Russia’s Audit Chamber to inspect Gazprom first time in five years
Russia’s Audit Chamber will carry out its first inspection in five years of state-run gas major Gazprom, the results of which promise to be “interesting,” officials said.
“Many speak of the closed nature of this company, but I’d
like to emphasize that Gazprom fully cooperates with the auditors
of the Audit Chamber, providing them with all the necessary
papers,” Audit Chamber head Sergey Stepashin said.
Plans to carry out a thorough audit of Gazprom were announced
earlier this year, and is due to be over by November.
“It’s the first checkup in 5 years, we had planned an overall
examination of Gazprom… the company’s efficiency, incidental
expenses, including the questions regarding the pipes and other
issues,” Stepashin was quoted as saying in January. “By law,
we ought to do it. We took a pause because international contracts
were signed [at the time], and we didn’t want to be an elephant in
a china shop.”
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has repeatedly voiced
concerns over Gazprom’s mechanisms for holding tenders for
high-diameter pipes.
According to FAS, current procedures leave no room for competition
between pipe manufacturers. Gazprom’s lots during the auctions
exceed pipe manufacturers’ opportunities in production and
delivery, so they engage intermediate parties that assemble them
and then supply them to Gazprom.
“There’s no price-related competition between pipe manufacturers
right now; only two or three mediators who don’t compete with each
other take part; oftentimes only one North European Pipe Project
[takes part]. In our book, pipe manufacturers must take part in the
tenders, not mediators,” FAS said, according to Interfax.
President Vladimir Putin has previously criticized Gazprom for
buying pipes through third parties, often at margins of up to 30
percent: “Complaints about how Gazprom runs business can be
heard more and more often, saying there are corruptive elements.
Probably there are, but the police must catch and take to prison
for this. And I think, it would be the right thing to do.”
Earlier this month, Gazprom said it managed to save $1 billion in
foreign contracts in 2012 by negotiating better prices with foreign
clients. According to the company’s 2012 report, for the first nine
months of the year the gas major set aside about $4.3 billion for
retroactive payments but spent only $3.3 billion.
According to Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller, in January 2012 Gazprom
gave a 10 percent discount to France’s GdF Suez, Germany’s Wingas,
Slovakia’s SPP, Italy’s Sinergie Italiane and Austria’s
Econgas.
