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Official demands disbursement of funds to develop fisheries

MOSCOW, March 27 (Itar-Tass) — First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov demand that the Rosrybolovstvo state committee on fisheries disburse all the allocated budget funds to develop this branch of the national economy.

Speaking at an expanded meeting of the Committee's senior staff, Zubkov reminded that at the time of his premiership, the work to draw that federal goal-oriented program began. The allocated funds were not fully disbursed in 2009, 2010 and especially in 2011. Just 78 percent of the funds were used.

In his opinion, it happened not because of the business related to fisheries, but the unpreparedness of the branch to use allocated money. "Contractors turned out to be not bona fide, or they could not built vessel of required quality on time. In short, it is a pity this money has not been used," Zubkov said.

At present, the federal goal-oriented program is bring adjusted. "It will continue in 2012, and the funds will be fully used in 2013," the official noted drawing the attention of Rosrybolovstvo chief Andrei Krainy to take a more serious approach to the disbursement of funds within the federal program to develop the branch until 2020.

"The money allocated by the state, which might be considerable -- 15 to 20 billion roubles -- must be fully used," Zubkov said.

The new state program will cope with such tasks as making domestic seafood producers competitive, deriving maximum economic effect from produced seafood, expanding the range of products and improving the quality of seafood.

Russia must not ignore the overhauling of the fishing fleet, coastal infrastructure, the first deputy prime minister underlined adding that a special conference would address the issue in a Russian region in late April.

For his part, Rosrybolovstvo chief Andrei Krainy noted that despite the fact that less money had been spent on implementing the federal program to develop fisheries, all the targets had been met or even exceeded.

In his opinion, Zubkov's criticism regarding the unpreparedness to disburse all the allocated funds was fair.

However, it is not the fault of the branch, but its administration personnel. "That is why system errors have been made. Some people have been punished," Krainy said.

At a conference over the implementation of the federal goal-oriented program on Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reproached Rosrybolovstvo for the failure to disburse funds.

"This situation developed around the program to develop fisheries," Putin said, "we had to cut the volume of funding for program implementation due to the low disbursements of budget money."