26 May 2004 03:42
Bill Gives Putin Reins at the Audit Chamber
The parliamentary budgetary watchdog, the Audit Chamber, will become a presidential budgetary watchdog under a bill
submitted by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party that is expected to sail through parliament.
The proposed change, which requires amendments to the law on the Audit Chamber, is widely seen as an attempt by the
Kremlin to have full control over the auditors' activities.
"The amendments are intended to prevent the Audit Chamber from being an independent subject of the juridical
process that could be used by some political forces," said Sergei Mikheyev, chief analyst with the Center for
Political Technologies. "The Kremlin wants to see it under the full control of the president."
Under the law, the State Duma now appoints the chairman of the Audit Chamber every six years, while the Federation
Council appoints the five deputy chairmen. Lawmakers have the right to remove the chairman and deputy heads.
The amendments submitted by United Russia, which controls the Duma, and approved Monday by the Duma's Budget
Committee envision the president nominating Audit Chamber leaders and parliament confirming them.
"The vote would probably be a mere technicality. They will do what the Kremlin says," Mikheyev said.
The bill also strips the Audit Chamber of its right to check the books of the presidential administration, which it
now can do at the Duma's request. Such a request helped uncover the misuse of $488 million in budget funds and
state property by the Kremlin in 1999. The Audit Chamber criticized the Kremlin but found no evidence of criminal
wrongdoing.
Audit Chamber chief Sergei Stepashin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has been pushing for the amendments
since 2002, saying the chamber should not just oversee government spending, but act as a financial controller under the
president.
If the amendments are passed into law, the Audit Chamber could see its status and influence grow to put it on a par
with the Prosecutor General's Office, Mikheyev said.
Despite its accountability to parliament, the Audit Chamber has recently worked on a number of high-profile cases
that are in the Kremlin's interest. Most recently, it completed an audit of Chukotka Governor Roman
Abramovich's administration that found "mass" financial abuse. It also has looked into Yukos and the
controversial privatizations of the mid-1990s.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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