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Russian Audit Chamber finds new violations of former Defence Ministry leadership

Anatoliy Serdyukov used the bulk of the funds for supplementary benefits to the heads of the bodies of the ministry’s central staff

The Russian Audit Chamber has checked the use of funds allocated from the federal budget for salary increases to the military and civilian personnel of the army in the 2010-2012 period, exposing other facts of embezzlement in the RF Defence Ministry. The former Defence Ministry leadership used the bulk of the funds for supplementary benefits to the heads of the bodies of the ministry’s central staff.

As it turned out, the lion’s share of the huge sums allotted for the purposes of stimulating the military, simply did not reach the lowest ranks, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper writes. “The former Defence Ministry leadership channelled the bulk of the funds for bonus supplements to the heads of the bodies of the Defence Ministry’s central staff. The share of these bonuses in their aggregate income reached up to 81.2 percent,” auditor Valery Bogomolov said at a meeting of the Audit Chamber Collegium. “And the share of bonus payments to servicemen of military units in the sum of the monetary allowances in 2012 was just 2.3 percent.”

Did the RF president really say that officials of the Defence Ministry should double payments to themselves and raise payments to the officers by 2 percent? the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper asks. They’ve been telling us all the time about a lieutenant who will soon be receiving a salary of over 50 thousand roubles. Now, where is this lieutenant...

Moreover, the newspaper continues, the president used to say that Serdyukov should establish financial order in the ministry, because he is a strong financier and tax expert. We now all know how he has coped with this task - this activity is currently being investigated by the RF Investigative Committee (SK) and the Military Prosecutor’s Office. However, Serdyukov still has the status of a witness.