 (Itar-Tass) — Tough internal struggle against abuse and embezzlement and close cooperation with the law enforcement agencies are two integral components of productive anti-corruption work being conducted at enterprises of the nuclear power concern Rosatom and its subsidiaries, sources at the corporation said, following an investigation of the criminal case in which the operator of Russian nuclear power plants, Rosenergoatom, was the plaintiff.
The amount of damage is estimated at 100 million rubles. The defendants in the case were employees of the concern, who back in 2005 tried to fraudulently obtain funds allocated for the purchase of imported equipment for the Kursk and Leningrad nuclear power plants. At the initiative of the security service of Rosenergoatom police in 2009 opened a criminal case. The press service of Rosenergoatom has now expressed satisfaction that "the criminal case has come to a logical conclusion."
"Of late, 48 executives of Rosatom enterprises were brought to responsibility. Twelve of them were dismissed, and after internal audits twelve cases were handed over to law enforcement agencies for making a decision whether criminal cases should be opened. In three instances such proceedings were instituted,” the head of the assets protection office of Rosatom, Viktor Bratanov, told Itar-Tass.
The highest-profile event was the dismissal in the spring of 2011 of the deputy head of the state corporation Yevgeny Yevstratov, against whom criminal proceedings were instituted. On July 19, he was remanded in custody.
Bratanov said that corruption risks in the industry were due primarily to the fact that "there circulates a huge amount of money."
"This year companies within the industry plan to buy goods and services over 420 billion rubles worth, of which 368.5 billion will be their own funds, and the rest come from the federal budget," he said.
"So we have clear and strict instructions on this score from the head of Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko - to restore order, to lead an all-out war against corruption in the industry. No face-saving, no concealment can there be," said Bratanov, a retired police lieutenant-general.
In the fight against corruption there have been pooled the efforts of financial, personnel and legal divisions of the corporation, an arbitration committee was set up, and a reform of the procurement carried out, said Bratanov. As he puts it, "this helps prevent violations and makes it difficult to implement criminal schemes."
It is important, he added "to run effective self-cleaning mechanisms and to carry out preventive and anti-corruption work on one’s own." Any member of the corporation and its affiliated companies has the ability to join in the fight against fraud and corruption, using a special email address or a telephone "hot line."
According to Bratanov, it was messages via the "hot line" that prompted the management of Rosatom to conduct a comprehensive check of the Directorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, headed by Yevstratov. After the inspections the head of Rosatom made hard conclusions – dismissed the executives of the entire division of nuclear and radiation safety.
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov noted the openness of Rosatom in the fight against corruption and its willingness to make public the results of this struggle, in spite of so-called reputational risks.
"It is important that the iron rule of Rosatom is not hiding abuse and saving face, but the detection of violations and public disclosure of such information and the transfer of cases to law enforcement agencies," Shuvalov said at a recent meeting of the Supervisory Board of Rosatom, which discussed a report on the work of the assets protection office.