MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the government commission for the development of power engineering. He urged the companies, in which the state has a share, to get rid of the firms, affiliated with the top management. Two months were given to establish whether or not they are linked with offshore companies.
The entities, criticized by Putin, included about all the state-controlled power engineering companies, as well as the Russian Railways Company, Sofcomflot, VEB Bank, VTB Bank, Rosatom and Sberbank, The RBK daily writes. Putin recommended to them, as a way of fighting corruption, to remove the money from offshore companies, to make public the information about the incomes of chief executive officers and members of their families and to enlist law enforcement agencies to handle problems with money laundering. Putin suggested that the disruption of ties with shadow companies should be started in companies of the power engineering sector (it was established during the check-up, conducted by the Ministry of Energy, that in many companies top managers create firms with the help of their relatives, putting under their personal control power sectors of whole regions).
Power engineering became for the government a test ground for mastering a public war on corruption, the Kommersant writes. After finding out that in state-controlled companies every second top manager controls commercial structures, often maintaining business relations with the state-controlled power engineering business, Putin demanded “the making of personnel decisions” as soon as possible and the use of law enforcement agencies. The check-ups should be also conducted in the oil, gas, nuclear and transport industries, as well as in state-controlled banks.
Putin made public the results of the check-up, conducted by the Ministry of Energy, the newspaper continues. “Out of 352 top managers of the power sector, whose work was examined, 169 officials – about 50 per cent – happened to be affiliated with commercial structures.”
Putin stressed that the check-up was initiated not by those, whose task was to control the work of the power sector, but by the people, Moskovsky Komsomolets writes. “Complaints are coming from all parts of Russia. In the period of 2008-2010 profits of power distribution companies grew by 279 per cent, while dividends grew by 312 per cent. Their work consists in the collecting of money from electricity consumers, after which it is transferred to offshore companies.”