MOSCOW. March 19 (Interfax) - Prosecutor's inspections led to the opening of over 400 criminal cases over offenses in the defense industry; the punishment of officials committing such offenses should be tightened, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"Following inspections conducted by prosecutors in the defense industry over 36,000 breaches of law were stopped and 437 criminal cases launched," Chaika said at a board meeting of his office on Tuesday.
"When a problem directly concerns the country's defense capability the responsibility of officials of state ordering parties (general contractors) permitting such organizations to the defense industry should be tightened," he said.
He said that the efforts conducted by prosecutors together with the Defense Ministry helped to reduce the size of overdue amounts receivable from the general contractors to the ministry by almost 200 billion rubles.
"In one of the cases the former heads of divisions responsible for complaint management did not take measures to recover debts thus causing damage amounting to billions of rubles to the state. What is surprising that after dismissal they were employed by the debtor companies and now act against the Defense Ministry in courts. We are taking steps to restore missed time limitations and criminally prosecute the culprits," Chaika said.
He said that the prosecutor's office for several years has witnessed the involvement of fly-by-night companies in cooperation on defense contracts and identified 3,700 of them last year alone. "Steps are taken together with the tax authorities and the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring. Criminal charges are brought against the organizers of sham companies but apparently that is not enough. Considering the strategic development tasks defined by the president last May I am giving orders to guarantee supervisory support to measures of state programs in different segments of the defense industry and its diversification," Chaika said.