The Chamber spectacularly improved its expert analyses, though retaining an emphasis on inspection and monitoring, the Senate says in a statement passed at today's session.
The Auditing Chamber registered 116 instances of embezzling the federal and regional purses and 191misspending instances throughout the year, to a lump exceeding 100 billion roubles, roughly US$3.5 billion, as against 119.6 billion roubles in 2002.
Criminal proceedings were launched on 241 instances after Auditing Chamber checks-as against 49 for 2001 and 73, 2002, announced Sergei Stepashin, Chamber president.
Last year, the Chamber detected 1.5 billion roubles misspent. 1.1 billion of this, 71 per cent of the total, has been reimbursed, he said to Senators.
Recent Criminal Code amendments stipulate criminal liability for misspending, stressed Mr. Stepashin. He called to streamline the reimbursement procedure, and shift liability from companies to their culprit managers.
