MOSCOW, October 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Head of the Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko said on Thursday he was resolute to continue the fight against corruption in the industry regardless of major reputation risks the state corporation might face.
“Rosatom risks by disclosing the exposed violations as people may think the situation in the industry is bad. But we have resolutely decided that if we do not wash our dirty linen in public we shall achieve no success in the fight against corruption,” he told a meeting of the public council for enhanced transparency of the corporation.
Transparency International Russia has been monitoring the situation with purchases by Rosatom enterprises for three years and its representative Yelena Panfilova said “there is a clear positive dynamic.”
She said the first monitoring of corruption risks three years ago exposed minimal transparency and numerous breaches.
“By the end of 2010 the situation began to change and has radically improved by now,” she said.
“It is far from ideal, but there is a wish to remedy the situation,” she added and recommended Rosatom to improve purchasing rules by eliminating corruption risks from them.
“It is very important that the corporation works to create zero tolerance of corruption,” Panfilova said.
Forty-eight top executives of Rosatom enterprises were brought to responsibility in the past three years. Twelve of them were fired and another twelve may face criminal charges.
Increased transparency helped Rosatom save 19.7 billion rubles on purchases in 2010 or 11 percent of the total amount and the figure comprised 11.6 billion rubles in the first half of 2011.